Wazna Wandering

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. But, right now, in this moment, there were dragons everywhere. Big, scaly, angry dragons blowing swaths of flames across Hayes Valley. People were screaming for help and fainting in place. Wazna had never seen this before. When she opened her mouth, there were now flames coming out of her. In her mind, she was yelling, but, in her current reality, she was literally blowing steam off.

The last thing she remembered was her mom telling her she couldn't go to prom. After arguing relentlessly, she stormed upstairs to her room, slammed the door and starting pacing back-and-forth. Now, this. "What's happening to me?!," Wazna asked herself completely flabbergasted. "How did I become a dragon?"

She started breathing deeply--the way she saw in those Headspace meditations. Breath in, hold for three...breath out, hold for three. She kept doing this in repetition and, after a couple moments, she was back in her bedroom--no longer pacing.

Wazna was totally puzzled. "How did that happen?" she wondered. It was as if her mind was so powerful, it could transport her to an alternate universe where her emotions guided her reality. She could not believe it. Seeing dragons and breathing fire successfully distracted her from her lived reality of not being able to go to her junior prom.

The next day, Wazna was dreading having to inform her friends that she couldn't go to prom on account of "boys". Ever since her family moved to San Francisco from Afghanistan, her parents have held onto cultural traditions with their dear lives--afraid that, if they somehow slipped, their children would become too "Americanized". The thought of their daughter wearing a revealing or a tight-fitting dress in front of boys at a high school dance was enough to stop them in their tracks and refuse, with no remorse, her attendance in this year's prom.

Once she got off the school bus, she started walking toward her first class and spotted Daniel Golding--the half Malaysian-half Singaporian senior who always looked like he just came out of a BTS music video. Daniel is beyond cute. He is all things beautiful.

Suddenly, Wazna was transported to what appeared to be the sky. She was now flying high in the clouds wearing a sequenced dress which lit up the entire sky. Among her, were angels singing "Marry You" by Bruno Mars. Suddenly, Daniel appeared looking dapper in a matching tuxedo. Together, they started walking toward each other. "I'm walking on air!!" Wazna thought. Their eyes locked and they mouths were inching closer to one another's..

"What is that face, Waz? You're looking way too obvious," Lily remarked. Just like that, Lily took away the one chance Wazna may have ever gotten to kiss her dreamy crush. "Can you keep your voice down?" Wazna shushed her best friend. "Well, I'm trying to help you out here. You're standing in the middle of the hallway looking like you're about to climax," she scoffed back.

"It's not going to happen, Lils," Wazna went on. "My parents have decided. Under no circumstances will they let me go to prom. I am going to die alone with a bunch of cats. That's all I'll have: a bunch of cats. No one will even know when I have died. I'll be a corpse that the neighbors will report when they start smelling something suspicious weeks later."

"Ok, you're being super dramatic and that was super dark," Lily responded. "Don't worry, we'll find a cover for you and sneak you out. It's no big deal. Tameeka will help us. She always finds a workaround. Just, please, stop being so dramatic."

The girls reconvened over lunch, this time with Tameeka. "Temes, you gotta figure out a scheme so we can get Waz to this prom," Lily implored. "Well, we do have that one Physics exam coming up," Tameeka started thinking aloud. "Maybe, we can say that we're all having a study group at my place that night and Wazna needs to sleepover because we'll be up late," she concocted the plan. "Also, my parents are going to be out that night for a work thing so my sister is coming over to look after me. So, we don't have to tell her that your parents didn't want you to go and my parents will never know," she went on.

"It's brilliant," Lily chimed in. "You see, Waz, I told you we'd figure something out." While Wazna was excited about this elaborate scheme, she still had a sinking feeling in her stomach.

Suddenly, she was dressed in black and holding a bouquet of flowers. Her mom was crying loudly next to her. She was standing in a cemetery with her family and loved ones. It was her father's funeral. Her mother turned to her, "If only you hadn't gone to prom and given your dad a massive heart attack, he would have still been with us right now." Wazna was overcome with guilt.