Half a World Away

by Cynthia Kadohata

  Anyway, inside every living organism were these holes called “ion channels,” which allowed only certain atoms and molecules to pass through. Scientists had found electrical current associated with these channels. It was Jaden’s belief that these mysterious ion channels controlled every part of life. Made your heart beat, made your kidneys clean your blood, made you breathe. Everything.

  He would like to go to France someday to see La Fée Électricité, a painting about the history of electricity. It was huge, 624 square meters. If he were a painter, he would like to extend the painting to include the present. Currently it went up to 1937, and a lot had happened since then. He would add pictures of ion channels. His biggest and most important life goal was to learn the difference between life and death. Like, in a thing called “pulseless electrical activity,” the body showed electrical activity even after the heart stopped beating. So were you alive or dead?

  He stared up at the flimsy-looking plastic that contained the oxygen masks that would supposedly fall down if the cabin lost oxygen. He wondered how often maintenance workers checked to make sure those masks worked.

  He felt somebody jiggle his feet and sat up to see Steve frowning at him. “What is it?” Jaden asked. He didn’t like it when someone distracted him when he was thinking about something important, like oxygen.

  “This adoption is something we’re doing together, so let’s do it together.”

  Huh? Jaden didn’t get it. It’s something they were doing together, so they should do it together? Steve stared at him, then gestured his head like, Come on. Oh. They didn’t like him being alone. Jaden climbed over the seats and went back to his window.

  “Oh, honey, it didn’t feel right without you here,” Penni told him.

  “Yeah, I know what you mean,” Jaden said, though he knew no such thing.

  “Ooh, I’m so worried about, well, it might be bad luck to say it. But you know.”

  Yeah, Jaden knew. Even he felt a little worried because of their adoption agency going out of business. And they were adopting from Kyzylorda, where Penni had told him few Americans had adopted. So basically, it was only hope that made them believe that their agency’s in-country personnel would pick them up in Kyzylorda.

  ***

  Their first stop in Kazakhstan was Almaty, the biggest city in the country. Jaden took off his sunglasses as they went through customs and headed for the waiting room. After the long flight, he wanted to move his legs, but there was nowhere much to go. The waiting area for all flights was a big room with a shiny white floor and row after row of connected seats. Most of the seats were filled. Jaden immediately noticed a group of women with babies.

  “Mom, look, they must have just adopted.”

  “Let’s go have a chat!” Penni said excitedly.

  Jaden followed along. As soon as they reached the women, Steve stuck out his hand to shake with one of them. “I’m Steve Kincaid. Are you by some chance American? We’re here to adopt and couldn’t help noticing that you all have babies.”

  One of the ladies shook his hand and said, “Yes, we’re all American. I’m Clara. What agency are you with?”

  “One World Adoptions.”

  “Oh, I almost signed with them. I’m with Open Heart International.” She gently jostled the baby in her arms, beaming down at him. “And this is Michael.”

  “I haven’t heard of Open Heart,” Penni said.

  “They’re a small agency but very good.” Clara motioned to her baby. “The whole process took only a year.”

  “Really?” Penni exclaimed. “I’m jealous. We’ve been at it for longer.”

  “But for the moment we’ve put all negativity out of our thinking process,” Steve added quickly.

  “That’s what you have to do when you’re adopting,” Clara agreed. “This is Nika, and her adoption took four years. She’s suing her agency when she gets home.”

  “Four years!” Steve and Penni said simultaneously, shifting their attention to the woman beside Clara.

  Jaden tuned out the talking and studied the babies. Three were Asian and two were not. He’d read up on it: Most babies adopted from Kazakhstan were Central Asian, Russian, or a mix. There were other ethnicities, but those were the main categories. Only one of the babies was asleep, one was awake and a little fussy, one was awake and staring blankly into space from his stroller, and two were crying despite their new mothers’ attempts to calm them. He knelt in front of the one staring blankly.

  “Hi,” he said, as if he were talking to another twelve-year-old. The baby didn’t even seem to notice him. “Baby, hi, adopted baby.” Then the baby gazed at him, but blankly. “Are you a sleepy baby? It’s very late.”

  One of the women knelt beside him. “Hi, I’m his mother. He isn’t that demonstrative yet. He never laughs or cries.”

  “Can I touch him?”

  “Sure.”

  Jaden poked gently at the baby’s little face; it felt soft and doughy. He had never talked to or touched a baby before. Marty and Catherine had tried to get him to carry their baby, but he’d refused. Babies didn’t seem quite human; plus, what if he broke a baby somehow? He glanced at the crying babies. The sound was already starting to annoy him. He hoped they didn’t end up with a crier.

  The blank-faced baby’s mother tried tickling him under the chin, but he didn’t respond. “I hope he’s okay,” the mother said. “His medical report said he was healthy. But I’m not sure he’s bonded with me at all.” She wrinkled her forehead and worriedly studied her new son, patting him softly on the chest.

  “He does look healthy,” Jaden said. He squeezed the baby’s leg. “Ah, he feels strong. Maybe a wrestler someday.”

  “Can I ask you something that’s none of my business?” the mother asked.

  “What?”

  “Are you adopted? I mean, I know it’s none of my business.”

  “Yes, I am. I am. I’m Romanian. Romanian-American, I guess.” He was surprised: He always thought he was incognito, since he was white and so were Penni and Steve.

  “Oh, that’s wonderful! Adoption is the most beautiful thing.”

  Jaden held her eyes briefly, then shifted his attention to the baby.

  The baby was staring at Jaden as if Jaden were a statue or even a painting on a wall. It was like there was a slight glimmer of awareness, but nothing more.

  Jaden stood up. The ladies with the crying babies already seemed stressed, and they hadn’t even started their journey home yet. He felt bad for them, but he also felt bad for the poor babies. The babies probably didn’t know what was going on, although who can say what someone that young knows? He hated how pompous doctors sounded when they assumed they knew what was going on in somebody else’s head. They didn’t know, and Jaden wished he could tell every adopted kid who had to talk to a doctor that the doctor didn’t know. Only you know, and you don’t have to tell them.

  Jaden gazed around the big room. He couldn’t see any other kids. He thought he could feel the air of fatigue around just about everybody. It was like the whole room was filled with it, as if it were smoke or something. The chairs didn’t appear very comfortable, but he sat in one anyway and tried to nap while Penni and Steve continued trading information with the women. Steve seemed merely curious, but Penni acted ravenous for information, her body leaning slightly forward and her face hyperalert. Jaden couldn’t fall all the way asleep, but he did feel pleasantly half-asleep, the crying fading into the background. After a while he heard everyone saying good-bye, and he stood up groggily.

  “Nice to meet you all,” Penni was saying. “Good luck.”

  “Good luck,” a couple of the women said back.

  Jaden gave a small wave and watched the women push their strollers toward their gate to their new lives. He hoped the babies would grow up happy. He wondered what would become of the blank-faced baby and felt a sudden surg
e of protectiveness toward him, then a sudden surge of rage toward Penni and Steve for adopting him, even though they had nothing to do with those babies. But why hadn’t they just given money to his mother so that she could raise him herself? He cried out, “Hey,” and ran after the Americans.

  They all stopped. He approached the woman with the blank-faced baby and said, “Let me give you my e-mail address. I want to know how your baby does.”

  “Oh,” she said. She took out a pen, and he wrote down RomJaden@att.net.

  “Thank you,” he told her.

  “No problem.” But as Jaden watched her leave, he knew she would never e-mail him.

  Penni and Steve decided to walk around the room for some exercise, but Jaden leaned back in a chair and gnawed vigorously on a straw he’d brought to chew on.

  The woman next to him silently eyed the straw he was chewing, then said something sharply in another language.

  The man on the other side of him said, “Excuse me.” His accent was so thick, it took Jaden a moment to realize he was speaking English. “You are American? I might practice my English?”

  “Yes,” Jaden said, taking the straw out of his mouth.

  “New York?”

  “No, Illinois,” Jaden answered. “Near Chicago.”

  The man nodded uncertainly. “You have seen Astana, our capital?”

  “No.”

  “You should go. Astana is a symbol of the national idea statement.”

  This time it was for Jaden to nod uncertainly. The man was Central Asian, with dark, earnest eyes. He paused and his eyes went out of focus for a moment, as if he were thinking. “Los Angeles?” the man said. “Near where you live?”

  “No, Chicago is the closest big city.”

  “I have not heard of this. Ahhhh, Americans have a sporty character, do they not?”

  “Well.” Jaden thought about that. “They do like sports.”

  “Good, good, all be well, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, well.”

  The woman next to him stood up, and the man smiled politely and opened out his palms. “My flight. I wish you pleasantries on your trip.”

  “You too. Nice to meet you.”

  “You’re welcome. Good-bye.”

  “Bye.”

  The man got up and strode crisply off. Jaden chuckled to himself, then felt immediately surprised. He didn’t laugh much, so it was always like he had to stop and take notice whenever he did.

  When Penni and Steve sat back down, an hour had passed, with Jaden doing nothing but shaking his leg up and down and watching his feet as he shuffled them inside and out. Penni brushed hair out of his eyes. “Honey, why don’t you get some sleep?” She put her arm around him and pulled him in. With her as a pillow, Jaden closed his eyes, but his mind was alert.

  The sounds of announcements and the discomfort of the chair and the discomfort of Penni’s shoulder kept him from falling asleep. And he couldn’t stop thinking about the blank-faced baby. He hoped that child would be okay. He opened his eyes and stared at the reflections of tired people in the white floor. He imagined them all as babies, the whole room filled with babies.

  Chapter Nine

  W hen their flight was finally announced, Jaden was still alert. Penni had fallen asleep leaning against Jaden’s shoulder. They trudged to the plane, a small one. Penni sat with him on one side of the plane, and Steve sat across the aisle. The plane had propellers, which made Jaden nervous. He slipped his sunglasses back on. He didn’t see anyone on the flight who looked like they might be American. He was reminded again that only a small number of Americans had ever adopted from Kyzylorda, according to Penni. She’d been keeping in touch with the last woman who’d traveled there to adopt. That woman had come home without a baby, saying the orphanage had shown her only “brain-dead” children. Penni and Steve absolutely did not want a special-needs child. Jaden knew that was because he was all they could handle. But, in general, the staff at Kyzylorda baby house were known to take good care of its babies, and the process was usually smooth.

  Penni and Jaden played gin rummy while Steve snored. Steve kept snoring all during the landing. Penni had to shake him awake after the plane taxied to the gate. When they got off the plane, her face was lit up with excitement. It was the same face she’d greeted Jaden with at the Chicago airport when he first came to America.

  Because Penni and Steve hadn’t actually traveled to Romania, his adoption was somehow less legitimate to Jaden. He couldn’t remember the Romanian guy’s name who’d brought him over on the plane. All he remembered was that a number of times during the flight the man had yelled at him.

  “We’re here!” Steve suddenly announced, as if he were telling them something they didn’t know.

  Jaden took off his sunglasses at last and could feel his pulse speed up as they made their way through the airport. He’d studied a bit of Russian with a CD in preparation for their trip. The conversations overheard on the plane sounded like both Russian and what he assumed was Kazakh. Kyzylorda was about 70 percent Kazakh; the Kazakhs were Central Asian. Jaden had never been in the racial minority before. He was surprised how different it made him feel, like maybe people wouldn’t be nice to him. He also worried that people wouldn’t be nice to him when they found out he was adopted, so he was glad he looked like he could possibly be the biological son of Steve and Penni. His hazel eyes were the same color as Penni’s, and they both had wavy brown hair. He wondered how that lady in the airport had known he was adopted.

  The Kyzylorda airport was small—like, maybe four or five times the size of their house—and it had only one runway. They got their baggage in the luggage dump room and stepped outside. “There’s no one here,” Steve finally said, though it was obvious.

  The wind was blowing hard. A few weeks ago Steve had gotten in touch with a Peace Corps worker who was stationed in Kyzylorda, and that guy had said the wind blew constantly here. The day was hot and bright. Dust pinged on Jaden’s face.

  “Now what should we do?” Penni asked Steve worriedly. Jaden couldn’t see a single person.

  Then suddenly a car was parking, and a woman got out and started running toward them. She cried out, “Kincaid! Kincaid!”

  She was holding a sign with their last name on it, except spelled “Kencaid.” An old man limped after her. “I am sorry we were late,” she said. “Hello, nice to meet you. I am Akerke, and that is your driver, Sam. He is Turkish but speaks many languages.” She gestured toward the man, who had not yet caught up to her. “I am very good with the English, and Sam also speaks.” Sam finally caught up with her, and she smiled brightly at him. “Sam learned English in Michigan, did I say that right?” Actually, she pronounced it “Meesheegon.”

  “I have been to America,” Sam said grumpily. “I have nephew there. He got married. I went to wedding. In America, if you have guest, you watch TV together. In Kazakhstan, if you have guest, you talk to him. Huh!”

  “He is very good driver,” Akerke said happily. “First let me give you this.” She took out an old bulky cell phone and handed it to Steve. “This you must carry at all times so I may reach you and you may reach me. My number is listed in phone already. Come. We will take your luggage.” Then she added, “Please hurry,” as if they were the ones who were late.

  Sam stared at the three giant suitcases. He grasped two of them and began rolling them away while muttering, “Even the child has a big luggage. What does a child need with a big luggage?”

  “A child has many items he will need,” Akerke said, as if rebuking him. She put her arm around Jaden. “I understand fully well. You are Daniel, are you not?”

  “Jaden.”

  “Yes,” said Akerke. “As I meant. I was thinking of the man in the Peace Corps. His name is Daniel. He said he knows you?”

  “We’ve communicated with him,” Steve said. “Indeed, we’ve communicated more
with him than with our adoption agency.”

  Akerke smiled maternally at Jaden. “And when will you get married?”

  “Well,” Jaden said. “Well, I don’t know. I’m twelve years old.”

  “Is good age,” Akerke said approvingly, adding, “I will sit in back to talk to your parents.”

  The car was an old, bright-red Mercedes. Jaden felt like a grown-up sitting in front. Then Sam squealed out of the parking lot. Even though at home in Illinois Jaden would sit only in the middle in back, now he didn’t care where he sat. None of the rules from back home mattered here in Kazakhstan.

  “I will come get you at your apartment this evening, and you will choose your baby. The baby house director will stay late just for you.”

  Jaden whipped around, saw Penni and Steve looking at each other in alarm. “But . . . we were already sent a referral for a baby. A specific baby,” Steve said.

  Akerke opened her mouth and even moved her lips, but no words came out.

  “We were sent a referral,” Steve said again. “The boy’s name is Bahytzhan. Here, I have a picture.” He took out his wallet and showed Akerke the photo.

  “Bahytzhan,” Akerke said. “I have met him. He has been adopted by German family. But we will find for you even more beautiful baby.”