Profe Kee

Christmas morning 2014. This is my first Christmas at an airport and though the lines are shorter, there are plenty of travelers. Christmas spirit is a little thin. A young woman came on the p.a. and sang “we wish you a merry Christmas” only slightly off-key, We were the only ones who clapped, but it was kind of early in the morning Later on, a mom was blowing kisses to someone on her iPad.

Of course, a typical Christmas for us is not a snowy scene out of Hallmark cards. Many of our loved ones are waking up in their tents, tucked behind the dunes that skirt the Sea of Cortez. This year Eva is there without us, another first. She will be thinking of us and all the years we opened our gifts on the sand. Then everyone will gather for the Christmas potluck prepared on camp stoves. Mamanina, from her canvas chair, will smile at her grandkids and make faces at the baby. She will have to be reminded why we aren’t there.

Now the cloud cover reaches out to the horizon drawing a curtain over countless family celebrations and, no doubt, a share of tragedies. Over the curving earth it goes… all the way to Africa.