Pulao with Peas (and Everything Nice) // Derek Mascarenhas

Remember running through sprinklers. Remember the feeling of wet grass under feet, and how some kids liked this. Remember picking strawberries. Remember eating more than picking. Finding the sweet ones with shiny necks, still warm from the sun. Remember the stomach ache. Remember the pulao with peas. Always with peas. Remember asking for hot dog slices to be added in. Remember wondering why later. Remember the grade school D.A.R.E. program. Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Remember how at the end of class, the police officer would handcuff a student for fun. Remember being so skinny the cuffs just slipped off, even when tightened all the way. Remember the class cheering, and feeling like Houdini. Remember growing uncomfortable around police. Remember discovering why that feeling is so much worse for some folks. Remember being called sensitive. Remember it was almost never a compliment. Remember the caricature of an Indian accent. Remember eventually being ashamed, for ever being ashamed, of the way that family spoke. Remember loving stories: Dhal, and Munsch, and ones from home. Remember high school English and being forced to read “classics.” Remember Heart of Darkness. Remember the white teacher in the white class saying the white necklace meant the natives wanted to be white. Remember not saying anything. Remember to call it fiction. Remember that liberties were taken. Remember, liberties are still being taken.

Derek Mascarenhas has been published in places such as Joyland, The Dalhousie Review, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Cosmonauts Avenue, and The Antigonish Review. His debut linked short story collection, Coconut Dreams, will be published by Book*hug in Spring 2019.