You Bring the Distant Near

To Anna Sen’s fury, her parents, Tara and Amit, decide that she will go to high school in New York. She’s enrolled at Carver School, where her cousin, Chantal, is a junior. Anna resents the abundant praise she hears about her cousin’s skills in mathematics and athletics from her relatives and the school’s principal. Sonia, Ranee, and Shanti accompany Anna to school on her first day. Sonia visits the school’s lavish new swimming pool, which reminds her of the British club in Ghana.

Anna’s first class is PE. She has to play softball in a salwar because she doesn’t have a uniform yet. She strikes out, and her petite figure draws amused comments from the other students. Anna is accustomed to much more privacy than the locker room affords. Jenna, a friend of Shanti’s from Somalia, also feels uncomfortable undressing in front of the other girls. When they ask the PE teacher for a space for girls who need privacy, she says that they’re in America and that she doesn’t want her students to be ashamed of their bodies. Anna argues that “Carver School should be a safe place for girls from every culture” (227), but the teacher dismisses her concerns.

As the fall semester continues, Anna enjoys her classes and makes friends in the Ecology Club. Although Anna is a champion debater in India, she doesn’t make the cut for Carver’s debate team. The debate coach offers to train her in American-style techniques and have her compete later in her high school career. One day, Ranee visits the school’s pool with Anna. No one else is around, and Ranee jumps into the pool, to her granddaughter’s amazement. She’s never swum before, but she learned from watching her daughters.

Anna shares Ranee’s love of sewing clothes. With some help from Shanti, she persuades Grandma Rose to become the faculty sponsor for the Fashion-Design Club. At the club’s first meeting, only Jenna shows up to meet with Ranee and Anna. Jenna suggests a makeover for the girls’ locker room as their first project, and Ranee donates the materials. They spend weeks on the project and put everything in place over Thanksgiving break. Fabric dividers sewn from Didu’s colorful saris, sequined pillows, and throw rugs give the once-harsh locker room the appearance of a spa. The PE teacher decides to allow the makeover to remain in place. Four other girls thank Jenna and Anna for the increased privacy. Now that she feels comfortable showering at school, Anna gains the confidence to flirt with boys. More students, including some boys, join the club. Even Shanti asks Anna to teach her how to sew. Anna agrees on the condition that Shanti teach her how to play softball, and the cousins embrace.

During her senior year at Carver, Chantal starts dating the intelligent, affluent, and white Martin Larsen. The Johnsons live on a tight budget due to Lou’s work as a sculptor and Sonia’s freelance journalism, and Chantal attends Carver on a scholarship. Martin’s most prized possession is his red Porsche. One day, he lets Chantal borrow it to drive to a dentist’s appointment in New Jersey. During her appointment, another driver runs into the Porsche, crushing the back bumper and the fender. The driver who struck the car did not leave a note. Chantal anxiously drives the car back to Martin’s luxurious Manhattan apartment building, where she is meant to have dinner with the Larsens. Mr. Larsen is upset about the damage to the Porsche, but Martin covers for Chantal by implying that he’d been with her at the time. Mrs. Larsen hugs Chantal, holds her hand in both of hers, and says, “Don’t worry about the car. Those men and that Porsche!” (260). This is the first time that Chantal has met Martin’s parents, and they’re both thrilled to meet her. Chantal used to worry that her and Martin’s values were too different for their relationship to last, but now that he’s shown that he cares about her more than material things, she feels that their romance has “all kinds of possibilities” (262). She resolves to earn enough money to pay for the car repairs.