Esi

The count down is on! Two weeks today we leave our home and pets in the care of a good friend and set off on our new adventure. We're currently immersed in a zillion little jobs prior to abandoning home and family for 5 months. Despite the luxury of time to sleep in, I still favour my early morning quiet time for dreaming, scheming and writing. This morning while reorganizing some computer files I chanced on a journal entry made during my business trip to China in March.  It doesn't really relate to the Pete and Pen theme, but it is a travel story of sorts, so I thought I'd share it here.

March 15, 2013. 

I'm flying Vancouver to Beijing, reading Esi Edugyan's brilliant "Half Blood Blues". On a washroom break I walk towards the back of the plane. My timing's off and I'm trapped between a steward and a stewardess ponderously pushing catering carts, collecting lunch leftovers. 

The faces of my fellow travelers reflect the light of their video screens. Asian faces. Exclusively Asian faces. The steward in front of me stops to collect cans. Lots of time to survey the scene, and to realize that once again I'm a 'visible minority'. But wait. There's another visible minority! A beautiful petite black face, framed in a tumble of curls. When our eyes meet, I'm dumb struck. I'll swear this is Esi! Esi Edugyan, the author I'm reading just a few seats away. 

I bend down to ask. "Excuse me, are you my favorite writer?" 

"Excuse me?" says Esi. 

The catering cart bangs my bum. The stewardess huffs impatiently "Ahh ... Sir.. Excuse me!" 

"Are you a writer?" I ask.

"We'll, yes". says Esi

The cart clips my heels. I'm star struck. "I'll be back!" I blurt, as the stewardess eases me aft with her cart.

I end up trapped at the back of the plane for 15 minutes while another catering cart inches down the aisle. Finally I return to my fellow 'visible minority'. "Please excuse me once again. Are you Esi?" I ask. "Yes" says Esi, graciously. I kneel down and offer my hand. "My God I can't believe this! I'm reading Half Blood Blues on my iPad, just down there, and here you are! What a delight to meet you!"

I describe reading a review of Half Blood Blues in the Times Colonist just after its short listing for the Giller Prize. The reviewer had lifted a passage straight from page one, and as I read that passage I was immediately transported to a time and place far from my experience. What stunned me about the writing was how far the subject and characters were from the author's experience also. Far from her life experience, yet conjured so expertly in her imagination. After reading the review I had put down the newspaper, picked up my iPad and downloaded Half Blood Blues in a heartbeat.

When I returned to my seat and re-opened the iPad, I momentarily lamented the fact that I didn't have a print version of Half Blood Blues. Here was the perfect opportunity for an autograph. But wait! iBooks have a note taking feature! I opened the 'novel' to the 'flyleaf' and returned to pester poor Esi one more time. She kindly keyed in a digital message as a lasting memory of our brief encounter, high above the Arctic.

                                                                      Esi Edugyan