The Green Card Lady

52 Stories in 52 Weeks: 2007 ##2 The Green Card Lady

By: Mr. George Patnoe Jr.'s Ambidextrous Writing Brain + Mind

Everyday, outside America, a young lady feels the need to escape from her surroundings. She may not even know why, except the unspeakable need and desire to escape the life from which others around her seem not to mind, no matter how bad the earthly conditions are for even simple animals, not to mention humans. Maybe the young lady worked in the dirt, as in the earth’s dirt as a farmer or maybe the lady studied a single subject so hard that she knew nothing else, except the world of people walking back and forth in their daily lives. But a spark within the lady, a spark that she did not even know existed, a guiding spark of inner that light touched her mind as it told her mind, "It is time to plan for the future, and that future is not here, but in America."

The lady looked in the mirror every morning as she knew an idea of a new life was building up in her mind, but she knew that she could not tell anyone because they would deem her a dreamer dreams, a person with hopes of a better life, and a life in America; no way, they would say. But a spark of light can not be hide from the soul who has been touched by the inner spark of light, of the guiding light. It seemed strange to the lady that she received that spark of guiding light when others around her never seemed to dream of a better life in America.

After all, America was a strange country overseas, with strange people who were 52 states strangely different. Some people knew, but others did not know that America’s 52 states were so different in some ways, but not in others; with different cultures and different peoples from different countries from around the world. Each state seemed to represent a different state of life, a different state of some kind of collective mind, even though they were collectively of one mind, one country named America. The lady started to think that if there was hope for all of the different kinds of people who left their home countries before her, then they had already proved that she could leave here country to pursue a new life, with new possibilities in human life. The lady looked around everyday, realizing that the dull boring life was going no where because the possibilities were limited for whatever limited cultural reason, or economic reason, or even personal reason.

Taken altogether, the lady realized that the rice paddies, or the rainy season, or the dress codes, or the politics of the day, or even current blood ties of one sort or another could not stop the lady from wondering about a new life in America. What possibilities could happen in a new country as she left behind the past? New clothes for sure, new kinds of food, maybe a true schooling as in a college degree from one of those schools in America. The lady pondered these possibilities as she drank tea with a friend. They were talking about everyday issues when all of a sudden, the lady slipped out her mouth, "I am thinking about going to America."
The friend looked at her and said, "But what about the Green Card?" to
The lady responded, "What is a Green Card?"

The friend surprising stated, "The Green Card allows you to legally work in America; unlike all of those people who have to work under the table doing odd jobs, without any of the American benefits the regular tax payers can get from the state or federal government.
"How can you get a Green Card?" asked the lady.
"The best way is to marry an American man, so he signs his name on the Green Card papers." said the friend.
"Would that mean having sex with the American man?" asked the lady.
"Of course!" replied the friend.
"But that would make me a kind of whore because I would not be having sex for love, but for the Green Card." a shocked lady said.

"Well, that is the best way to get the Green Card, plus most American men have no idea that you are fooling him when you are having sex with him because they do not know anything about the Green Card. All you have to do is spread you legs, or have some kinky sex so you can trap their penis brains to get them to marry you, and then you get their signature for the Greed Card. Then you close up your legs and you can stop having sex with him if you feel like it."
The lady stood up and walked away from her friend with the plastic cup in her hand, as she wondered if she could lay in a bed with a stranger just to fool him into signing over his name for a Green Card. To become a simple whore or sex tool for America’s freedom was a strange concept for the lady, but she did not put the concept out of her mind. The dream of an American life!

For some people, the American dream was not a way of life, nor was even a dream of theirs because it was someone else’s dream. Many people felt dreams were a waste of time, because dreams might mean a real life change and most people did not want a change in their lives. They rather liked their way of life, no matter how hard or boring it was for them. Many people, even in American, like a boring life, especially if they everything they thought they needed to live; like food, clothes, a shelter, and even enough money and sex, along with some fun stuff on the side of the work or business part. The American born people never had to worry about the Green Card, unless you were the American male or sometimes an American female who married a foreigner.

The lady wondered what kind of man would marry her if he had no idea what kind of life she lived or what kind of person she truly was in her own country. After all, she could be a simple criminal and the American male would not know about if the lady acted ok after she arrived in America. As the lady walked on the sidewalk, she looked through the store’s glass windows and she began to wonder what she would see if she were to look through the glass of America’s stores when she walked on an America’s sideways. How different could the ladies in America dress anyway?

She had never seen an American dress, but how different could an American dress be compared to her local dresses? Of course, she knew hypothetically how different other cultures must dress, like that of Africa compared to that of Alaska. So icy cold in Alaska’s winters and so hot in Africa’s summers. The dresses certainly could not be the same even if the same person was walking down Africa’s sidewalk compared to that of Alaska’s sidewalk. But what would an Africa male think about sex compared to that of an American male?

Would they just put their thing in her and pump or would some be really mean and others gentle, or maybe she could find an American male who did not care about sex and that would save her from the trouble of spreading her legs for the Green Card. The lady began to question if a new life in America would be worth spreading her legs for the Green Card. Or maybe America’s life was so worth it that spreading her legs would be an easy thing to do for the Green Card. Maybe it all mattered what the reward would be for each specific American male.

How many different kinds of American males could there be in America? She had read how some guys like sports while other guys like books and some guys even liked to make lots of money. Some guys lived just to make money! How many kinds of dresses could she buy if she married a guy who loved to earn money and then loved to have his Green Card wife spend the money on dresses so she could look good for him, especially at parties. Maybe a little sex wold not be to bad if the rewards were more rewarding than if she had stayed in her local town where she had only a few monies to buy a few dresses and watches and rings and shoes. Oh yes; she had heard how American women loved to shop for shoes.

The lady owned only a few old pairs of shoes and she never had a party to go to anyway. But if she moved to America to laid down for a rich American male, she probably could buy lots of American shoes and go to at least a few parties a year. Shoe made out of black leather and red leather and pink leather and maybe a bright shiny yellow leather. Of course, there would be cheap shoes and then again, very expensive designer shoes. If people designed fancy shoes, someone should at least wear the shoes. Since the first pair of shoes, when shoes were just colorless protectors of ladies and mens feet, there must have been a single moment when a maker of shoes decided to add some color dye to those colorless shoes. That shoe maker must have known that he was taking a chance when he added color to the first pair of colorless shoes to make them into a bright colored shoes.

What did the local people say when they saw the first pair of colored shoes? The lady wondered what she would think when she bought her first pair of colored shoes? She pretended to be wearing a pair of bright yellow shoes as she walked in her dusty sandals. A lady could dream after all. The first pair of colored shoes must have been stared at by the local people who had never seen a bright yellow pair of shoes. And what did the lady feel like after she slipped on that first bright yellow pair of shoes. That lady must have had many men noticing her because of those shining shoes. Maybe the first lady who wore the first pair of bright yellow shoes was requested for many dates by men who might not have taken a bath in weeks. That is the way life must have been back in the historical days of the old times.

Maybe some people were mad at the shoe maker for creating a bright yellow pair of shoes, just like some people would probably be mad when the lady informed her blood family and other friends that she was thinking about traveling to the bright new life in America. It always seemed like the new adventurers in life were immediately deeded outcasts or outsiders whenever they did something differently new from what everyone else was doing, or wearing, or thinking. The lady wondered how the shoe maker survived after the glaring stares of those people who had never seen a pair of the first bright yellow shoes. What did those people do when they first saw a pair of the shining shoes?

Then, the lady wondered what she would feel like after she bought her first pair of bright yellow shoes and walked down the streets of an American city. Would people stare at her or her shoes or would they just be ignore her new shoes because of all the ladies who wore yellow shoes?
Maybe she needed a good set of walking legs to go with the shoes. Maybe the yellow shoes would help her get a male who would marry her so she could get the marriage Green Card, which seemed to be the best way to get the Green Card in America. As she walked down the street in her bare sandals, she saw a church and walked into the church and she sat down on a bench and she started to stare at the male on the cross that hung from the front wall of the church. What the guy think about a lady who was walking in a pair of bright yellow shoes?

What would a religious man think of a lady in a yellow pair of shoes? Would a religious male condemn her or would he praise her for fearlessly risking her life for being different in a world where people seem all dressed in the dull clothes? Would she have to hide behind the religious man for help and for protection from the dull thinking people or would he be the first person to condemn her for wearing the bright shiny shoes, which of course would draw attention to her swaying body, not to mention to her walking legs? Would the religious man praise her for being fearless and also question her decision to draw attention to her sexual walk, even for a Green Card which would help her attain the freedom to live in a free county like America? The lady thought to herself that back 2000 thousand years ago, bright yellow shoes did were not made so the guy on the cross would never have to deal with such moronic questions.

A man started to walk up to the lady and the lady recognized the man to be a priest for the church. "How are you, my dear lady?" asked the priest. "Fine, thank you. But I was just thinking what the guy on the cross think of yellow shoes, not to mention what he would think about if he knew a lady was having sex with an American male for the Green Card.
"Well, my dear lady, the Bible never speaks of the guy on the cross making a statement about ladies in bright yellow shoes or about ladies who had sex with an American male for a Green Card, but it can be quite certain that he probably would not condemn a lady who wore bright yellow shoes, but with regard to the issue of sex for the Green Card, even if it meant more freedom in a better country, he might state that maybe the lady should marry for love instead of the Green Card and then the lady would not live with a guilty conscience, or without damaging her soul."

"So falling in true love before having sex and before the Green Card would seem to be the answer to not feeling guilty for having sex and then getting the Green Card."
"But how would a lady know if she was in love with a complete male stranger who live in a complete different country than the lady?"

"Oh yes, the question of love between two human people. Sometimes that is a question that only two people can answer, and only after each person has answered that question for himself and for herself. True love for one person might be different than true love for another person. Those are hard questions to answer, just as each individual person must answer the question about how much he spiritually loves Truth or God. Love for anything can not be based on a material criteria."

The young lady stood up and shook the priest’s hand and said "Thank you." as she stepped backward to leave the church. The air seemed clearer as did her mind because the lady had started the process of self-discovery even before she had even started the process of leaving her home country for America, even before she had even began to make a decision as to whether she should leave everything behind for a new life. The one thing that she could not leave behind was body of skin and bones and her mind, the memories of the time she would have to spread her legs for an American male who would sign his name on the American Green Card. And even if she did love him and even if he did love her, there would always be doubt.

With America’s freedom came the doubt of love between two people because when a normal American marriage happens, which means when there is no Green Card involved to cast doubt on the marriage. A married couple can have all kinds of human problems, but those problems are nothing like a Green Card which is as wide as the ocean, leaving two people standing on a shore of a mental sea, a mind sea, maybe even a thought sea, where two minds are divided by the realization that even when they share a part of human life together, their lives are still as different as the two countries that they were born in, just as if they were born on two separate planets or in two separate universes.

Even if they eat the same foods, wear the same clothes, speak the same language, and even work in the same company, they are still different than the common marriages in that a common marriage uses sex for either pleasure or to make a baby or maybe both. But in a Green Card marriage, something more is expected from one party, the American person. That American person must in a sense sign over a piece of himself when he signs the Green Card. In one sense, they own each other for a very specific period of time because of American Green Card law. Backing out of a Green Card marriage is not like backing out of a common marriage where divorce means that the two people just go there separate ways.

No! In a Green Card marriage, if both parties were to get divorce before the legal time period, one party could be left helpless and possibly sent back to her country or in the very least, be forced to have sex with someone else or even pay for an American name on a piece of paper. In one sense, being in a Green Card marriage is like being in a prison, a prison without bars, but a prison nevertheless. In one sense, a Green Card person almost has to act like a criminal to the Green Card. They will probably have to lie, deceive, to get married and later they might have to kill the person in order to get out of the marriage. And in a sense, they will become a whore of sorts, spreading their legs when they do not want to because they know that if they spread them long enough, the American man will sign over his name to a Card which represents freedom for the lady.

The trip to America was a very timing consuming process for the Green Card lady, but so was leaving her home town. Even leaving her dusty old sandals behind for American’s new bright yellow shoes was not fun, at least for her feet. But the lady’s ego was flying higher than the plane which flew her over to America. She had never been in a plane before the trip of her life, but since everyone else acted so natural for everyone else, that the lady fearlessly followed the crowed onto the plane and she kept her mouth closed so no one knew that she was a novice flyer.

Getting off the plane was easy too! Even finding a place to stay, since she had contacted a few old family friends who were already in America. Even finding a job under the table was easy since those family friends owned a few small businesses and they needed some unquestioning help.

The lady studied people as they walked into the store, and even as they appeared on the televison, and even on the subway, and even on the bus, and even as she walked the streets during different times of the day. America had so many different people who all dressed so different in some regards that the lady realized that people dressed perfectly different for different occasions. But the rich people always dressed with different clothes than the poor people.

One day, a car drove up to the store’s doorway and a nice looking ring-less male stepped out of the black town car and he smiled at the lady who stood in the bright yellow shoes. He noticed something special about a poor lady who could still dress in classy shoes. He knew that if she could dress in classy shoes while being poor, she could also dress in better classier shoes if she was married to a rich guy, like himself. So on the way out of the store, the guy said hi, and he also started to chat with the lady in the bright yellow shoes, all the while leading up to the question of whether she would like to accompany him to a movie, or a to a ballet, or to a play, or to a musical. It was her choice.

The smiling lady responded with a yes to a date, but that she would have to think about which even she would like to first see in America. They exchanged phone numbers and they started to talk about their personal histories. She discovered that he also lived in her country before he received a student’s visa to study in America. Each step had led him to a full time professional paying job with lots of money, but he was searching for a wife. She needed a husband, but not only for the Green Card, but for making babies and being a life partner. She decided that she wanted to go window shopping at the best and highest and most expensive stores in the city. She did not really want to purchase anything, she just wanted to feel the vision of what rich people wore when they could purchase any type of clothing they wanted.

So they went window shopping. First to the biggest mall in the city and later they just walked the streets looking at clothes in the windows. Once in while, they would walk into the stores to look at dresses and things like shoes and wallets and coats and purses. Every sells person treated with kindness and some level of respect, but they also knew that her partner was also there. She knew that if he was not there, they might not even allow her into the store, even with or maybe because of the bright yellow shoes.

The guy knew he had to do something, so he took her to a store where she could update her clothes without spending to much money. He assisted her in choosing the correct clothes for the different images she needed to survive in the big city. She was gratefully surprised that he was taking his time off to help her, but maybe he just wanted some physical action from her. When he dropped her off at her doorstep, without even as much as simple kiss on the cheek, she flung her heart towards him as an invisible ray of light had touched her soul. Of course, they talked on the phone and eventually they dated at the ballet, at the plays and the musicals. And at the right time, in front of everyone at the fanciest restaurant, he pulled out a box and he handed it to her.

He had arranged the setup long ago with the restaurant’s owner. All of the lights were suddenly darken as everyone stopped eating their food, all of the lights except for a now brighter yellow light which was cast down upon them so everyone could watch him propose to her, with sweet words of love and joy. She opened up the box and she glared onto the huge diamond ring with a joy that sweep her off her the chair. She had forgotten everything about her past, about her dreams, even where she was and even that she was sitting in a chair in the big American city.

The light reflected off the diamond ring as she said yes, and everyone in the restaurant clapped their hands and yelled and whistled and raised their wine and beer glasses into the air; even as the restaurant’s lights lit up again. She then realized that her dream had arrived. She did not need to sell her soul for the Green Card to a senseless American male who cared only for sex. She had fallen in love with a guy who had fallen in love with her, just as the church’s priest had explained to her; "She would know love when love happened. No one needed to explain love to her."

The American future was bright for the lady who had questioned her own sense of integrity, even though she had never read verse from the Bible or any other religious book. She had found her freedom in America to fall in love and still be happy wearing bright yellow shoes. Only now, she wore other colored shoes too, along with colorful dresses and warm coats and even a few hats. To find love before wearing all of those clothes seemed better than wearing all of those clothes before finding love. Maybe the trick of freedom was to free the soul of the yellow shoes when looking for love, but the yellow shoes still helped get the job finishes.