Calgary, September 2023
They say the journey to Heaven is long and thorny. They also say that Death is a beautiful woman who will take you in her arms. At least that is what the old movie All That Jazz indicates. Samuel Klein knew that his journey to Heaven was coming to an end and that soon he would be facing that beautiful lady. He wasn’t afraid. He will smile at her and willingly go to her arms.
Samuel's journey to Heaven started a long time ago when he was a young employee in his father's bank. He was returning home from holidays and was staying overnight in a motel. It was getting late, and he was ready to go to bed when there was a knock on the door. He expected to see the receptionist bringing him something, but there was a young, terrified woman looking at him. “Please let me in,” she said in Spanish.
“Who are you?”
“Please let me in,” she repeated. “They are after me.”
“Who is after you?”
“The US immigration police.”
At this moment Samuel heard the police car arriving at the hotel.
“Go to the bathroom and take a shower,” he said to her. Just as the water started running, there was another knock on the door.
“Hello sir, sorry to disturb you. We are looking for an illegal immigrant. Did you see anybody coming to the hotel?” asked the policeman.
“No, I didn’t.”
The policeman didn’t seem to believe him. “Are you alone here?”
“No, I am with my wife, and she is taking a shower, as you can hear.”
The policeman hesitated. “Can I see your ID?”
“Sure,” and Samuel showed him his driver’s licence.
He studied it carefully and asked: “There is a bank of the same name as yours, Samuel Klein. Are you related to the owner?”
“I am his son.”
That was enough. There was definitively no point in causing trouble to the son of a bank owner. The policeman apologized and left.
“He is out,” Samuel shouted to the bathroom. The woman turned off the water, got dressed and stepped out. He looked at her and wondered why he did it. Why did he lie to the police to save an unknown woman from deportation? He could face criminal charges for that, not to mention the embarrassment for himself, for his father and the bank. On the other hand, he didn’t have the heart to kick her out to the hostile world of the deportation officials. Whithout knowing it, Samuel began his journey to Heaven.
During Samuel's childhood, there was no indication that he would embark on such a journey. He was a nice Jewish boy, living in a nice Jewish family, but he certainly wasn’t a saint. He liked to do things his way and sometimes his dad was wondering if Samuel would be the right person to follow in his footsteps. In high school Samuel’s favorite subject was literature. He also liked Spanish, because the woman who was serving his family was Mexican and always talked to him in her language. The financial world of his father didn’t interest him, he wanted to be a journalist or writer. But his dad pointed out, correctly, that there was no money in writing. In the end, Samuel accepted that argument, studied law and finances and started his career at the bank of his father. His future looked settled, but the future is never certain and one night in a motel can change it.
Now he was sitting at the edge of the bed, looking at the woman in front of him. She was his age, perhaps younger, not particularly beautiful, and she looked scared and exhausted.
“Sit down,” Samuel pointed to the chair. “The policeman indicated that you are an illegal immigrant. Is it true?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Where are you from?”
“Mexico.”
“Why did you leave your country?”
She tried to explain, but her English wasn’t very good.
“You can speak Spanish, I understand,” said Samuel. She told him that her hometown, Culiacán, is controlled by the Sinaloa drug cartel and one of the bosses wanted her to be his wife. She didn’t want to live in the violent world of narcotrafficking, took a bus to Ciudad Juárez, just south of El Paso, Texas, and joined a group that paid a coyote to bring them over the border. But when they crossed to US, the man locked them in a van, drove for a while, then stopped and left. If somebody didn’t open the door, they would all die of heat. By then the police arrived and tried to arrest them, but she managed to escape and run to the hotel. The rest he already knew.
Samuel felt sorry for her. “You didn’t tell me your name yet,” he said.
“Camila.”
“Well Camila, since you have nowhere to go, you will stay here overnight. Tomorrow, I will take you to my apartment, and we will decide what to do.”
They didn’t talk much on the way to Samuel’s home. He told her his name and a little bit about himself. The main question was what to do next. “You cannot stay with me for long,” he told her when they arrived. “I will try to find you a job in one of those farms which employs undocumented immigrants. There are Mexicans there, so you will have company.” Google search found that the town of Las Cruces, New Mexico, located 225 miles south of Albuquerque, the hometown of Samuel, is safe for undocumented immigrants. A call to one of those dairy farms confirmed that they are looking for workers. Samuel wrote down the details about the farm and then let Camila talk to the man on the line. When she hung up, he told her the plan.
“Tomorrow, I will drive you to the bus terminal, buy you the ticket to Las Cruces and give you money for a taxi to the farm. The owner will be expecting you. Call me if you have any problems,” and Samuel gave her the information about the farm and his business card. Samuel’s journey to Heaven started well.
When Camila left, nobody could blame Samuel if he forgot about her. His work at the bank was mildly boring and he tried, without success, to be a writer. But then his mom started to ask dangerous questions:
“Samuel, when are you going to get married? You must be feeling lonely by yourself in your apartment. Why don’t you find a nice Jewish girl, have a family, and give us grandchildren?” His dad added fuel to the fire. “One of my business partners has a daughter who would be just right for you.”
The last thing Samuel wanted to do was to marry the daughter of dad's business partner. He would be expected to climb the corporate ladder and eventually take over the bank. Samuel had no desire to do any of that. Not that he hated his job, he did it and did it well, but he had no desire for any advancement. Marriage like that would cause disappointment for everybody. On the other hand, he couldn’t stall forever, and in a way his mom was right. He did feel lonely in the evenings. And that was when he remembered Camila. Why not find her a job in a cleaning company and employ her as his cleaning lady? From time to time, he would invite her for dinner, he would be seen with a woman and the pressure to marry the business partner’s daughter would disappear. With this in mind, he called the owner of the farm where Camila was working and asked him to tell her to contact him. When she called, Samuel explained a reason why he wanted to talk to her:
“Camila, there is something you might be interested in. I might be able to find you a job with the company which cleans our offices. The pay isn’t bad, and you would be able to have your own place to live. Also, I would be one of your customers. And don’t worry, they are not asking for papers. Would you be interested?”
It was tempting. The work at the farm was hard and dirty and she had to share the accommodation with the other female workers of the farm.
"Yes, it sounds interesting," she told Samuel. "If there is a job available, I will take it." Samuel then inquired about the cleaning company and, as in all businesses of that nature, they were always looking for people. Camile told the farm owner that she will leave, she exchanged a few more phone calls with Samuel and one day he was waiting for her in the Albuquerque bus terminal.
In the beginning, all went according to the plan. Once a week Camila cleaned Samuel’s apartment and he occasionally invited her for dinner. Samuel’s parents soon found out that there was a woman in their son’s life, the daughter of the business partner got tired of waiting and moved on, and Samuel thought that the danger was over. But we all know that nothing is ever simple and that there are always problems. In this case, the problem was a bank employee who hated illegal immigrants, especially Mexicans. One evening when he worked overtime, he saw Camila cleaning the offices and was outraged. He was sure she was an illegal immigrant because in his mind all Mexicans were illegal immigrants. He complained to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, they checked the cleaning company’s employees’ records and demanded Camila's dismisal. This was serious. They could also request Camila’s deportation.
“You told me that you escaped from a drug dealer who wanted to marry you,” said Samuel when Camila told him the bad news.
“Yes, that is true.”
“Would there be any danger if you returned?”
“There certainly would. When he found out that I escaped, he threatened my parents and said that he would kill me if I returned."
“Can you prove it?”
“My parents can prove it.”
“OK. That means you are entitled to asylum. I will talk to my dad. He will find a lawyer for you and, in the meantime, you can stay with me.” For Samuel, this was another step in his journey to Heaven.
The talk with his father was not easy. Not surprisingly, Samuel Klein senior wasn’t pleased.
“So, you are involved with your cleaning lady who is an illegal immigrant.”
“Yes, I am afraid so.”
"Well, I must admit I hoped you would find somebody closer to your social level. Do you love her?"
“I don’t know if I love her, but I feel responsible for her. I do believe they would kill her if she would be deported.”
"Why do you feel responsible for her?”
Samuel explained what happened in the hotel and how he lied to the police. "I didn't have the heart to kick her out,” he confessed.
This was even worse. The whole thing could end with criminal charges, and Samuel Klein senior realized he must talk to a lawyer. The bank’s legal department suggested a name, he set up the appointment and Samuel junior explained how he met Camila, how he lied to the police and how he found jobs for her at the farm and at the cleaning agency. The lawyer then called Camila, asked her about the danger she would be facing if deported and started the lengthy process of requesting asylum. The good news was that asylum seekers are not considered undocumented immigrants under federal law, so Camila got her job back. The immediate danger of deportation was averted, and she continued as before. Her cleaning sessions in Samuel’s apartment increased in length and frequency, and when she became pregnant, she moved with him. But by then the whole bank knew that the son of the owner lives with his cleaning lady and in the class-conscious banking community Samuel became an embarrassment.
"I know I have disappointed you," he apologized to his parents. "But I couldn't send her away. I guess I am too soft-hearted. I will find another job in a different bank to spare you even more of embarrassment.”
Samuel’s parents indeed were disappointed, but when they saw their first little cute grandchild, all the disappointment disappeared. Two more grandchildren followed, and Camila was accepted as a part of the family.
Years passed, children grew, had their own families, Samuel and Camila became old, and this brings me back to the beginning of the story. Samuel was lying in bed and was contemplating his journey through life. He had reasons to believe this journey would lead to Heaven. He saved one person, Camila, from deportation, and was a good husband to her and a good father for their children. True, not all the reasons for saving Camila were pure and selfless. He used her as a shield against the marriage to the daughter of his dad’s business partner. Also, he knew that he disappointed his parents. But Samuel hoped that the lady who will be waiting for him at the end of the journey would understand.