A 7-year-old named Zain Riazuddin walks down the suburbs of Long Island. He’s joyful as can be and is enthusiastically talking to his siblings next to him. The boy has just stepped off his school bus and is eager to get to his home and rest. He can smell his mother’s special Chinese food from outside as he walks up the small stairs to the front door.

His mother opens the door and greets him and his siblings like any mother would, though she didn’t seem as happy or joyful as she had the other days he’d come back from school. They walk inside and sit down to eat.

The boy loved the suburbs in which he lived, his friends there, the park across the street, and the ice cream shop only a few minutes away. His mother looks anxious as she starts to speak, ”your father and I have been thinking for a bit that we should move to Texas”. Zain and his siblings have their jaws open wide. “Why Texas?” asks his sister, Hiba, but she never got a response (until several years later).

Of course, them being children they had to abide by their parents laws, so after a dreadful year or so, with their bags packed, they hopped onto a plane and moved to Texas.

It took getting used to the open space, the farms, and the oddly kind people there, but after a while it felt like home. Zain and his siblings made many friends and also had relatives there to keep them company. He realized this move to Texas was worth it.

After several years, they did get an answer, not directly from their parents; more of an inference. Zain’s father had worked for Blackberry, a company which had experienced bankruptcy, and had to lay off a handful of their employees, including Zain’s father. Along with that, the family had relatives there.