The Turtle of Oman

Aref Al-Amri stands with his parents at the Muscat International Airport. His father is leaving. Aref thinks that it would have been nice to give his father a small turtle to keep in his pocket. His father tells him to take care of his mother and cat. He also tells Aref to keep speaking English. This isn’t a problem for Aref because he has been using the language for years at the American international school that he attends. His mother also teaches English there, and now, his father is now going ahead of Aref and his mother to their new home in the US. They speak English more than most families but still use Arabic with their neighbors and in their dreams.

Aref pats his father’s pockets, and his father reveals that he brings earplugs on the plane so that he doesn’t have to listen to the noise. As his father gets ready to leave, he reminds Aref that he will have discovered many things in the US in the one week before Aref arrives. “Discovering Something New Every Day” (7) is a family motto, and each person writes in their notebook what they discovered.

Even Aref’s grandfather,