Over five million people in America immigrated here by overstaying their visas. Almost 99 percent of them are never caught, but there is one condition: if you leave, you can’t come back. This is a kind of disappearance, a premeditated amnesia, and this essay is a recording of one face in a sea of five million. Whenever I see my grandmother’s grainy hologram on the screen, I think about how I wish she could Skype me into her tai chi lesson. I wish my grandmother could Skype me into her visits to my grandfather’s grave. I wish my grandmother could Skype me into her kitchen, her living room, her fire escape. I wish my grandmother could Skype me into her.
Angie Sijun Lou