One More

A figure kneels on the floor of a bare, lamplit room beside a nearly full cardboard parcel box — folded cloth, a bundle, and a single shoe already inside — while a hand rests on the floor beside the shoe’s unpacked match, a work uniform and bag hanging on the wall, a lit lantern and a woven basket nearby, city lights visible through a window at dusk.

Everything else made the cut. One thing still being weighed.

The box is nearly full. One shoe still isn’t in it, and my hand hasn’t moved from beside it in a while.

Close to half a million Kenyans work in the Gulf, many in homes and on construction sites, and every year before the holidays they send two things home: money, and a box packed by hand. Every extra kilogram in that box costs money to ship, and new fees and tighter permit costs in Saudi Arabia have already cut into what a lot of them earn — so what goes in isn’t decided by what’s wanted. It’s decided by what still fits the weight the money allows.

One shoe is already inside. Its pair is still on the floor, and my hand hasn’t picked it up yet.