Waking up in Coquitlam...

...the first thing I become aware of is absence. Absence of light in the pre-dawn darkness. Absence of sound in this quiet suburb where even birds whisper.
I hold my breath, waiting for homesickness to hit me, for nostalgia, or even the crushing disappointment of waking up that haunted me in the final months in Dhaka. Nothing. Here in my cocoon of sensory deprivation, even emotions are absent.
For want for something - anything - I get up, clean my room, get breakfast, water the plants. The cold hits my unaccustomed skin like shards of glass, and I welcome the bite as I breathe in the air, odorless, clean, into my lungs.
Chores dispatched, I find myself padding back into my room. Switching on my laptop, I stare blankly at the screen, watching jubilation, desperation, boredom, insecurities - all those emotions I can't feel - experienced by my friends on their Facebook feeds.
And then suddenly a blue messenger window pops up, with a familiar one-eyed green monster on its display picture, saying 'Arre apni?"

And my heart thaws