I heard my father’s goodbye inside somebody else’s divorce

Dear Delyara, I am a court interpreter. Today, I interpreted a divorce mediation for a couple speaking the language I grew up with. At one point, the husband said to his wife, “You will be better without me once the noise settles.” My father said exactly those words when he left our family. I was eleven, sitting halfway down the stairs while my parents argued in the hallway. I had not heard the sentence in thirty-seven years, yet my body recognized it before my mind did. I had to interpret it immediately into French. My voice remained professional. Nobody in the room knew I had just travelled decades. The wife answered, “You don’t get to decide what is better for me.” I translated that too. I wanted my mother to have said it. She had cried instead. After the session, the lawyer thanked me for being calm during an emotional meeting. I went into the restroom and gripped the sink until my hands stopped shaking. Interpreters are trained not to become part of the conversation. Today, for one sentence, I was eleven and forty-eight simultaneously, giving another woman words my mother never had while still pretending none of the language belonged to me.