ZAHAVA KAMARA
age: 37.
gender & pronouns: cis-female & she/her.
neighborhood: summit lake.
occupation: co-creator and co-owner of the silk road restaurant ; owner of the jade palace resort and hotel hotelier.
fc: kat graham.
HER STORY
trigger warnings: parental death, assassination attempt, labour mention, pregnancy, abandonment, depression.
"The world’s a beautiful place,” her parents use to tell her often growing up. And what with being fascinated in the world, with other cultures and languages and cuisines, Zahava couldn’t agree more. Of course, she didn’t exactly look at the world through rose-coloured glasses and neither did her parents. Her parents, Benjamin and Esther “Esti” Kamara, knew more than anyone that the world wasn’t all black and white, that it was a kaleidoscope of rainbows. Yet, in the end, they both saw hope for a better world. Which was what led the two to becoming diplomats---which, eventually, led the two to finding each other while at a conference in Athens back in 1980. A few years went by, the two eventually married with Zahava’s father converting to Judaism (which, he would proudly say still to this day, was both for his wife and for himself), before eventually having their daughter in late 1985. While the family became more settled after having her, living primarily in the country that the beginning of their love story started, Greece, they made sure to instill a love of adventure into her. This leading Zahava to become incredibly spirited and strong-willed.
For the longest time, she admired her parents. They were everything she ever wanted to be and one day, she wanted to become a diplomat and have a love story like theirs. Unfortunately, she would soon have her entire world rocked and turn entirely upside down.
It’d been a convention in Geneva, Switzerland when everything changed. While Zahava and her father had been at their hotel suite, the then-eleven year old having caught a flu, her mother had been meeting up with a couple of world leaders and influential people for dinner when someone open fired. It initially been the assassin’s intentions to aim a majority of the world leaders, yet Zahava’s mother had automatically swooped in, along with the bodyguards. While none of the world leaders ended up harmed, Esther and a few of the bodyguards had been. Despite quickly being taken to the nearest hospital, Esther Kamara would eventually pass away after spending eleven hours fighting.
Losing Esti was a catastrophe. While Benjamin did everything he could to remain strong for his daughter, Zahava became changed. She didn’t romanticize life anymore; How could she when the person she loved the most was gone?
She became incredibly difficult over the years, reckless and rebellious. Using her adventurous and free-spirited nature to help guide her into trouble, in spite of knowing deep down that her mother wouldn’t want this of her daughter. Yet, she didn’t care. Even though she was exceptionally bright and could see the world in a way that not many others could, she remained largely cynical. Eventually, she would become a teenager and getting ready to graduate high school. To becoming an adult and figuring out what was the next step in her life. Even though she was now, suppose one could describe her, a “teenage dirtbag”, she knew that she was wanting to go to college. To honour her mother, though she wouldn’t explicitly state that. While she’d began to search colleges, both in Greece and around the world, she would soon find out some rather shocking news: Benjamin had been seeing someone new.
Zahava hadn’t been ready for that at all. Never in her wildest dreams could she imagine her father ever being with anyone after her mother. Not only that: they’ve been together for over a year and he’s proposed to this new woman. Zahava was beyond furious. After learning about that, there was nothing that could’ve stopped her from raging about. Whether it was getting in trouble at school or with the law, spending all their money, destroying their home, she became as wild as the sea and made it known. Eventually, Benjamin had enough. After graduation and finding out that his daughter was attending some community college in New York City without telling him, he finally told her that he was cutting her off. That he would give her enough money to remain comfortable in the States for awhile but after that, no more. She couldn’t believe it at first and thought he was bluffing. It wasn’t until she moved across the ocean and couldn’t contact him when it turned out that it was not a bluff.
Ever an embolden girl she’s learn to become over the past seven years, she believed that he would contact her sooner or later. In the meantime, however, she was living her life in NYC. Completely and utterly free. That is, until a few months later, when her entire world changed again. Only this time, it was in the form of Bashir Qureshi.
The two weren’t super close or anything. They’d been friendly acquaintances in her eyes and she enjoyed his band’s music, having gone to some of their shows despite not attending the same school as them. Yet eventually, one thing led to another and they had slept together one night. Nothing ever progressed after that and they hadn’t even mentioned anything concerning it. At least, they hadn’t… Until she discovered she was pregnant. At first, she hadn’t been sure who the father even could have been. She slept around with a couple of different people that there hadn’t been a concrete answer for a moment. Yet after awhile, she realized who the father was. And for a moment, she debated telling Bash in the first place. Eventually, the guilt was getting the best of her and after spotting him while out in the city, she couldn’t keep it from him anymore: he was going to be a father. Him, a ‘man’ who was still a kid. The same way she was a ‘woman’ who was still just a kid as well. A kid who’s been cut off from her father, whom she wasn’t even able to contact to let him know about the baby. It was just her and Bash.
For a moment, she thought he wouldn’t want anything to do with the child. Zahava had already decided to give the baby up for adoption, knowing that the baby deserved better than her. She wasn’t ready to be a mother. She couldn’t be one and she didn’t trust her "abilities” in being one. Bashir deciding to step up and raising their son himself had been a rather shocking moment for her. After all, she thought he would agree with her. He had his own life and was going to school as well; Having a baby would change that. For a moment, she almost stayed. She’d been so close to telling Bash that she wanted to be a part of their child’s life when an accident happened. She had spent the entire pregnancy being careful, making sure not to be her reckless, chaotic self—until one night, the night before she planned on telling Bash that she wanted to stay, she nearly lost Bodhi after making an in-the-moment honest mistake. Fortunately, things were okay, yet she couldn’t stop blaming herself. She never told Bash about what happened and decided not to. She got closer to the due date and applied for a program with Semester at Sea, getting accepted into the study-abroad program and also transferring to a new culinary school out west in Seattle to attend after her semester abroad. Not too long after her son, Bodhi Qureshi, was born, she was gone. A decision she’s regretted ever since over the past two decades.
Over the years, she’d been able to travel and see the world more again. She formed a good group of friends while traveling in Central Asia and eventually, they started their own business out in Seattle. Inspired by their heritages and recipes from their cultures and around the general regions, they started a fusion food truck. At first, business was slow. They had a hard time getting customers and for awhile there, Zahava and her friends started to believe that maybe they should close their truck down. Until finally, business began to pick up. A few months later, they were booming and eventually, they moved from the truck to an actual building. When learning about the business, her stepmother offered to be an investor for the Silk Road. As it turns out, Alessandra Oliveira-Kamara is originally a part of the Oliveira family, a large family from Brazil who are extremely rich and hold many different businesses all around the world. While a majority of their wealth came from their successful international chain of hotels, members of the family also having other businesses that they obtained. One of the more favourites of said-businesses was their wildlife sanctuary out in the Bengal region of eastern India. It’d been nothing short of a shock to meet her stepmother, believing that she would remain estranged from her family for a long time. However, despite Alessandra wanting to form a connection with her stepdaughter, she assured her that this was strictly business and not personal. Eventually, the Silk Road had a few more restaurants located within or as a part of Jade Palace locations across the globe.
Over the past few years, there’d been talk of a Jade Palace location being brought to the small city of Providence Peak in Colorado, what with Zahava’s younger cousin Leticia Oliveira taking over the place. At first, there had been a strange feeling inside the woman. A sense of guilt and longing upon hearing that name. While the Jade Palace was being built, she and her friends-slash-partners decided that they wanted a location for the Silk Road Restaurant to be built in the city as well—only, as its own entity again. For the very first time since their original location back in Seattle. With enough convincing, they finally got their wish and the Silk Road was opened for business over Valentine’s Day weekend in 2022.
Zahava has been living in Providence Peak since December 2021, which… has proven to be rather adventurous. The woman never expected that, considering how quaint the mountain city looks. Over the past year, she soon became the new owner of the Jade Palace, originally the Providence Peak location only before being handed the reigns over the entire hotelier by Leticia. A factor that she never saw coming yet that she’s grown to cherish since then. And while she’s been able to reconnect with friends and family in the city, along with making some new ones, she’s also reconnected with someone she’s always wanted to yet been far too scared to: Bashir Qureshi. She never expected to see him again, admittedly. Yet, even though it frightened her at first and tension rose between them at the beginning, things… changed. One moment, she was promising that she had no intent on causing any problems in his life; The next moment, the start of an affair sparked between them. Something she never saw happening with the father of her son.
Every single time they promised each other they would stop, that this was the last time, it never was. For months, they kept seeing each other. Yet over time, they soon began to genuinely spend time together, not just sleeping together, and she found herself enjoying his company. More than enjoyed it, that is. But she found herself wishing, hoping, that she’d see him more and more every day. It scared her. God, it was terrifying just how much she wanted to be around him. Until, finally, it all came crashing down. Bodhi soon found out that she was in town. Not only that, but that she and Bash were seeing each other. With their son hurt and needing time to heal from this discovery, Bash ended things with Zahava. While she supported and understood it, she was, admittedly, devastated over this. And she doesn’t fully understand why.
Or, maybe she does. And she’s just lying to herself. Finding it much easier to party and distract herself with any self-sabotaging means while staying away from the father of her son and giving Bodhi the space he needs before he’s ready to see her. Yet the longer this continues, the more she can feel her heart break. It was hard to admit how much she yearned for Bodhi and Bash, how much she wished that she stayed and had become a family with them. It was hard to admit that she regretted leaving. Zahava feels as if she’s drowning, and that she’s struggling to resurface. That a part of her doesn’t see the point in resurfacing, something she doesn’t know how to talk about with people.
That she’s scared she’s never going to get to have a chance with her son. That she lost it all those years ago. But… It was her fault, after all. And she hates herself for making the wrong choice.
