Excerpt: An Alien Among Flesh Eaters - Anurag Sharma

The Cold Wall

- Anurag Sharma

Amar drove to the house, the one he still thought of as "theirs," though his name was now just a ghost on the mortgage. He hadn't called first. In his culture, you didn't schedule a crisis; you faced it with the people who were supposed to be your foundation.

He found Rita in the garden. She wasn't gardening, though; she was standing near the edge of the property, staring at the hilly horizon of Western Pennsylvania. She looked fragile against the backdrop of the massive, indifferent landscape.

"The company is gone, Rita," Amar said, bypassing the pleasantries. He stood a few feet away, respecting the invisible boundary she had drawn months ago.

She didn't turn around. "Companies go bankrupt every day here, Amar. You'll find another."

"It’s not just the job," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "The Green Card application is dead. My H1B is tied to the firm. I have sixty days. If I don't find a new sponsor who can take over the filing immediately, we have to leave the country. You, me, and Vinay."

That finally made her turn. Her eyes weren't filled with the fear he expected, but with a sharp, cold calculation. "I am not going back, Amar. I've spent six years building a life here, even if it was a life in a kitchen."

"Building a life?" Amar's sincerity finally cracked. "You haven't left the house in weeks. You don't drive. You don't work. How can you stay here without a legal status? If I leave, your H4 visa vanishes instantly. You become an illegal immigrant."

Rita walked toward him, her footsteps silent on the grass. "You always think you are the only one with a plan, Amar. You always think I am the 'dependent' because that’s what the piece of paper says."

She reached into her sweater pocket and pulled out a small, laminated card. She held it up. It wasn't a driver's license.

It was an Employment Authorization Document (EAD).

Amar stared at it. His mind raced through the legalities. An H4 holder couldn't get an EAD unless the spouse's Green Card process had reached a specific, advanced stage—a stage his application had never touched.

"How?" he whispered.

"I didn't need your sponsorship for this," Rita said, her voice steady and devoid of the bitterness she usually carried. "I filed for a U-Visa months ago. I told them about the 'mental cruelty,' the isolation, the way you kept me dependent by refusing to let me integrate. The lawyer said that in cases of domestic 'control,' there are protections."

Amar felt the world tilt. He had spent years begging her to drive, to work, to socialize—to be free. He had uprooted flowers for their son and spent his lunchtime driving across town to ensure she was never stranded. He had been the one pushing for her independence, yet she had used her lack of independence as the very evidence to secure her own legal safety.

"You told them I kept you here against your will?" Amar asked. His voice was a hollowed-out version of itself.

"I told them my reality," she replied. "And my reality gave me this card. I have a job starting Monday at the local library's administrative office. They prove transport. I don't need your car; I don't need your visa. Frankly, I don’t need you, or your sɥıʇʇy green card."

The "surprise element" wasn't the bankruptcy. It was the realization that while Amar was playing by the rules of a fair society, Rita had learned to play the rules of a broken one. She had found a way to stay in the "land of the richest" by painting him as the villain of her story.

"And Vinay?" Amar asked.

"He stays with the parent who has a future here," she said simply.

Amar looked at the house, the scentless flowers, and the woman he no longer recognized. He had lived his life believing that good deeds bore good fruit. He had sown seeds of care, but he was harvesting a crop of betrayal.

He turned back toward his car. He didn't have sixty days anymore. In his heart, he was already gone.

[An Alien among Flesh Eaters: Coming soon online, in the bookstores, and the libraries near you]

Synopsis: In the land of the richest, the cost of a future is higher than Amar ever imagined.

Amar is a man of protocols. He believes in the school bus laws of Pennsylvania, the precise requirements of his H1B visa, and the ancient laws of Karma: sow a good seed, reap a sweet fruit. To protect his son Vinay’s future, he uproots the fragrant flowers the boy is allergic to, replacing them with a scentless, sterile garden. He thinks he is building a home.

But while Amar plays by the rules, his wife Rita is learning a different game.

Trapped in the isolation of a "dependent" visa, Rita transforms her silence into a weapon. When a corporate bankruptcy threatens to deport the family, Amar finds himself caught in a devastating paradox: to keep his son in the country he loves, he must accept the role of the villain in a story he didn't write.

Moving from the humid foothills of the Himalayas to the icy hills of Appalachia, An Alien among Flesh Eaters is a masterful exploration of sacrifice, the legal labyrinths of immigration, and the silent, heavy weight of a father’s love. In a world where "left is right and right is wrong," Amar must decide if losing everything is the only way to truly save what matters.

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Setu, December 2025