RUNNING

Chapter Fourteen (unedited)

“Tell my servant who has transgressed themselves not to despair of Allah’s Mercy, verily, Allah forgives all sins, indeed He is oft-forgiving, Most Merciful” Surat az-Zumara:V53

When Maraya left, Akin knows she was not in the right frame of mind so he decided to trail her with his car. He allowed her to drive for sometimes before he follows her.

Maraya continues to drive aimlessly thinking about the whole incidence that just happened between her and her friends, she can’t even think of them as a friend because they betrayed her more than she expect. She never see Beatrice has being envious of her, right from the start of their friendship Beatrice has been like her right hand person. 

She was closer to her than Zainab because zainab’s parents are very discipline and they hardly allow her the type of freedom Beatrice and Maraya enjoyed as a teenager. She wondered if she has been fooled by Beatrice pretense all along or she has been too careless to see through her mask, she remembered Beatrice has never pretend not being jealous of her possession during their secondary school days as she recalled what transpires between them some years ago which led to her breakup with Usman.

Beatrice had always been condemning Usman’s flirting attitude with other girls in the school but Maraya usually make excuses for him until the time she told her that she asked her out and even try to convince her by buying her various gift. There was a time she showed her cloth similar to what Usman has brought for her as a birthday gift claiming that it is one of the various gifts that Usman brought for her which made Maraya to break up with him without giving him the chance to explain the situation to her.

Many times when Beatrice came to her house for sleep over, she usually wears her clothes and hardly goes back without taking few of her belongings with her. She never remembers Beatrice giving her any gift throughout their friendship, and the only time she ever called her was whenever she needed something from her. Maybe, Akin is right when he said that she only sees what she wants to see, she is really selfish and only sees herself.

Maraya is lost in her thoughts that she did not realize she has already left the main road and is headed to a tree. She bumped into the tree and her car did somersault before she knows it, she has lost the control of the car and went into unconscious state.

Akin was caught off-guard when Maraya car started stumbling and before he is able to park properly, things have gone out of hand. When he rushes to her car he noticed that she is already unconscious and he was lucky that the nearby stander have already joined him so they rush her to the hospitals.      

The nurses rush to admit Maraya into the emergency ward and the health team tries to revive her. After carrying out series of examination it was noted that she did not sustain any major injury but minor injuries and shock that results into her state of unconsciousness. The doctor told Akin about Maraya state of health and that she was lucky because she only had little scratch and she will soon be moved into the ward for further management.

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Afnan tries Maraya number again hoping that she will pick up her call and tell her where she has been since she left the room with a food flask. Since her aunty warned her about Maraya, they hardly have any close interaction together and good enough that Maraya use to say her Salat on time.

For almost two weeks now, Maraya has been neutral to her and she hardly stays in the room which is very unusual. Her friends has stop visiting and the room has become conducive for reading and prayer but she still feel uncomfortable for teh fact that Maraya has completely ignored her presence in the room and hardly acknowledge her greetings.