My Pharaoh

Chapter 12

Paloma

I woke up at dawn. And walked to the Nile. And now I'm sitting here and watching the waves.

The air here is better than the city. And I can finally breathe. To this day, I don't know what those men were talking about who I travelled with to the city. Sure, I've changed a lot, but I still love my land, my air, my village.

I watch the wind flow through the tall palm trees and the big willowing trees with thousands of leaves.

I missed that sound, the sound of wind. I no longer have to confide in a curtain to be able to see it either.

"Hey," I hear and see Aba approaching, she sits next to me "you have no idea how strange it's been not seeing you here every morning."

She sits down next to me and sighs. She hands me a strand of her sugar cane and I chew on it.

"So, are you getting married?" She asks.

I smirk. "It seems so."

"Do you want to?" She asks.

"If it's to him, then yes, I really do."

"But?"

"What?"

"There's no but? I know you Paloma, you always said you'd never get married, and you looked down on me when I married Sadik so young."

"I did not-" I'm about to make my case but she looks at me and I shut up. I did look down on her for it.

"Just tell me, what's so great about this guy that he's changed your mind? Is he really good enough for you?"

I smile. "He's too good for me if anything. And he'd be a great husband, and a great father, and the truth is, I had never even thought about marriage as a possibility up until several days ago. It didn't even cross my mind. So if I come across as uneasy about it, it's because I'm not used to it. But I want to be used to it. Aba," she looks at me "I really like him. He understands me, the way you do, and he wants to make me happy above everything, nothing would make me happier than being his wife."

She smiles at me. I put my head on her shoulder and she wraps her arm around me.

"That's how I felt about Sadik. You have to ask yourself, if reality was different, and women didn't have to get married, would you still want to marry him? My mother told me that. And when I really thought about it," she laughs "well, all I could think about was him and marrying him, and giving him children. And you know what they say about having children with someone you love-"

"The world will be able to see all the reasons you loved them for centuries."

She smiles. "There's beauty in the mundane things, there's beauty in permanence. Life is really hard, as you know very well, better than anyone in the village, why not be with someone who makes it easier?"

"He makes it easier."

"Well then, not that it matters, but you have my absolute blessing."

"Of course that matters," I look at her "I've missed you."

She smiles softly. "I missed you more."