Attraction

CHAPTER 33

 LONG CHAPTER AHEAD. 

UNEDITED

...

Her body quivered with cold. Lips turned white and shivered. She had covered herself with a worn out shawl that was stitched  with patches at different areas. Her hair were untied-open and tangled, as if not brushed for days. She hid behind her mother, trying to save herself from the cold. Sitting on a corner of the street, she kept on observing with her half opened eyes, people strolling and having not even half of the worries she had. They paid no heed to her and her mother's despicable conditions. All they did was walk freely. As if a few months earlier massive bomb blast in their city had no affect in their lives. But here that blast changed her life in all sorts of way, bringing her out from the shield of four walls, protection of a roof to living under open sky. 

Sky. 

She once adored looking upto.

But now this same sight of sky rose up a sense of terror and hopelessness in her.

All she prayed for was to somehow remove this sight of sky and replace it with a roof so atleast the shreds of her self respect could be maintained. Atleast she couldn't be attacked by the sight of hungry men who on purpose strolled near where she sat. 

This question again came in her mind when a leaf struck in her open hair made her hands leave the warmth that the shawl was providing and struck out the leaf out of her hair.

And seeing her hair open, filled her eyes with tears.

Her hair was open?

It was something so surreal.... something she never imagined.

All her life, she had been a niqabi.

Never a non-mehram had seen her face, nor glanced at her hair.

She had started taking a niqab at a very young age. Since, she never like the idea of sprawling her hair open infront of other men. Her mother had inculcated this deep sense of hijab in her since her childhood and she liked the concept of it.

She thought, hijab was something that made women special. Unique. Covered. Unrevealed. Unexplored.

Only the one whom she herself would give the right to-and that would be her future husband-to see her face, touch her hair.

And now seeing those same hair opened and that same face revealed to the eyes of other men, suddenly tightened her throat.

Her mother noticed her daughter staring at her hair ruefully. And she was quick to understand that.

Immediately, her mother wrapped her in her shawl and in this process covered her head and body as well. Her mother was aware of her daughter's high regard for her niqab.

"Don't worry, Nur. Your mother is here for you," Her mother, Dilshad uttered, "don't worry, my princess," Dilshad consoled Nur but Nur gave no response rather reveled in the solace that her mother's warmth was providing.

It was heavenly for Nur. Even in these circumstances, her mother was a source of comfort and someone by looking at whom all her worries could disappear. Her face alone exterminated Nur's worries. And she tended to forget and exempt herself from the worries of future whenever those words of assurance came from her mother.

She always wondered, how her mother could be so positive?

Till now, whatever has happened with them, with her and her family, anyone's resolve could be shredded to pieces but her mother was still positive.