Echoes of Agony

Chapter Nine

Two months later...

Zaytun had been putting in a lot of effort to excel in her exams and secure an internship at a designing company. Waking up earlier was not a challenge for her as she was used to it.

As for AbdulJalal, she couldn't tell. He was only available for business. He was always busy, going from one meeting to another. But she promised herself to never give up on her effort to keep the marriage alive. That's why she started to read books about adapting well to married life and learning more about how to keep her husband happy. Lately, she had been trying to implement some of the advice from those books, and it seemed to be working.

Even though he didn't often show affection or verbally appreciate her homemade food, it was good to know that he hadn't complained about anything. For her, she could understand that everyone expressed love differently, and it was possible that AbdulJalal expressed his love through other means. She found it tough to not receive verbal appreciation or affection, but her husband showed his appreciation in his own way. Like he physically showed her how much he adored her, and that was enough for her.

One morning, AbdulJalal announced that his cousins and Ibrahim would be coming to their house. The group of friends hadn't had the time to visit them.

"My friends are coming for dinner today," he informed Zaytun.

As he was getting ready for work, she helped him button up his kaftan.

AbdulJalal noticed that she always prepared his everyday clothes ever since they came back from their honeymoon. Sometimes he would just wear them, but on other days, he would choose his clothes for the day himself.

Today was one of those days. He found his blue kaftan for the day already prepared on the king-size bed when he emerged from the bathroom. It took him a moment to remember that he had been married to Zaytun for two months now. He was glad that his wife was doing perfectly as a housewife, waking up before him to prepare breakfast and taking care of all the kitchen chores. She had taken over the role of the maids, and he had not tasted processed food since then.

Zaytun even took the time to visit AbdulJalal at work during lunch breaks to bring him homemade food because their workplaces were almost neighbors. He was always grateful for the gesture but had tried to tell her that it was not necessary. However, she insisted on feeding him healthy, homemade food prepared with love and care. AbdulJalal was still adjusting to this new lifestyle because he had never been used to someone cooking for him. His mother had never cooked for him, and when he was older, he never cared to cook for himself either because he could always order food from restaurants.

Zaytun, on the other hand, monitored his sugar levels and ensured that he ate healthy food. She even restricted his diet, limiting his intake of bread and beef to a certain degree. Twice a week, she put up a note reminding everyone in the house of the diet plan. AbdulJalal found this exasperating.

"Your cousins?" Zaytun asked as she looked at her husband. He looked into her eyes, which shone like the galaxy. She looked at him with a loving gaze, making him uncomfortable.

"Yes," he replied, gently pushing her to the side to take his watch, which was displayed inside the watch storage.

"I'll be home earlier to prepare the dinner."

"Let the maid do the work. You need to pay attention to your internship," AbdulJalal ordered, to which she nodded with a smile on her face.

"Okay, Amman ni zanyi miya. Aunty Zahra loves to eat when I’m the one who made it."

Zaytun had started to call Zahra "Aunty" because Zahra was older than her. As they began to spend more time together, Zahra grew closer to Zaytun and favored her over AbdulJalal.