Winged Dreams

Chapter 18: A Blessed Dream...An Answered Wish

18th November, 2015

"Allah wants to lighten your burdens, for man was created weak."

[Qur'an 4:28]

Chapter 18:

A Blessed Dream...An Answered Wish

"We aren't taking the car?"

Bilal shook his head and skipped a stair, joining Dina on their flower laden street.

"We don't need to," he answered.

Dina wanted to ask him a few more questions, but she was still so new to him and although they were at the threshold of their relationship, she required a few more days to get used to the change in her life. And thus, she quietly fell in step with Bilal and walked ahead, crossing her arms over her chest to shield herself from the cold wind. Her cheeks were rosy and it had more to do with Bilal as he walked close to her, than the freezing weather itself.

"I hope you don't find this silly."

Dina opened her mouth to question what he meant by it, but didn't get a chance as Bilal came to stand behind her. They halted by the gates of an apartment and he secured a blind fold, so she wasn't able to see anything.

"Ok, so what exactly are we doing?" She questioned, wondering what sort of a surprise he had planned.

When she had woken up in the morning, it had taken her some time to realize she was not in her parents' house. And when the thought had sunk in, she found herself panicking because the spot on the bed beside her was empty. She had sat up immediately, hoping that she hadn't overslept the first morning of her wedding. Since she had guests and in laws in the same house, that wouldn't exactly give a good impression of the bride. However, when she laid her eyes on the wall clock and saw Bilal step out of the washroom, drying his wet hair, she had sighed in relief.

As the newlyweds walked out of room, much to her embarrassment, Bilal refusing to leave her hand and providing his cousins much ammunition to tease them, he had kept hinting on something. And finally, after the lavish breakfast, where the entire family had sat together, Shabana had declined any help in the kitchen and asked her daughter in law to take a moment for herself and join Bilal near the gate, for the husband wanted to take her somewhere. Dina hadn't fully understood what the mother in law and son were up to with those secretive smiles, and she was more than curious now.

"Are you scared?" Bilal answered Dina's earlier question with a question of his own, and Dina smiled slightly as she heard his tone that made him sound like the kidnapper from a movie.

"Why exactly would I be scared? I'm just clueless as to why you've blindfolded me. How exactly am I supposed to walk?"

"Like this."

Bilal place both his hands on Dina's shoulder and prompted her to walk forward as he guided their steps. When Dina moved her hands in the air in front of her, afraid that she was going to bang into something, he said, "Don't do that. You may hurt someone walking in the direction opposite to us."

"Are we almost there?" She asked instead, not used to the sudden darkness that blocked even the faint rays of light from reaching her eyes.

"Fifteen steps and we'll be there."

Dina did not really estimate that the steps were right ahead of her and banged her foot against the hard tile of the first stair in the flight. She stumbled a little, but thankfully Bilal was quick to steady her in place by holding her around the waist, so she wouldn't fall face first.

"I meant you'll have to climb up when I said we have fifteen steps of distance to cover. Did you hurt your toe?" He asked, his voice reflecting his concern.