Mrs. Tahir was aware of the changes her daughter faced, and it bothered her a lot how Penelope used to sit in a secluded corner in the park, lost in thought. But the thing that bothered Mrs.Tahir the most was her daughter's attempt at suicide.
It was a warm day in summer. Not the sticky hot kind, but the warm fuzzy kind the one
in which you could take a nap and forget to do your homework.
Yet such gifts of nature did not reach Zainab.
She sat in the corner seat of her room,curtains shut, slow symphonies playing and melancholy looming over her like dark clouds. Her parents had signed over the divorce papers. Her father came to her grandma's house before going to the court. He tried to meet her mother but her grandma turned him over. He kept calling her mother's cell but she didn't answer. He did everything he could to at least talk it over before
going to the court but her mother refused to listen to him.
Zainab kept wondering what she ever did to deserve it. Why can't she have a chance to a
normal life? All her life she waited patiently, forsaking her liking and disliking for her parents, avoiding anything that would bring them inconvenience. All she did was endure and bear but never did she complain about it. She couldn't sleep at night, wondering what next the morning would bring. The uncertainty was eating her away, her life a miserable mound of weight.
Until one day, she could not bear it.
She locked the door and grabbed a scarf
from her closet. She made a loop thinking how her mother had first taught her how to tie her shoelaces and a similar loop she hanged over the fan. She remembered how she used to jump from the stool in the backyard, she used to jump without ever knowing what would it feel like to fall for her father caught her everytime and used to whisper in her ear,
" mela shahzada( my prince)"
All her emotions buzzing in her ,colliding, threatening to burst her body, her being. But she didn't mind. She put the loop around her neck and kicked the stool beneath her,
thinking she could finally be at peace.
Well, I still wouldn't fall, she thought.
But fate had other plans for young Zainab.
the fan could not bear her weight and it crashed on the floor, giving Zainab
another chance at life.
A life she so hated.
