"Your sin is not greater than Allah's mercy." -Nouman Ali Khan
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At about 10 pm, there was a knock on the room door. Hafsa, who was still busy in reading her book, gestured me to open the door. I opened it to find my mom standing with a bag.
“Your bag was in our room”, she said, handing it to me. Then she decided to come and rest in our room for a while.
“Did you guys eat anything?”, she asked Hafsa and me and we shook our heads. Even though I had just finished eating the half eaten sandwich 15 minutes ago. She smiled.
“I asked Aunty Aamina if there is any restaurant here, and she told me one. So your father went to get something to eat”, she said, reading my hungry expressions.
“Mami… why is her house so.. uh.. dirty?”, I asked her, pointing at the dusty couch. Even the walls had spider webs and the carpet was most definitely a year or two old.
She laughed.
“Aunty Aamina is very old Hamna. She barely has energy to clean her room, let alone the whole apartment”, she explained. I understood Aunty Aamina’s problem. She was helpless and didn’t actually have an idea of how to overcome it.
I nodded at what my mother had said. But I still couldn’t sleep on the bed that was barely standing on its four legs.
“I might get sick if we stay here for another day. I do understand her situation but please, not on that thing”, I said, pointing at the bed.
“We’ll go and see if we can find an apartment tomorrow. But for today, you will have to do with that”, she said politely. I smiled but deep down inside, my mom knew I wasn’t happy. And neither was Hafsa.
“I’ll go and see if your father’s back”, my mom said and got out the room, closing the door behind her. I sat down on the bed next to Hafsa, reading her expressions.
“What?”, she said when she saw me staring at her creepily.
“Nothing”, I said. “Im just thinking… I wish I had listened to you and didn’t get too close with Maryan.”
She sighed and looked at me.
“Forget what we left behind. Just focus on the future. Ok?”, she said smiling and stroking my upper arm.
“Aha! So we did move here because of that incident, didn’t we?”, I jumped on the bed, startling Hafsa. She had one hand on her chest and the other over her mouth. She tend to do this whenever she couldn’t control her startles or fears.
She calmed down but I started laughing. The funny gasp she gave always made me lose it.
“No we didn’t. I was just saying. Now Shh”, she finally spoke when her heart beat was back to normal. She buried her face into her book again, probably to avoid any more questions from me.
I couldn’t stop laughing but my heart was weeping inside. Whenever I thought about the incident, I couldn’t help but cry. When I was alone, of course. And when someone was around me, I tend to cover it up with a lie or a laugh or any other physical movements. And right now, laughing seemed much appropriate.
*FlashBack*
When I reached home that day, I had thousands of strange thoughts circling around in my head. I had just agreed to run away to New jersey with Dylan. I knew this was wrong but I just couldn’t say no after he had asked so politely. His dimples shown when he said it and I wasn’t able to utter anything other than yes.
YOU ARE READING
Pure At Heart
Spiritual"Verily, with every hardship comes ease." In the bustling city of new york, settling in for Hamna and her family was a big task. Still struggling from her past, the 18-year-old Hamna wasn't ready to start a whole new chapter in another city. But a...
