Palestwinians.

Can't Let Go.

"You can close your eyes to the things you don't want to see, but you can't close your heart to the things you don't want to feel." - Johnny Depp. 

~ If you want, I recommend playing the song on the side. It'd just make more sense towards the end. Sorry for the short chapter but uni has been a dog and I have no time to do anything other than study. 

P.s. Yasmine's feelings in this chapter have been intentionally left vague.

Chapter 23 - Can't Let Go.

“You know that after you’ve given birth to the child, you still have to ‘birth’ the placenta,” Salma casually stated, as she wrote something in her notebook.

Both Miriam and I gave her a disgusted and somewhat traumatised look. I shuddered and tried to erase the graphic image forming in my head.

“Thanks for the interesting fact Salma but we didn’t want to know that,” Miriam voiced on my behalf. 

“What? Oh come on, you guys will all have to go through this one day,” she defended, looking from face to face.  

“No thanks,” I said, nonchalantly flipping through my textbook.  

There was only one week of Ramadan left and exams had already started. We were all seated in the library studying, or at least, trying to. Personally, none of this information was being absorbed into my brain. The exams were due to finish the day before Eid and we were all literally counting down the minutes until our last exam. I had two more left and then the all nighters, overload of coffee and baggy eyes would be no more.  

“You say that now but give it a few years,” Salma retorted, squaring her shoulders, making to look smart with her glasses hanging on the bridge of her nose.  

I snorted. “OK nurse Salma.” 

“We’ll see.” She smiled and continued writing in her notebook.  

We continued to work for half an hour in complete silence, when suddenly someone threw their bag down on the table violently. We all looked up in surprise to find Shaymah jumping on the spot and clapping her hands, a huge grin lighting her face.  

“Well hello dear,” Miriam said, giving her an amused smile.

“Why are you so happy?” I grumbled. Salma turned away from Shaymah to look at me, frowning at my sullen mood. 

“OMG guys! Guess what?! OMG you’ll never guess, so I’m just going to tell you!” She continued jumping and the movement was beginning to give me a headache. 

“Spit it out Shaymah,” I said impatiently. 

“Bahia’s pregnant!” she exclaimed. At her statement, Salma and Miriam immediately jumped up and encased her in a hug, shrieking in surprise. It took me a moment to realise what she had said, since my sponge of a brain seemed to be just filtering out everything I read or heard today, but when I registered her words, I attacked her in a hug too. 

“No way! You’re going to be an aunt!” I chirped, genuinely happy for her.  

“I know!” She squealed and began jumping again. I put my hands on her shoulders and forced her into a nearby chair. “I am so excited! Especially because it’s the first grandchild you know!?” 

“Your parents must be over the moon,” Salma said, her voice laced with happiness. 

“Oh, they are!”

And just like that, studying flew out the window and for the next hour or two until iftar time, we all talked about the new baby, how many weeks Bahia was, how we were going to spoil her/him. I was truly happy for them, as I knew that a newborn child could light up the world for a family.