Sisters torn apart by the fragility of the heart, how can love possibly hurt so much?
Hana Junaid decided two years ago, distance would make her younger sister Hanaan more independent but Hanaan's love and yearning for Hana during this time has drow...
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Redemption works both ways. In redeeming someone else, you liberate your own soul.
I stand before Hanaan's hospital room, a new day. I hold in my arms the bouquet that arrived this morning with my name on it, pale pink roses wrapped in silver foil. Baba only arched a brow when I didn't stampede all over it. The tick in his jaw and the disapprobation that coloured his eyes told me he did not like this gamble at all. The one Waheed Qayser is playing with me. But my father — and I am so grateful to Allah — is a man of his steady senses. He trusts me well to know I did not ask for any of this and so he does not hold me accountable.
But Hanaan needs to know.
She needs to know the danger has not subdued yet. She needs to know this is how people actually play with other people. No care of feelings, collateral damage, any devastation, no fear of accountability, if not in this world then in the Hereafter.
She should know this so she does not become it.
I halt at the door; my hand raised to knock hangs cold in the air.
"... you're not just my Mama."
"... Hana is a grown girl, Hanaan. She does not need me so much as you do."
"... Hana grew up the day I was born—"
"... it's not like that. I know I put more focus on you—"
"... do you remember the day you lost your baby, Mama?"
Mama's silence reflects the skip in my heartbeat. Hanaan, what are you on about?
"... Hana was twelve I think because I was nine. When you had the miscarriage, Dadi wasn't so forgiving because we had lost Dada just a few months ago and you were terrified of the baby because you thought it would be born like me."
"... Hanaan..."
"... I was chosen one in a million for this disability, Mama, why were you so scared? But this isn't about me, it's about Hana. When Dadi was tough, accusing you for killing the child and Baba could not do much to stand against her, Ahmad Mamu took you away, remember? For two whole weeks, to his apartment so you could heal."
"..."
"... Dadi did not get any better when you were gone. Baba was deep in a rough case. Baano would do the cleaning but it was Hana who held Dadi as she sobbed five times a day over the absence of our Dada. It was Hana who made chai for Baba when he would come home late at night and then serve him dinner. Hana woke up at six in the morning, made breakfast and lunch for both of us, mayonnaise and cucumbers in bread."
"...she woke me up and dressed me and just when we'd be all ready to go, I would refuse to go to school. She held me by my shoulders then and told me that because we have lost our baby brother, we will have to study, grow up and be successful so we can earn for our parents one day. I was nine, I didn't understand. She'd skip her own classes and stay home with me so I wouldn't end up cat fighting with Dadi."
