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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When Nashwa came to visit me, Hana told her Taha and Yahya are not actual twins. Nashwa shot up screaming, "I CALLED IT!"
She did a weird Egyptian dance praising herself with so many glorious words, she could have vomited a dictionary. Only after that Hana told Nashwa, Ahmad Mamu had been in a violent car accident. That he's been in surgery for the past ten hours. His MRI reports that failed earlier could complicate things further. That we are all praying for a speedy recovery.
Nashwa fainted.
We called in a nurse. I got off my bed. The attendants laid Nashwa on it and within minutes Haala Mami arrived straight from the maternity ward, all three boys pushing her on a wheelchair, nurses chasing after them. She held one of Nashwa's lifeless hands in her own while in her other hand, Nashwa still clutched her mother's golden chain so very tightly.
What if Ahmad Mamu didn't make it?
For Nashwa, my heart shattered a million times.
When she came to, a few minutes later, she was silent. She didn't eat a thing, wouldn't say a thing. She simply sat staring at nothing. Even when a nurse came to inform us Ahmad Aurangzeb had triumphed, come out mentally and physically healthy, Nashwa's traumatised state did not subside while all the rest of us thanked Allah in many many prayers.
Nashwa remained an empty shell of haunted dreams.
Still unnerved, she now stands in the very far corner of Ahmad Mamu's hospital room, small and cowering within herself. A little ball of misery trying to blend into the shadows, her eyes already lost in them. Ahmad Mamu is sitting and speaking. Why is Nashwa still so broken?
Dadi sits by Ahmad Mamu, murmuring and blowing prayers all over him. She raises her voice and says, "May Allah Almighty grant you many more obedient kids, Ahmad. The obedience is all that matters. I don't know where I went wrong with raising my only child that he now no longer respects my wishes. But you are equally a son to me. I did always see more potential in you than in Junaid."
Baba scoffs. If he's trying to appear unbothered he's doing a lousy job. If it weren't for my Mama standing by him, holding his arm instead of my Mamu's, Baba would have stormed off in jealousy already.
Hana stands by me. We greet Ahmad Mamu. I even compliment him on how he looks like a big giant baby in his polka dots white button down shirt and matching trousers, a bandage on his head. If he really wants to marry my Doctor Amima he should change quickly.
He rolls his eyes. "I am as I am, chipmunk. You all love me regardless."
I have much to say to that but don't because Mamu's attention keeps wavering behind me to the little frail figure whose eyes are trained on the ground.
