Scarred For Life

Chapter 66

*

For the first time since their marriage, Afrah decided to call his mother.

She had been apprehensive at first, not wanting to involve her in something that was certainly not meant to reach her ears. But she was scared for Adnan, and she needed the help of the only woman who knew him better than she did.

She answered on the first ring.

"Assalamu alaikum?" Afrah cleared her throat, trying to sound normal.

"Wa alaikum as salam," she replied. "Afrah dear, is that you?"

"Good evening, aunt," she said. "I hope I'm not disturbing."

"Certainly not," she replied quickly. "This is the first time you're calling me, is it not? You don't know how happy I am to hear from you."

"I'm sorry I didn't call sooner," she said, glancing up to make sure the bathroom door was still closed. "It's just that..."

"Don't worry about it," Maryam said. "It's so good to hear from you. How's the honeymoon?"

"It's fine, Alhamdulillah," Afrah said. "Or at least it was."

"Oh. I heard about the news. How is Adnan holding up?"

"That's actually why I called." Afrah swallowed nervously, her eyes darting towards the door once again. "Adnan is... well he's...,"

"How bad is it?"

"He's hasn't eaten in days," she said. "We were in Rome when Mubarak called to break the news. That was three days ago. Adnan hasn't said a word since then."

"You're in Cyprus now, right?"

"Yes," Afrah replied. "We arrived less than twelve hours ago. He hasn't spoken since we were told, and I honestly haven't seen him eaten at all. He's starting to scare me."

"Afrah, you need to calm down," she said. "Adnan is grieving. There's not much you can do, honestly."

"I want to help him," she said, the pleading tone in her voice threatening to let a sob escape soon. "He's not acting like himself. When I told him we should forget about the honeymoon and come back to Nigeria for the funeral, he started to cry. And then he left for several hours before he returned. He hasn't said anything to even acknowledge what I said. He doesn't even sleep. I woke up last night to find him sitting on the terrace alone. He must have been there for hours. I'm scared for him."

"Did he try to punch a wall?"

"He did," she said. "Both his knuckles are swollen and bleeding. He's wearing bandages."

"Afrah," Maryam sighed, "Adnan is... well he doesn't really know how to grieve a loved one. When his grandmother passed away, he completely lost it. He didn't speak to any of us for months. He stopped eating, except when we forced him to. Most nights he'd cry himself to sleep, only to wake up screaming in the night. I...,"

She broke down then, and Afrah was left standing awkwardly with the phone still pressed to her ear, listening to her mother in-law crying on the other end of the line.

"I'm sorry for reminding you," she said, unsure of what else to say.

"It was just so painful to watch," Maryam said, sniffing back the tears. "My little boy was so torn apart that he reclined into his shell and didn't come up again. I wanted to help him too. I talked to him, sometimes for hours on end, but he never said anything. You don't understand how painful it was for me as a mother, watching my child falling into that dark pit that no one could reach into and rescue him."