Mending Broken Hearts

10. Late Night

Omar

I am alone on the Red Line train and there is a man harassing me. We are heading west towards Galewood.

For a moment I had stared at the phone resting in my palm. Droplets of water slid on to the screen from my wet hair, the only reminder of the few minutes of bliss just before then when I had stood under warm water thinking of the day I thought I had successfully survived.  

My phone's ring had interrupted the jumbled thoughts of my past and present. When I stepped out of the shower I had been surprised to see Madi's name light up my screen. 

Then I was terrified when I heard her voice. And petrified when I grabbed my keys and ran down to my car. 

"Damn it Madi, pick up the phone", I yelled at my screen for the tenth time as I gunned the accelerator and broke one red light after another. It was a miracle that I hadn't yet attracted the cops policing Chicago's streets, as I raced towards Galewood train station. 

The call went straight to voicemail again. Just like it had for every call I made in the last 10 minutes. 

"Please Allah", I whispered, "Please let her be safe"

Praying was all I could do to keep my mind off the worse case scenarios that played on a loop in my head. Or the female patients I had taken care of in the ER just two months ago who had been caught alone at night in dark dangerous locations in this vast metropolitan city. 

"Take a left in 0.5 miles at the traffic signal and your destination will be on the right", the GPS's feminine voice spoke and I followed, honking my horn as I weaved through the night time traffic and ignored one STOP sign after another as well as the cursing drivers that slammed their own breaks. 

One police car whizzed past me and then another. 

My heart sank as they made a left turn at the signal I could now see just ahead. I switched lanes and followed them, breaking every rule in the traffic book. Barely breathing, and with my heart thumping so fast my chest hurt, I screeched to a halt just behind the two police cars that had joined a third. All three parked outside the Galewood train station. 

The entrance to which was now cordoned off by a yellow tape with 'Police' written in bold black letters. 

I shouldn't have been surprised to see them. I had been the one to send them there, to assist the woman who stood in their midst, with her dark curls pulled back in a ponytail that I could recognize anywhere in the world. 

She stood with her shoulders stiff and back straight, trying to give the impression that she was ok. Except that she was tugging at the few loose curls that had escaped her ponytail, and I knew she was anything but ok. 

Madiha

Shaken to my core, I stood outside the station, trying not to shiver in the cool autumn air or show any weakness as I replied to the officer's question. All while I tried to keep my hands from trembling by tugging at my hair. 

"What happened after he approached you?", the police officer asked pointing towards the handcuffed middle-aged man with broken teeth who wreaked of alcohol even from several feet away. 

"He tried to grab me but I was able to free myself"

"Did he hurt you anywhere?"

"Just my wrist", I told him rubbing the spot where the man's filthy nails had dug into my skin, without going into details of what that man had said he wanted to do to me before I pushed the emergency button and the train abruptly came to a halt.