Diamonds & Hijabs {COMPLETED}

D&H 1: Meeting Again

You match the earth with such arrogance and say you are mighty because of what you brought not from heaven but acquired on earth.
Do not be so proud for it shan't last till eternity.
- Ameena Ameera Ajao

★★The Present ★★

Hijab was immersed in the novel she was reading. She was at an entirely captivating scene where a paramedic was trying to save an elderly woman from a heart attack. Her eyes followed each word in the book devotedly.

She dropped the book with a sigh as the The Caller called the Adhan for the morning prayer and went to her younger sister's room to wake her up. Then she made her way downstairs to perform ablution, only to find her parents already there.

"As salamu alaykum, Baba, Mama." She greeted them squatting.

"Wa alaykum salam wa rahmatullah." They replied simultaneously.

"Where is your sister?" Her mother, Kyda asked.

"She is on her way down". Hijab replied, then went on to perform her ablution.

The family offered their morning prayer in congregation and then each began to prepare for their daily activities.

Kyda and Muhammad were blessed with four children: Hijab, Ahmad, Yunus, and Eraj. Ahmad and Yunus are fraternal twins both of whom just finished their university education in different fields of Engineering. Hijab who is twenty-three, a year older than the twins worked as one of the Assistant Chemical Pathologists in a Federal Medical Centre in the town where they live and Eraj who at nineteen is still in the university studying Accounting.

Their mother, Kyda is a retired government worker and their father, Muhammad is the owner of a very successful auditing firm.

Hijab hurried back upstairs after their prayer, so she could finish the captivating novel before she started preparing for work. She laughed out loud as the old woman in the book kept on asking the paramedic how he was going to carry her when he was so thin.

"Sis, Do you know what the time is?" Eraj asked about an hour later looking at Hijab as though she had lost her mind. Hijab who was intent on finishing the book didn't hear her sister.

"Sis, I'm telling you it's fifteen minutes to seven and you have to be at work before eight" Eraj said again some minutes later.

"What?" Hijab screamed jumping up. "Why are you just telling me now? I'm going to be late for work" She  screamed as she ran into the bathroom.

Eraj just shook her head and went back to her own room.

Muttering to herself about thirty minutes later, Hijab ran down the stairs with her hijab askew. She hissed in annoyance and then ran back upstairs remembering that she had forgotten her laboratory coat and office keys.

"Hijab, stop running around the house! You will fall". Her mum screamed from the kitchen " What did you come back for? You didn't even eat?"

"I forgot my lab coat and keys, mum!" She replied running up the stairs. "I'll buy some snacks at hospital cafeteria, mum".

"Fi aman Illah, my dear". Kyda called in resignation.

"Fi aman Illah . Till I come back". She replied running out the door. "Mama I took your car keys".

She sighed looking at her wrist watch as she pulled into the hospitals parking lot and turned the ignition off, she had made it just in time she thought to herself on seeing that her boss's parking space was empty.

"Good morning, Susan. You sure do look good this morning". Hijab greeted her colleague jovially as she removed her long hijab in the cloak room, replacing it with a shorter one and a laboratory coat.

The older woman smiled at her "Good morning, dear and don't flatter me this morning." She chided playfully, waggling her forefinger at Hijab. "I look as good as a five months pregnant woman with swollen face, arms and legs can."

Hijab simply laughed then asked. "Which patients am I attending to this morning?".
She dropped her purse and keys in a drawer then tucked the edges of her hijab into her lab coat.

"You are in the phlebotomy this week" Susan replied.

"Okay, see you then. I saw a super long queue on my way in." Hijab said as she made her way to the Phlebotomy.

She called out greetings to the colleagues she met there and settled in a chair for another long day of sample collection.

She stopped working at 2pm, handed over to the person on afternoon duty and made her way to main Laboratory to wash her hands before going to pray her afternoon prayer.

Immediately after her prayers she made her way to the cafeteria, meticulously avoiding anyone she was sure would stop her for a chat; hunger was gnawing at her intestines.

Her phone rang just as she began to devour her meager meal of meat-pie and milk. She smiled as Amina's greeting blared over the phone. They had been friends for years though Amina had been two classes ahead in secondary school.

"As salamu alaykum, dearie. How are you doing?" Hijab enquired with a mouthful of food.

"Wa alaykum salam wa rahmatullah. I'm doing fine. How's work?" A dull voice replied to her with forced cheeriness.

"Alhamdullilah, it's great and tiring as usual. I absolutely hate Mondays". Hijab chirped back as she kept munching on her meal.

"Lucky you. School is on strike so we have no one to teach. It's boring around here, when will you be visiting?"

"Very soon dear. What of Yusuf?" She asked of Amina's husband.

"He travelled" Amina said sighing,"so when specifically should I be expecting you?"

"Tomorrow afternoon in-sha Allah".

"Okay then. Take care"

"You too, dear. Fi amanillah" Hijab replied dropping the call. She sighed knowing that Amina had only been trying to sound happy when she wasn't.

She had being married for four years without children, although her husband was always supportive of her, her mother-in-law was a nightmare; always coming to threaten and insult Amina about her being barren. The woman openly tells her son to marry another woman who can give her grandchildren.

Hijab had asked Amina a lot of times to come to the hospital where she worked in order to do fertility tests, but she insisted on doing it at her husband's family doctor's hospital. The test results concluded that there was nothing wrong with her and her husband. So they were praying God will gift them with a child soon.

Hijab was torn from her musing when she looked up to find someone trying to get her attention. Standing before her was someone she actually thought she would never see again, she had already for gotten he existed.

"Miracle" The man said, stunned "Miracle you are wearing a hijab"

"Hijab" she said to him, correcting him

"What?" The man asked as he blinked his eyes as if to certify if he was dreaming or not.

"Zulqarnain, the name is Hijab not Miracle". She replied rolling her eyes at his expression of shock.

~~~
In-sha Allah - If God wills.

Fi Aman Illah - May God protect you.