The Scars They Hide

Chapter Ten - Doubtful Decisions

Chapter Ten – Doubtful Decisions

Lutfiyah was a good mother. She knew that. But sometimes she wondered if there wasn’t something a little wrong with the way that she didn’t want any person whom she hadn’t known longer than a week even to touch her little girl.

She realised that she was over protective and that sometimes she went overboard but even when they went shopping and some stranger came forward to exclaim on how adorable May was and reached out a hand to tickle the girl, Lutfiyah would start seeing stars. She would manoeuvre May just so so that the person would be unable to reach her and she would make herself a barrier between May and the stranger.

In fact, it had taken Lutfiyah a month before she trusted Jane enough to spend some time with her. And even then, she had been in the vicinity the entire time.

So maybe she was a bit distrustful and suspicious. More so than normal mothers would be.

That would make why she was standing in front of Jaafar’s door, hand poised to knock and ask if it was okay for May to come over and play, unexplainable.

She was losing her mind. That had to be it.
Feeling a tug on her left hand, she looked down into the excited eyes of her daughter.

“Mama, knock! I want to play with Uncle Jaafi!”

Lutfiyah closed her eyes and mumbled a prayer before crouching down to face her daughter.

“May, I don’t know if this is a good idea, poppet. I mean, Uncle Jaafar is a busy man and we don’t know if he’ll even want to play. And also, I’m scared for you.”

Maysura turned her laser-sharp gaze to her mother, frowning at her with concern. She looked at her with wisdom beyond her years, lifting a small hand to her mother’s cheek. Then she smiled bright and wide.

“Mama! Uncle Jaafi is a grumpy young man. I have to play cars with him so he can smile. Nana Alice said so.”

Lutfiyah was going to quietly kill Mrs Malone. Everyone is this building seemed to be hellbent on corrupting her daughter. She opened her mouth to reply then snapped it shut, rather worried that May’s reply would send her into a self-induced anxiety attack. Instead, she stood up and firmly knocked on the door.

Not a minute later, the door swung open and Jaafar gaped a little at the sight of the two females facing him.

Lutfiyah cleared her throat to greet but was pushed aside as May bounded past her and threw herself at the jean-clad legs of Jaafar.

“Uncle Jaafi. I missed you. Mama said we could come ask if you wanted to play today. Do you want to play today?”

Jaafar looked at Lutfiyah with wide eyes, amusement and confusion warring in them.

“Assalamualaikum, Mr Abdullah. I’m sorry for just intruding like this but May was insistent on asking if you would be free today. Which I’m sure you aren’t but she needed to hear it from you, so we’ll just go okay?”

She leant down to take May’s hand but the girl just fisted her tiny hands tighter into his jean’s material and looked up at the tall man with puppy-dog eyes.

“Please play with me, Uncle Jaafi. Please.”

Lutfiyah saw the moment that the man broke. She saw his fist clench at his side before it moved to ruffle her daughter’s wavy hair and he smiled warmly.

Lutfiyah thought that she was having a mini heart attack. This smile changed his features from pleasing to downright heartbreaking. His eyes crinkled and glowed while the two deepest dimples that she had seen in her life cut across his cheeks. They were partly hidden by his beard but they were there nonetheless. It was like she was seeing art for the first time.