So Much For Love

Chapter Nineteen

Assalamu alaikum.

It has been a while now since I posted anything here. I apologise.

Sometimes things happen and we just drop our pens or rather, close up our computers and face them.

But Alhamdulillah, we are back and we shall continue with the journey of our three sisters, their struggles, trials and travails.

“These came in for you
earlier.”

Zainab announced, forcibly taking Hauwa out of her reverie.

“Me?” she asked as she took a small black polythene bag from her sister, trying hard to hide her embarrassment and concentrated more on what could possibly be inside the bag.

She was awed when she brought out an apple. There were a dozen or more of the apples, and this time there were red ones too.

“Habib said to give it to you.” Zainab added. “He said you would love it.”

Hauwa was speechless. So Habib was being cheeky earlier.

She shook her head at the image of him pulling the single apple he’d offered her and then biting in to it.

She couldn’t help but smile to herself. She wished she could see the idiot then. She might be tempted to pull his ear for stressing her for nothing.

But because Zainab kept looking at her, she busied herself with the apples and fished out a green one and offered it to her. “Here, you might like this.”

Zainab declined, saying she’d had a full stomach and so she took a bite out of it.

Her heart thumped harder as she tried harder to contain her overwhelmed heart and shake Habib off her head.  Her eyes shone as she looked in to the freshly kept embers in the clay saucer their mother had refilled, and kept munching on the sweet fruit feeling dreamy.

When she left Habib earlier, she’d performed her ablution, prayed and took care of some of the house chores that could wait till morning. Inna had asked her to leave it lest she caught cold.

She hadn’t minded. She’d deliberately stalled to give herself time to set her head right and clear her mind of its enigma. Or hopefully, till both her sisters fell asleep.

That hadn’t happened so far. She was still as confused and both sisters were awake and the dark night had gotten brighter; the wind whispered in to her ears what she couldn’t comprehend, but felt extremely exhilarating. 

“So, how was it?”

Zainab’s question caught Hauwa’u at a wrong time again and she was a little puzzled. 

“How was what?” She kept the nylon away and rechanneled her interest on unnecessarily turning the embers in the saucer. Clearly, it was going to last them a good part of the night as usual.

Zee sat properly on her sleeping mat and indubitably asked, “Don’t tell me you did not enjoy the company you had this evening; because it is showing on your face all over.”

Hauwa felt the air flood in to her lungs and was embarrassed again. “Well, I haven’t met my date, actually.”

And she bit in to the apple again, which was a reminder of the company she’d had, but wasn’t ready or willing to share with her sister.

Zainab watched her closely like the hawk she was. She’d always had the tendency to smell out anything in to the open.

For once, she was tempted to share what she felt with them. Who knew; maybe she might actually find out for real that she was wrong about her feelings for Habib? Or, it may not be as bad as she thought it to be.