Lie Girl

Chapter 12

"Oh, yes, Sinela, my family chose a fine husband for me: Hafeez the banker. A man so big you could have put four of me inside of him."

"If I crawled in too, he would have blown up."

"Ha. Fat, red, wet lips and eyes that bulged as if he had seen a ghost. Ugh."

I kicked a small, round stone down the roadside. "Was he very old?"

"Not old, not young. Somewhere in the middle."

I kicked the innocent stone again. "Many other wives?"

"Only one. Hafeez had been busy making money."

"Well, at least it was not babies."

Niya laughed. "Besides, I had a boyfriend. Umair."

"A nice name."

Niya came upon my stone and kicked it herself. "He wasn't much, Sinela, but I had fallen in love with his eyes and humor. Better, he had a car. When I was told Hafeez was to be my husband, we made a plan to run off to Islamabad. A busybody heard us discussing our plans and informed my father. If Umair had relations with me, Abba would have killed him and me with his own hands. But a doctor examined me, and I was intact: a prize."

"An unwrapped gift."

"Pretty paper and ribbons."

We pretended to laugh about our dismal lives and then walked silently for a half mile.

"Had Umair stuck around, my relatives would have cut his throat, but he got into his car and disappeared. We had no time to say our goodbyes."

"As with my sister and brother . . ." I pictured their quizzical faces as my mother tried to explain the unexplainable.

"What could I do but succumb to all the preparations and ceremonies? The day of my marriage approached like a black cloud on the horizon. I had heard nothing from my boyfriend. Not a note slipped to me from one of his friends, not a phone call at the private booth we sometimes used. I cried and pulled my hair—just like a girl."

Some girls try to melt themselves.

"Five days remained before the date of marriage when Umair sent his message. He was in Islamabad, had his own place and a job. If I could escape there, he would wait for me."

"You would be saved."

"I had a friend who possessed a ticket, and she gave it to me. I followed a large family onto the bus, pretending I was with them. As the sun rose, I was on my way to my new life. I made it as far as Abbottabad. A police car pulled us over. Two officers entered and asked to see my identification. Well, they knew who I was. They arrested me and after a night in custody, they sent me home."

"To marry the fat banker."

"I saw no way out. But a djinn interceded. On the morning of the wedding, my husband-to-be had a massive heart attack at breakfast. His face fell into his eggplant curry and he died."

To think of anyone's death as funny is a sin, yet I laughed anyway, joined by Niya, who laughed until she cried. She continued to cry after her laughing lips turned down and trembled. I put my arm around her and comforted her shaking body. Above us, a hawk circled, seeking movement on the field below.

She spoke into my heart. "Hafeez was only under the ground when my father began looking for a new suitable husband."

"You were aging."

"Within days, my relatives had found another for me. A sixty-years-old doctor with breath like rotted fruit. Not as rich as the banker, but with more wives. He said he adored me and sent his first wife to check my virginity. She sharpened her fingernail."