Twice His Age

8: Night Laundry

She shrilled painfully and held her head. But Hajia pushed her hand away from her head and slapped her so hard across the cheek. "Let me make these things clear to you. Because I've been patient enough with you in this house."

At this rate, Sabeeha was simply trying to breath, she dare not utter a word.

"One thing that you should never forget is, you're a worthless human being that deserves nothing good in your life and hardship is all you'll ever get. And two, even if you're dying, you have no guts to ignore my call when I do, I don't freaking care about whether you're sick or not! And for Anas, if I ever saw you again with my son, as your divorced self tries to seduce a man ten years younger than you-aren't you even ashamed of yourself?-whatever happens, find yourself to blame, okay?"

Sabeeha was breathing heavily. In a moment she could see darkness engulfing her eyes and then the next, she wouldn't. Painfully, she nodded her head at her, feeling as the salty liquid of her tears rolled into the openings of her mouth, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to die at this moment.

Hajia threw her head away and it banged the wall this time. And no matter how devoid of energy she was, Sabeeha shrilled painfully and placed both hands on her head. Oh Allah, it pained so much that she wished she could end her life.

"And go to Meeral's room and take all her clothes and wash them. When they're dried up, iron them and set everything back for her. She's coming back in two days, make sure everything is set up to her liking, okay?"

"Y..es, Haj...ia," she whimpered and waited until she heard the sound of the door being banged close before she slipped fully on the floor and closed her eyes. Feeling as her tears cascaded freely on her cheeks, Sabeeha for once wondered what her life would be if she didn't end up in the custody of these two horrible people.

She didn't even think about what would be of Waleed's life when she silently hoped that she would die. The pain was too much for her. And this was what she meant, and even more that was to come, when she told that Zaid of a guy that he had bought her ticket to hell.

She knew she had to stand up and get to work, because she knew so well that if she didn't do that today, then tomorrow would be hellish for her. And even though with every breath she took it was proving to be more difficult than it was, Sabeeha pushed herself up and staggered to Meeral's room.

Everything was clean, she cleaned it everyday, after all. And when she checked her wardrobe, even though she had checked it today and all Meeral's clothes are washed and ironed, but she found them dirty now. Or maybe, squeezed, if she may be true to herself.

She wiped at her tears and pulled everything at once. She couldn't do this work inside, so she walked to the garden and set everything up. With each step she took, her head throbbed, her body shook and she shivered slightly due to the fever, but she knew that she had to do this laundry. And so, she got to work.

From what she could see, it was past ten in the evening. Everything was so silent that she could hear her labored breathing. She couldn't even finish washing one t-shirt when she heard a cough behind her and when she turned, she found Idi driver staring at her with pitiful eyes.

She managed to give him a smile and turned to her work. She was aware of the steps he was taking towards her until he stood beside her and crouched down to her level. "Are you doing laundry at this time, Sabeeha?" He asked with a soft voice and even though she felt uncomfortable with having him within that vicinity, she didn't have the strength to pull away from the posture. She simply nodded her head and her shaky hands continued to wash the clothes.

"Are you sick? You're shivering." He asked, and as though she were dreaming, she saw his hand moving up to her forehead and he was about to feel her temperature when she pulled away from him as quickly as she could.