His silence is his Pride (ON HOLD)

Chapter Thirty Two~ A walk to remember

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12:54 AM

And here I was, in his world again, lying on this uncomfortable couch, staring at the ceiling, sleepless. Fortunately, this time he'd been nice enough to turn the AC off, but still sleeping on a sofa where you could barely stretch your legs was torturous enough. I turned sideways to look at him, and he seemed utterly comfortable, yet again sleeping on his stomach, sticking his feet slightly out of his blanket.

Since it was the weekend, therefore he'd brought me here, to his family once again. It was hard to deal with him, or his 'lovely' sister Mona, so I tried to avoid their company as much as I could. Spending most of my time with uncle Waleed and Umm Zayed. They had held a lunch gathering for their entire family in their farmhouse tomorrow and my mother-in-law had asked me to have a good night's sleep.

As long as her son was in my life, there were no good nights!

With that thought, I turned my back to him and curled into a ball. After reading some verses, I had dived into a deep slumber.

The next morning, things were going according to my plans. I had gotten up before him, offered my prayers and was ready to go downstairs, in a super simple red Jalabia. Before closing the door behind me, I thought of waking him up for Salah, but then something stopped me, perhaps the strange relationship we both shared.

Once down the stairs, I encountered Umm Zayed at the kitchen door. She looked at me and passed me a motherly smile.

"Sabbahch Allah bilkhair 'Ammati, (Good morning mother-in-law)." I returned her smile.

"Sabbahch Allah binnoor wassoroor Yabanyati. (Good morning to you too, my daughter)." She said, warmly. "Come have breakfast first and then you and Mona can both help me pack." She completed, and for some reason, I didn't like what I heard, why Mona? Placing a stone at my heart, I followed her into the kitchen anyway. There I saw Mona, making herself a sandwich, glancing up at me at my approach.

"Ahlain Mahra." She greeted first, because I hadn't. This wasn't the first time she'd tried to talk to me since yesterday. May be Hamad had talked some sense into her! Or May be she realized what she did was wrong! Which seemed unlikely, the amount of pride she and her brother have, they can never come to such a conclusion. Perhaps by talking to me, she thinks she can have the upper hand, she can be above me, better than me, that old Zen wisdom!

Any which ways, I gave her a cold reply anyway, just for the sake of the old lady in the room, otherwise I would've never bothered.

By and by, as we finished our breakfast, we were conversing more and more constantly. Both of us, ordering the maids here and there. "Mona, where can I find the basket for the fruits?" I would ask. "Should I have these carton boxes sent to the cars?" I'd inquire, having very little information about how things went in their house and Mona would guide me as nicely as one could. "Mahra can you decorate these deserts for me, I have to check on my cake?" She would request. Mona was brilliant at making sweets, I had to give her that. She had done more than five kinds of deserts in these short hours only.

After sometime, we both had somewhat forgotten our differences, or better yet had chosen to forget our differences, because both of us were similarly mistaken, last week. And in a situation like ours, we couldn't afford to prolong our dispute.

When it was nearly 7:30, Umm Zayed asked me to light a charcoal disc and put some bukhoor on it, so she could take it upstairs to her kids and husband. I did as told, and was handing it to her in the living room, when we heard Zayed's voice wishing us a good morning. He came over, all dressed, to kiss his mother's forehead, and glanced at me too, something was definitely different in his eyes.