The Girl in The Green Scarf

F o r t y - f o u r

It is the ridiculousness of this whole situation-of him pretending we are in a place where we can joyfully discuss things like me getting married-that lurches me out of my haze.

"You were going to kill me," I whisper, my gaze fixed outside on the sun that's now bright in the sky.

He laughs. "Don't be silly, Hamsa."

"You had a weapon pointed at me and you were going to kill me." Now I am shouting, and I turn on him so fast.

His laughter stops and a scowl appears instead. "I was just trying to scare you into submitting that English boy. But he went ahead and shot me."

"He was protecting me."

"I was protecting you."

Now it's my turn to laugh.

"You lied to me for years, and when I found out the truth, you resorted to threatening me. You work for the enemy and that means you could never protect me."

He leans towards me, his face only centimetres from mine. He speaks very slowly. "The enemy? That's the boy you helped escape from our hold, little girl."

My eyebrows shoot up. Little girl?

"Sebastian isn't the one attacking his own people, blowing up houses and murdering tens of innocents," I spit.

Uncle Yusuf looks at me with a fresh dose of condescension, a look that shakes me to my core, and threatens to overcome the memories of all the loving looks I've ever received from him.

"Our people are in a deep slumber, they've given up completely to this parasite that's feeding off of our land's resources. The English keep on hitting us with blackouts, gas restrictions, curfews, disciplines, and cruel rules. But our people live with it and say nothing. We had to do something to shake this hornet nest awake! But even now, they're still doing nothing."

He glances down at his hands helplessly.

"Are you listening to yourself?"

"I know you wouldn't understand any of this Hamsa, which is why I kept it to myself. But one day, when we're free, you will. And you'll realize I did all of this for your sake."

"Nothing can justify what you're doing," I say, shaking my head angrily.

He sighs. "It'll all be over soon, I promise you."

He leans in, kissing my forehead. A part of me wants to push him away, to tell him he lost the right to do this, but another part-the part that wins, craves the familiarity of his love.

He moves for the window, climbs half way out and turns to me.

"Talal and his men are planning an attack on the English base of operation tonight, if they succeed, they'll render the English powerless and then we can throw them over. But the English will retaliate for sure, and a lot of people will be caught in the cross fire." He pauses, patting ny shoulder lightly. "Listen to me carefully, Hamsa, I want you to gather your family and friends and use the tunnels to get out of the province. Just until it is safe."

I blink at him incredulously, unable to digest all of this information. "What? What about everyone else? We have to stop this. Please talk to Talal, convince him to consider everyone's safety," I say, reaching out for him pleadingly.

Uncle Yusuf snorts, shaking his head. "This is larger than me or Talal now. A war has started and it won't end until we kick the English out, or we perish to the ground. All you can do is stop playing the hero for once."

He starts climbing down the tree, and I want to stop him, to demand more details and answers. But a knock at the door makes my head in its direction, and when I return my gaze to Uncle Yusuf, he is gone. Like he was never there to begin with.

Maybe it was just a dream after all, a twisted mind game.

* * *

*Pearl munching down on caramel popcorn 'cause she's on that time of the month and not fasting*

Sooooooo.... Uncle Yusuf is not dead after all. *slants shades up 😎*

Who expected this turn of event? (Am I that predictable?)

And who thinks he was just a ghost xD lol.

What do you think Hamsa is going to do now?

And how do you expect this revolution to go down?

I know it is a short chapter, but my laptop is still not working and I had to improvise with what I had on my phone :'(

I'll try to update as soon as possible!

Also I am traveling to Makkah tonight insha'Allah for Umrah 😍😍😍 I'll keep you all in my prayers insha'Allah!

Have a nice Eid beauties 💕💕

Love!

Pearl.