The Ramadan Diaries

Prologue

"Aaaaaah, Ooooh, Ya Allah I can't take it anymore. AAAAAAH!"

Don't give up hope now, Zia. Else whatever we'd strived for until now will be for nothing.

"Congratulations, Zia, it's a boy." The nurse says blandly, a faint trace of a smile at the corner of her mouth. But was that fear Zia heard in her voice?

"Alhamdulillah" she manages to say, before losing conciousness..

Her thin, scrawny body was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit. Talib, no Talib, please, she kept moaning in her sub-conscious state. Her temperature was of 41°c, and her clothes were drenched with her sweat.

-

"Jimmy, you're on night-duty today. Be careful, don't sleep, and try not to screw up."

"Okay, boss. Whatever you say." says Jimmy, spitting out the 3 hour old chewing gum.

The doctor looks at him with a stern expression, and walks away. Jim walks to his station, and sits down, taking a beer from under the seat.

2 hours later, Jimmy 'Ray' Stinger is woken from his slumber, by a distant screaming sound. He swallows the spit in his mouth, and looks at the monitor.

What he sees makes him clutch the Silver Cross Pendant he wore on his neck. The patient from ward 21 of ICU was screaming at the top her lungs, in a half upraised position, her body hovering above the bed. On her neck were nerves, thin as taut wire, and coming out from her open mouth; red smoke, like fumes from a live volcano.

He manages to press the emergency button before fainting.

-

Zia looks at child, tears of joy flowing from her eyes. She smiles, and kisses his forehead. Then she draws back, almost instantly.

She stares at him, this time with a hint of distaste. Then she walks off hurriedly with his legs dangling from her arm.

She stands before the tomb under the pale moonlight, and screams. "Talib, you Munafik, you're happy I hope. May Allah give you hell for all the eternities to come you scoundrel!" With the last words came a flow of spit, and her unwashed hair came out in strands before her eyes. "Bastard!" She yells, and slowly lowers the child onto the simmering pavement.

She then, walks aways, her legs shaking, her tears uncontrollable. She takes her napkin from her bag and dabs her eyes.

She had loved him, and the love had not grown weaker like she had expected it to each day. It had grown stronger.

The child looks at the sky and laughs, unaware of the heat around him. From his chest peeps out a clear birthmark shaped like a pentagram.