When Stars are Hidden

Chapter 7

⚜️

Naima won Tawfiq in all their chess games which lasted longer than expected.

He was good, she had to admit but Naima was better. Way better.
Her mom was a chess freak so she had ended up loving the game. Her mom knew all great chess players, almost every single strategy and it's counter but all she ever did with her talent was play against Naima.

Naima was late. Aunt Faiza would be worried about her. She just hoped that my father wouldn't be at home. So when Tawfiq insisted on taking her home, she had to refuse.

Naima clearly remembered when she had walked home with one of her male neighbors who was a two years ahead of her. Her father was so angry.

He thought and concluded that Naima was sleeping with him or something which ended up with her being hit. If it wasn't for Aunt Faiza timeless intervention, she might have ended up in the hospital.

Naima declined because she knew the consequences and also it was haram to sit alone in a car with a non-mehram she had just met today.

It had been a long day. And as she prepared to thank him for getting her to have a bit of fun, she remembered what that day was.
It hit her.

She had forgotten.

She quickly mouthed her salaam to him and walked away without looking back. She walked straight to the bus stop and the waiting sign showed the next bus would arrive at 6pm.

A few more minutes to go.

Remember how Naima was not prone to luck?All of a sudden it started to rain.

"No. . .no. . .no!. . .not now." Naima cried out to no one in particular.

Valley View buses had a bad habit of not operating when it rained. Now, she would have to wait for the rain to stop and she couldn't do that. What if it rained for 2 hours?

She also couldn't afford a taxi even if she was able to spot one.

It started to rain much harder.

At that moment all she hoped and prayed for was that no thunder would be heard. She had a really bad phobia of thunders.

Thunderphobia?

Nope.

Astraphobia.

She wasn't born with it or anything. Honestly she used to love the sound it came with.

But her phobia started after her mother died.

She needed a loud distraction before she had an unnecessary panic attack so normally she would listen to some Surahs in the Quran and sometimes listen to a few Sami Yusuf and Maher Zain songs at high volume to block the thunder out.

Her phone was off now so she couldn't call home. And she couldn't listen to anything.

The rain was getting too strong now. She ran back into the school.

The moment she entered through the doors of the school she heard the one thing she had been dreading to hear. . .thundering. She screamed.

She dropped on her knees there and shut her ears with her hands and moved her back to the walls.

With her head between her knees, she started to make du'a. Maybe Allah would make the rain stop or maybe Aunt Faiza or Zain would come and look for her.

She began loudly mumbling Surahs to herself.

She sat like that for as long as she could remember. The sounds of thunder pounding in her ears. Soon enough, it started to slowly stop raining and the thunder storm was gone so she got up and made her way back to the bus stop.