Broken Trails

Promises

“Did I tell you that what’s her name’s father came to the garage the other day?” Junayd looked up at his father who had asked the question, suddenly the spaghetti which he had been giving utmost attention was of little importance. “Huh?” he asked though he had heard clearly the first time. “I said that girl’s dad came by the garage.” “J-janaan’s dad?” “I don’t know, how many other girls did you ask for?” Junayd smiled crookedly “Just her.” “Alright then you know whose dad it was.”  “Uhh yeah yeah, so what did he say?” Musa chuckled “A whole lot, he seems to be doing some research on us… so if you have any dirt I don’t know about or skeletons in your closet, he’s sure to find them.” Junayd raised his brows “I promise I don’t have anything to hide so that’s fine.” “Don’t worry son, he seems to like you, he’s just concerned about his daughter, of course you know that she was married before and that didn’t turn out so good, he doesn’t want a repeat.” Junayd nodded clenching his teeth as he remembered the day he had seen Ousama put his hands on Janaan “He won’t have to worry about that with me.” “Yeah, that’s what I told him but you can’t believe everything people say, I invited him over this weekend.” “You did?... But I have exams, I’ll be gone by then.” “That’s okay, he’s seen enough of you anyway, I figured he would want to see your home.” “Yeah, that makes sense.” “I was telling him that we don’t have much but we aren’t lacking, life is simple but decent for us, Alhamdulilah.” “Alhamdulilah.” “I was talking to your uncle yesterday and he told me that you left in a hurry the last time you went over there, that you were acting strangely, what was up?” Junayd put on a puzzled expression and shrugged hesitating, he didn’t want to lie but he couldn’t tell his father what had happened, it would just complicate things. “It was late, after dark, I wanted to get home, Imran had been at the house alone for half the day.” “That never seemed to bother you prior to that particular evening…he also mentioned that Rasheedah was acting different too… do you know anything about that?” “I didn’t even see her that night.” “Mmm okay, well I just want you to know that it is important that you try to act as normal as possible with them, especially after you crashed their plans. With that kind of tension between us our family could slowly fall apart and we don’t want that, you understand?” “Yes.”

“So what’s the report?” asked Hannah who had heard next to nothing since the day Talha informed her that he had asked for Fatima’s hand. “Report?” Talha asked sounding confused. “About Fatima, what did her dad say?” “Ohh…well, he said he would get back to me but he hasn’t yet…it’s understandable because Mayra just got married, they’re probably really busy.” “Oh okay…that’s fine…maybe you can use this time to rethink this whole thing…your sisters are really disturbed by it, you might want to consider calling it off.” Talha smiled as he sometimes did when he was annoyed or really upset. He opened his mouth to say something but decided to hold his tongue. “I know what I’m saying upsets you but you shouldn’t be so selfish, What about Fatima? I don’t think she would be very happy in our home, the girls will probably give her hell just for being alive.” Talha had a stern look on his face and his eyes darkened “We shall see about that, inshallah… I promise, if they think they run things around here then they are in for a rude awakening.”

“What do you mean that’s not her?” Fawzia asked frowning. “I mean exactly that…the girl that was introduced to me did not fit your description… she was tall, slim and her eyes were blue…she was not strikingly shy either, in fact she was kind of bold…reminded me a little of Sameera Hassan.” Amar replied. “Okay, THAT, is definitely not her…are you sure you went to the right house?” “Yes.” “Was her name Amatullah?” “Ahh and that’s another thing, her name was Suemaya.” “See! That’s not her…I think that’s her sister… I don’t know anything about her sister so I can’t recommend her… you need to go back and make it clear that you are asking for Amatullah and not Suemaya.” Amar was quiet for some time as he thought about it. “Okay.”