The Wife Games

There Are Things We'd Do For You Bhai Jaan You Wouldn't Expect.

Ateefa-

I continued to doodle all over my notepad with glitter glue. Thinking about Bhai Jaan's news earlier today I wondered how exactly Tahlibah's plan would work. To me I saw many gaps and holes not to mention flaws with the whole thing. But then again it's not like I had a better idea.

We were all sat in our joined room revising our plan. Even though our parents are filthy rich and we could definitely have a room each, us girls decided to stick together. So instead of 7 rooms, we share one big one. It's like having a crazy sleepover every night! Even though Bhai Jaan respects our privacy enough to knock and wait before coming in, he still sometimes stays over. In theory Bhai Jaan is a scary big brother but in reality, us girls treat him like a den mother, or even a big sister. We adore Bhai Jaan to pieces, and we are fiercely protective of him.

We weren't always this close though. About 7 years ago we all never used to get on. Funnily enough that was when we all lived with our parents who were basically never around. I guess you could say that money brought us up. Also Bhai Jaan is actually our half brother, we share the same father. Because of this factor I think, Bhai Jaan and mother never used to get along. Father remarried when his first wife passed away. Mother never used to see Bhai Jaan as her own son and we never used to see each other as proper siblings either.

When Bhai Jaan got into a very big argument with our mother 7 years back, he left the house and found his own way in the world. We at this point still hated him and I don't think he thought much of us then too. And then 5 years ago I came home from school to find Mother hitting- and I don't mean a slap- Nusrah. No one was at home then, just me, Nusrah and the crazy woman. When I intervened Mother grabbed a small knife and tried to threaten me with it. Instead she got too close and now I have a long and thin scar running down my hair line.

I realised that there was no one for me to go to at that time except Bhai Jaan who went berserk when he found out. At first the others shouted at me for telling him and didn't want his help but slowly we all realised that there wasn't much a group of spoiled brats like us could do in an unjust world. We never realised before but now it's as plain as day.

Money talks.

For the last 5 years we've been living with Bhai Jaan. We respect him more than we've ever respected our parents. We would do anything for him and we definitely would hate for him to have anything which isn't perfect. Dad has been trying to help us out by providing us all with money every month, Bhai Jaan and I refuse it each time, but the others don't. Their excuse is that he should actually do something which is father like.

I watched as Zareen pulled out an old map from God knows when. Saraah was sat with a pen and paper at the ready so she could take notes. Nusrah was looking for her old plastic soldier figurines and Tahlibah was laying on her back on our fluffy rug and looking up at the ceiling like it was the most interesting thing she'd ever seen.

"Listen up ladies!" Zareen shouted, getting all of our attentions immediately.

"I'm no lady!" Fakhirah heckled.

"Shut up you! You're more of a lady than the Queen herself!" Zareen joked. It was true though, Fakhirah was the epitome of class and ladieness if that's even a word. She couldn't even sit down without her back being straight at all times. The rest of us were shamefully still normal girls.

"Right people, let's get planning. Tahlibah, have you found any times or dates for where he's meeting these girls" Zareen asked.

"Yeah, did you know there are 7 girls he's arranged to meet up with? I'm betting he's gonna see one everyday of the week"

"What a harami" Zareen joked.

"What's a harami?" innocent Nusrah asked.

"Bhai Jaan" I answered, being met with laughs all around.

"Don't listen to her Nusrah. A harami is someone who does things which are haram" Tahlibah explained to her.

"Oh! I get it!" She said happily.

"He's meeting up with one next Monday 4pm at The Tree Hut, her name is Ameera Faroukh" Tahlibah said.

"Oh no he didn't! He's taking her to The Tree Hut?! He never takes us even though I've asked a thousand times!" Haleemah said in anger.

"Look! I've found her on Facebook!" Fakhirah exclaimed.

We all clambered and shoved each other to see this girl on Fakhirah's phone.

"Well, she's uh... She has nice hair?" Saraah suggested.

"What is she wearing?" I asked shocked.

This girl was just a big no no and that was just us looking at her! The girl looked okay but you could see a bratty streak in her which just really let her overall appearance down. Her clothes were more revealing than we would want our brother's wife to have. Has this girl never heard of modesty?

"Scroll through her pictures" Tahlibah told Fakhirah.

We watched as each picture got worse, it was like watching some sort of stripper. There was even a point where we were that horrified by what we saw that we had to cover Nusrah's eyes.

"She's definitely a big no no!" Fakhirah said aghast.

"Right, well. What are we going to do?" Tahlibah said.

"Leave this one to me and my masterful planning girls. We need to show Bhai Jaan what she's like so he'll just get rid of her" Zareen said with an evil grin. She then proceeded to snatch Saraah's pen and paper from her to jot some stuff down.

..................

I left them to their business and went downstairs to make myself a sandwich. The front door opened and Bhai Jaan started to enter the kitchen.

I quickly took out my phone to warn the others to quieten down.

"Assalamu Alaikum Ateefa" Bhai Jaan greeted.

I dropped my phone in shock.

"Um, Wa Alaikum Assalam Bhai Jaan. Would you like a sandwich?" I offered trying to look as guilt free as possible.

"Yes please. Now tell me, who were you texting?" He said. I felt my cheeks flame up at being caught. Well at least he didn't know who I was texting.

"You don't have a boyfriend or anything like that do you Ateefa? If you do, we could always arrange for you to marry him?" He lightly suggested.

I swear my eyes grew extremely wide which was probably not going to help my case.

"No Bhai Jaan! There's nothing like that I swear!" I said loudly.

"I know you're not like that FeeFee, but you've grown up to be a beautiful young woman-" he began.

"Stop right there Bhai Jaan! I'm not listening! Bla bla bla" I said covering my ears and trying to dart out of the room. He stood in front of me and stopped my exit. Grabbing my hands he took them off my ears and whispered in my ear.

"You forgot your sandwich" he grinned.

I looked back and saw that I had left my uneaten sandwich by its poor self. How could I be so cruel? I rushed back to get it.

"One last thing FeeFee! Where can I get a good dye to get my hair back to normal? I tried going everywhere today! You should've seen the funny looks I was getting off people!"

"I wouldn't know Bhai Jaan! And if I did, I definitely wouldn't tell you" I shouted running up the stairs.