Her Boyfriend, My Husband

CHAPTER 38

Maryam's POV

This night was unlike any I've ever witnessed before. I felt like a storm of a month had elapsed in a single day. My heart was still in the shattered pieces that Farida's screams had broken it into. I could still hear the echo of her despairing voice as she begged and pleaded for her husband to be brought back to her.

"Wayyo Allah miji na! (Oh my God, my husband!)" Farida had wailed, bound to her hospital bed.

Her limp body was clothed in a pale green gown and every one of her movement was weak but her heart wrenching cries grew mightier with each attempt to console her.

"Wayyo miji na! Wayyo Allah miji na! Miji na! Wayyo miji na!"

Not even her mother and sister could tame her as she rattled the bed and pulled at her hair. Farida cried until she passed out only to wake up and cry and pass out again. While I was there, she had fainted three times and that was even before we told her she had lost the baby too.

I blinked away another wave of tears I knew was preparing to stream forth and I laid my head back on the chair. I took in a deep breath and that was when I noticed the distant but sharp smell of tobacco. It was Yusuf. He's been smoking again. 

He came back from his office a while ago in the evening and things had seemed to be better but then the unannounced visit his boss made had put him back in a moody state. So much so that he's locked himself in his room and from what I can tell by this scent of cigars, he's been smoking like a chimney ever since. Which makes me realise that whatever it is that had happened between them in this living room just minutes ago hadn't helped with the situation. It had just worsened it.

I had left them for a few minutes to go arrange some refreshments for Gen. Mikail only to come back to see that he had gone already, leaving Yusuf with an almost panicked expression on his face. I had asked countless times for him to tell me what more was bothering him and what his boss had said but he avoided me by going to the mosque for Maghrib prayers.

And when he came back, he shut me out again by staying in his room. I had never seen Yusuf like this and I was afraid of what next was going to happen if I kept on insisting. He had already shouted at me once back in the hospital and by the looks of things, he would do it again if I pressured him. So I let him be, I allowed him to continue brooding alone in the darkness of his room just like he wanted to.

Yusuf wasn't a child, and more so, he wasn't someone I was supposed to care that much about so why did it matter to me that now, all of a sudden he smokes? I tried to convince myself not to care but I failed, I cared deeply and it gave me immense sadness to see him like this.

I lazily got up from the chair with a sigh and went back to the kitchen. I was cooking something I know I couldn't even eat but I hoped Yusuf could. I worried about him so much that I even fretted over the fact that he's probably been on an empty stomach since yesterday night after he came to know the news. All that's he's eaten must be the clouds of smoke he's been inhaling.

The frying pan hissed when I stirred the mix of vegetables I was going to pour the parboiled basmati rice into. I poured in the chicken broth and added some spices and bullion cubes. The aroma smelled delicious but it was still not enough to awaken an appetite in me. I just hoped it would do so for Yusuf.

The rice was cooked in fifteen minutes and I plated the dish with a piece of fried chicken by the side. I placed it on a tray and got some fruit juice from the fridge to go along with it. I felt like it wasn't my place to do this yet I felt like it was my duty to do it. I was nervous as I was walking to Yusuf's room, I just didn't know what to expect and it freightened me. I felt like I couldn't muster seeing Yusuf like this.