"Here's your room key." The woman at the hotel smiled. "Enjoy your stay."
"Thank you." Numra nodded as she took her room key.
Numra grabbed Christina's hand and led her down into the middle of their hall where their hotel room was. She opened the door as Christina dragged her suitcase inside of the room, watching Numra follow after her. Numra shut the door and plopped drastically down onto her bed as Christina sat on hers.
"Christina, take a shower." Numra sighed in a calm tone. "I want you to be nice and clean before we go to the airport, tomorrow."
"Wait, you mean.........we're leaving daddy for good?" Christina asked in a shocked tone.
"Chrissy, we'll see him some other time." Numra groaned. "I promise."
"Where are we going?" Christina continued, not stopping her questions. "We're not going back to Iraq, are we?"
"I'm afraid so, sweetheart."
"I don't wanna go back there!" Christina yelled as she slammed her items onto the floor. "I like it here with dad! I don't want to go back to my mean old stepdad!"
"We're not going back to Roberto, Christina!" Numra barked in a loud tone. "But we're going back to Iraq, alright?"
"But mom I have a friend at school named James and he-"
"Christina, I said get in the shower!" Numra snapped as she gave her a furious look. "We're going back home and that's final! Nothing's going to happen!"
Christina couldn't help but to hold in her boiling frustration. Tearing up because of it, she grabbed the washcloth and towel on the counter and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door and preparing to take her shower. Numra didn't want to explain to her what was going on to her because she was a little girl, and she didn't want to scare her anymore than her going to Iraq. It was already enough worry on her part.
Suddenly, Numra's cell phone rang. She already knew who it was. Numra quickly slid her cell phone to the answer button and looked up as she answered Dr. August's call.
"What is it, Chresanto?" Numra growled as her accent only grew more and more evident the angrier she got.
"Numra, I just wanted to say-"
"No I don't want to hear it-"
"Numra can you just listen to me for 2 seconds? Damn near 10!" Dr. August begged in an angry formed. "Please!?"
Numra didn't say anything. She folded her arms and sat against the rest of the bed, listening and waiting for him to talk.
"Listen, Jayla's been the girl that i've been going to ever since you left." Dr. August sighed. "You have to understand that it isn't as easy to get over her as you're making it out to be. It's very tough."
"Then why'd you lead me on if you KNEW that you weren't all the way over her?" Numra barked.
"I thought that I was!" Dr. August shouted. "I wouldn't have done that to yo-"
"Well you did!" Numra barked, not letting him finished. "Why did you lie to Christina if you knew that you were going to go back on your word!?"
"Numra you're not letting me-"
"Why did you tell me that you weren't going to do it but you continue to go back and do things to her anyway?" Numra asked, getting louder and angrier. "Why'd you take me out of Iraq when you were gonna put me and our daughter through this mess?! I could've stayed there!"
"I don't..................I don't know...." Dr. August sighed. "Numra, I can't lose you-"
"Well until you come with a legible answer, then you let me know." Numra said, hanging up.
Dr. August heard a loud click on the other line. He froze for a second, then glanced down at his phone, only to see that Numra had hung up on him.
"Hello?" Dr. August said. "Hello? Hello!?"
Dr. August called Numra a few more times, but she didn't answer. But little did he know, is that someone else was calling her at the same time.
Jayla.
Rayan was asleep on Jayla's couch, completely unaware of what happened. She hadn't told him yet. Seeing Christina cry like that, made her feel extremely guilty. Jayla stood up and slowly dialed Numra's phone number, then nervously placed it to her ear.
But back at the hotel, Numra was ignoring Dr. August's calls. That is, until she seen a different number pop up on her phone. Numra glanced at the number in a different form, then answered the call.
"Hello?" Numra said as she answered the phone.
Jayla didn't say anything. She listened as Christina said something to her mother in the background, then listened to Numra again.
"Hello?" Numra repeated, listening to the silence.
Nothing. Jayla couldn't find the means to speak. Figuring that the person on the other line probably didn't understand english and was from her culture, she decided to say "Hello" in her language.
"خوش آمدید" Numra said, saying "Hello" in her language.
Nothing. Entirely too nervous, Jayla hung up on her. Numra looked at her phone, then put it on silent so that he wouldn't hear him calling over and over. Christina stepped out of the bathroom with her pajama's on and her hair in a short ponytail. Numra cut off all of the lights and laid in the bed, when Christina sat up and glanced at her mother.
"Mom?" Christina said in a low tone.
"Yes?"
"Can I watch tv until I go to bed?" Christina asked.
"Go ahead." Numra said as she tossed the remote to her side. "Just don't turn it up too loud."
Christina watched TV and ate some of the packed sandwhiches that her mother made. Numra turned away from the tv in her bed and drifted off into a deep sleep a half an hour later. As Christina finished her sandwhich, she glanced over at her mother with the little amount of light that the tv offered to the pitch black room.
"Mom?" Christina whispered to Numra to see if she was awake.
No response. Christina stared at her mother for a while, then crept over to her bed to sneak her cell phone away from her bed. She took the bedroom key and stepped out of the room, walking into the lobby and calling Dr. August. It was 1:49am, so she knew that her father was asleep. She didn't care, though. She sat down onto the couch and called him, hoping that he would answer. He picked up right away.
"Numra?" Dr. August said, quickly picking up the phone.
"Dad?" Christina said in a nervous tone.
Hearing Christina's voice sent the utmost amount of shivers through his spine. It woke him up all the way. He lifted all the way up in his bed and listened to her breathe for a second before he started talking again.
"Christina?" Dr. August said in a heartfelt tone. "How are you?"
"I miss you." Christina said, quickly tearing up and wiping her eyes. "I don't wanna stay here."
"Aww baby...." Dr. August whispered, trying to comfort her. "I miss you too."
Dr. August listened as Christina sniffed and cried in the background. He knew that she was scared, and it was all his fault. All because he couldn't keep his word. He felt extremely guilty. He started to tear up because it pained him to hear his daughter hurting like that.
"Christina, i'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Dr. Augusut sighed. "I promise that if I come back, i'll never hurt you again. I didn't mean to...........it's all my fault. I'm sorry."
"I don't want to go back to Iraq, dad!" Christina wept. "I don't..................I don't wanna..."
Then, it all registered into Dr. August's head. They hadn't left yet. His face softened as that thought registered into his head.
"You.................you haven't left yet?" Dr. August panted.
"No." Christina cried. "We're leaving tomorrow."
"Where are you?" Dr. August asked as she heard her keys rustle in the background. "I'm coming to get you both right now?"
"I don't know, dad." Christina said as she stood up and looked around. "We're at a hotel and-"
"HEELLLPPPPPP!" A woman cried in Christina's language as she ran inside of the hotel. "HELP ME!"
Christina immediately recognized and understood her language while the person at the front desk didn't have a clue on what she was saying. Meanwhile, the woman only spoke the language she knew. While spazzing, she continued to scream and shout in her persian language.
"لطفا.لطفا!آنها در خارج وجود دارد، آنها به خارج وجود دارد !!" The woman continued. "آنها در حال رفتن مرا بکشند.لطفا کمک کنید !!!"
The woman ran up to the front desk, begging and pleading while the woman behind the desk tried to compell her. The woman kept on saying "I can't understand, you. I only speak english!" but Christina understood everything. While she looked up and glanced at the two, she had no clue on what was going on.
But what Christina didn't know, was that that was her own grandmother. And the bigger question was, how did she make it to America when she was in Iraq the night before?