Chapter 5 –Breaking the news
“Good women are for good men.”
-Surah Nur, verse 26.
“Waliya!” her father yelled through her shut bedroom door. “Come to the kitchen for breakfast, your mother and I are waiting!”
“Jee,” she replied lazily and got out of bed. She made her bed and then walked to her bathroom to brush her teeth before joining them for breakfast. As she got to the kitchen, her mother laughed.
“Ya Allah, Waliya, I think you forgot to do something before you left your bedroom,” her mother said, trying to smother her laughs.
Sleepily, Waliya looked at her mother. “Assalaamualaikum mummy,” she said her thoughts still about her leaving her bed. “What did I forget to do?”
Her father, who went outside to get his copy of the Sunday newspaper, walked in behind her and started laughing. “Wals, did you brush your hair before you left?” he asked her before laughing.
She turned red and started laughing. “Nope, I forgot,” she said and started unwinding her hair band and then combed her fingers through her hair before retying the hair band. “But, it’s all fixed!”
Her father petted her back and then went to take the head seat at the table. “That’s what you think, my little girl,” he teased.
She scowled playfully and then went to wash her hands in the kitchen basin before joining her father at the table. Her mother had set the table with everything for breakfast –eggs, sausages, pancakes, muesli and yoghurt, juice, iced coffee, fruit salad and so many other things that she couldn’t believe it. However, she knew there was a reason behind it –and she knew exactly what that reason was.
As soon as she sat, her mother joined her, bring the jar of chocolate spread and a knife. “So, Waliya, what did you think?” her father asked as he piled two eggs in his plate and grabbed toast and a few sausages.
She played dumb. “The breakfast is really unnecessary, but I totally appreciate it,” she said and looked down as she grabbed some pancakes and placed them in her plate and spread the chocolate spread thickly over it. Not seeing the dirty look her father gave her, he spoke. “You know that is not what I meant,” he said dryly.
She giggled. “Oh?” she said and then tore off a piece of her pancake.
“Waliya, your father wants to know what you thought of Aahil,” her mother stressed. “But first pass me the mushrooms please,” she said quickly.
Waliya blushed and kept quiet, and slowly chewed her pancake, trying to stall her father and mother’s question.
“So that’s a yes?” her mother asked hopefully.
She just smiled and looked down.
“Really?” her father asked, getting very excited. Instead of answering her father, she looked up and smiled at him.
“Did you make Salaahtul Istikhaarah?” her mother asked.
“Jee,” she said softly, but because it was just the three of them, they were able to hear her.
“And?” her parents chorused together.
She smiled and her cheeks went a slight pink with embarrassment. “It was positive, Alhamdulillah,” she said.
“Shukr Alhamdulillah,” her mother said with a big smile on her face. “I should let the Khans know immediately!!”
She was about to stand up and go and phone the Khans, like a typical Indian aunty and spend hours on the phone just discussing minor details, but Waliya grabbed her mother’s arm. Looking down, Nafeesa frowned. “Please let us just eat our breakfast before you call everyone?” Waliya asked with pleading eyes.
Nodding, Nafeesa sat back down and munched on her food moodily. Waliya sighed but continued to eat her food in silence, knowing that if she just says something, her mother will launch off into Nikkah decisions.
Once breakfast was done, Waliya sent a message to her friends and her sister telling them to meet her at a mall located just forty five minutes away. It would be one of the few times she may get to spend with them until the Nikkah was over. Within a few minutes they had replied and with their replies she raced off into the bathroom, trying to escape her mother’s long, tedious phone calls to the entire family in Benoni, in Durban, the few acquaintances they had in Cape Town and the rest of the family scattered all over the country, just to tell them that Waliya has accepted Aahil’s proposal.
“Trying to escape?” her father asked her as she silently crept out of her room, all dressed and ready to go out.
She turned around and faced him with a bright smile. “Jee,” she said, dragging out the ‘e’. He laughed, “Go, before your mother can see you!”
She kissed her father’s cheek and dashed out of the door, holding her bag, keys and cellphone in one hand, while the other hand held her abaya. She unlocked the door and got in, starting the engine before her mother could see her through the window and sped out of there, leaving dust in her wake.
In the car, her mind ran back in time. She was thinking about when she first described to Jade and Christina how dumbfounded she and Asmaa were when they were talking to who she now knows to be Aahil.
“Christina!” Asmaa shrieked as they neared their friends. “You just had to see what happened now!”
Christina looked up from her phone, and smiled at Asmaa. “Hey Asmaa, what happened?”
Beside her, Jade sat on her phone typing away, listening in to the conversation, but not bothering to comment, yet. Jade was aloof, law school wasn’t yet bothersome to her. Although, as soon as Asmaa plopped herself down next to Jade and launched into her tale, she was intrigued.
“Okay, so it was just this simple okay?” Asmaa said excitedly. As she spoke, they were so enraptured that that one of them noticed Waliya sit down. “Waliya was busy telling me how she told her dad that she wanted to get married –”
“WHAT?” they said together and looked at Waliya.
“But why Princess?” Jade asked, using the nickname they gave her since they found out that her name meant ‘princess’.
“You’re still young,” Christina finished off.
Waliya smiled. “You guys know that I’ve wanted to get married for a while now,” she said to them with a gentle smile.
“Yeah! But we never thought you were being serious,” Jade said, as if she was offended that they were the last to find out.
“Well, I was totally serious.”
Jade and Christina smiled at her. “We know, Princess. You’re way too matured for the rest of us!” Christina joked.
Waliya rolled her eyes. “You’re a year older than I am, Tina,” she said blankly.
“Shh, guys! Asmaa was still telling us something. Jeez you guys go off topic a lot!” Jade said exasperatedly.
Waliya and Christina looked at one another with a straight face, shocked that Jade was blaming them for going off topic when she started it. But nonetheless, they kept quiet as Asmaa began her retelling of Waliya’s embarrassment.
“So, I was saying,” Asmaa started again with added dramatics. “Waliya was telling me about how she told her father she was ready for marriage, and how he exploded. Then she totally tried to calm him down with a hadith –”
“What’s a hadith?” Christina asked.
Before Asmaa could shoot a sarcastic comment, Waliya answered. “A hadith is a saying of our last Prophet Peace Be Upon Him, which helps us to understand the Quraan or a certain aspect of life,” Waliya said calmly.
“Got it, chicka,” Christina said smiling.
Waliya nodded and went back to eating her chocolate bar. “But then, as Waliya is telling me what hadith she told her father, she used the wrong words and then this amazingly good looking guy corrects her!” Asmaa said getting excited.
“OH MY GOSH!” Jade shrieked excitedly. “What did he look like?”
When Waliya didn’t answer, Jade shook her shoulders and forced her to look at her. “What did he look like?”
“Uh,” Waliya started uncertainly. “I can’t remember,” she said. “Except for his dark black hair.”
“And this amazing dark brown eyes,” Asmaa sighed. “But sadly, I had to look away and I am proud that I did, but it totally sucked!” she pouted.
“I could always check him out for you!” Jade offered with a sly and mischievous look in her eyes.
Something felt wrong to Waliya, a stirring in her stomach pits. She didn’t like that feeling, but she didn’t even understand what it was. She ignored it and continued taking small bites of her chocolate, trying to forget what that feeling was.
“Uh, thanks but no thanks?” Waliya said but making it sound like a question.
“Great then! It’s settled! Tina and I will stalk him for you Waliya,” Jade said excitedly.
“Jade, it’s not stalking, it’s investigating,” Christina laughed.
They laughed together and Waliya’s cheeks flamed. “Whatever, do whatever you want, but don’t tell me,” Waliya said avoiding looking at them. “I do not want to be a part of this nonsensical scheme of yours.”
“Suit yourself, Wals,” Jade said smirking.
A couple of weeks later, Waliya was sitting in the same place, waiting for them to return from the canteen when suddenly they just popped out of nowhere all shrieking. “Waliya! Waliya! I saw him!” Jade said excitedly.
Waliya looked up at them and ignored what was said. “Did you at least get me my Tempo?” she asked frowning.
“Here’s your chocolate,” Christina said and threw Waliya her Tempo.
“Can you at least focus on what I said?” Jade asked.
“Sure, you have thirty seconds,” Waliya said distractedly as she pulled apart the wrapper and uncovered the chocolate.
“I saw your hadith guy!” Jade said again with that enthusiasm she had when she came to Waliya. “He is so super cute!”
“Great,” Waliya muttered taking a bite of her chocolate.
“He has pitched black hair, did you know that?” Christina added.
“Uha,” Waliya said, munching and enjoying her chocolate. “Told you it was lovely.”
“I like his friend,” Jade said suddenly.
At that, Waliya perked up. “Really? He has friends?” she asked.
Jade burst out laughing, so loud everyone turned to look at her. “Oh Wals!” she said as she tried to control her laughter. “Everyone has friends! Of course he would have!”
Waliya rolled her eyes. “I just thought –never mind,” she said quietly.
“What?” Christina asked. “What did you think Wals?”
“I just thought that he doesn’t have any, I mean, he doesn’t seem the type to have friends,” she said stuttering a bit.
Jade, once again, burst out laughing, the sort that rises from your belly and just spills out of you. “Waliya! How on earth can you judge the guy from a two second conversation?” she asked.
Waliya shrugged. “I don’t know, okay? He just seems like the type to prefer solitude rather than company.”
“A lot like you?” Jade questioned.
At that time, Waliya had no reply for her friend, who easily moved on to a different topic.
As she slammed brakes, narrowing missing the dog that dashed across the highway, Waliya was just as fast slammed into the present.
“Shukr Alhamdulillah,” she sighed gratefully, then took the turn that led into the mall’s underground parking lot. She found an empty parking and slide into it, before getting out and locking the car as she walked in.
“Assalaamualaikum Asmaa,” she said into her phone as soon as Asmaa answered.
“Wa’alaikumusalaam Wals, where are you?”
“I just walked in now; I am on my way to the food court. Where are you?” Waliya asked.
“Omar just pulled into the parking lot now, stay where you are and I’ll meet you at the food court.”
“Jee okay,” Waliya answered. “I’m going to call Zakia now,” she said.
They cut the call and then Waliya dialed Zakia’s number. “I’m almost there, Waliya,” she said tiredly.
“Apa? Are you sure you’re alright? You sound tired,” Waliya said worriedly.
Zakia laughed it off. “No, it’s nothing for you to be worried about, Waliya, I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” she said.
Before long, Waliya was surrounded by her three friends and her sister. They were squeezed into a small booth in a small little shop in the mall that served one of the best soft serves in Gauteng. Not many people knew of the shop, but it was relatively busy. The interior was decorated in soft pastels and had a bubblegum smell in the air. This was one place that all the girls loved. On their small table, were mega sundaes with an array of flavours among them.
“Okay, so let’s cut to the chase, shall we?” Zakia said with a huge smile on her face.
Waliya sighed. “Apa, I asked you to come out with me so I could avoid the Spanish Inquisition with mummy. I didn’t run away from one into another one,” she moaned.
Suddenly, a thought came to mind and she looked at Asmaa. “Asmaa, are you sure that the guy that came for proposal is the same one that corrected my hadith?” she asked.
Asmaa sighed, annoyed. “Yes, Wals, it definitely is him.”
“I can’t believe it,” Waliya said and spooned a full teaspoon of ice cream into her mouth.
“Well you better believe it,” she told her.
“I have a solution to this,” Jade said and pulled out her Samsung Tab. “Aahil Khan, right?” she asked.
They all nodded. “Okay,” she said and typed away on the touch screen of hers. A few seconds later she lifted the tab up and showed Waliya. The first thing that Waliya noticed was the obvious blue colour of Facebook. Underneath that was a picture of the guy she had seen nearly four years ago. He looked the same, but different too. He had aged, that much was obvious, but not in the way where grey hair where seen, but she could see the maturity reflected in his eyes, a few light laugh lines around his mouth and the length of his beard had increased. Below his picture was his name written in thick, white letters.
“No way,” she muttered.
“Oh yeah! Told you so!” Asmaa said excitedly.
“It really is him,” she said excitedly. “It’s him, Apa!”
They all smiled, finally happy that she had realised the truth. Now, to them, there was just one question remaining.
“Did you make Salaahtul Istikhaarah last night?” Zakia asked.
She nodded, even after she said that she was going to delay it, she woke up in the middle of the night, made Tahajjud salaah and then made Salaahtul Istikhaarah.
“Was it a positive sign?” Asmaa asked.
“Yep,” she said and looked down blushing.
“That’s great!” Jade and Tina said.
“Mubarak!” Asmaa said to her, while Zakia wrapped her arms around her sister. “Mubarak Wals, I am so happy for you!”
She just hid her head from all the attention she was receiving and du into her sundae, then changed topics immediately.
“So, my mother is phoning Aahil’s mother today,” she said.
“Great! So when’s the day?” Jade asked.
She glared at Jade. “Like I am supposed to know.”
“When do you want it?” Zakia asked.
“Soon would be great, but I don’t think everyone can afford it so soon,” she replied.
“What colour scheme?”
“Where are you going to have it?”
“What will you wear?”
“Where are you going to have the mendhi night?”
“Do you have a dress design in mind?”
“Do you know where you want to go on a honeymoon to?”
“How will you style your hair?”
“What food will you have?”
“Enough,” she said and held her head between her hands. “I don’t know, I haven’t had the time for the decisions. I’ll let you all know when I do know. For now, can we all go and have a calm lunch and some shopping after that please?”
They nodded and let her be, thereafter going for one last shopping bash.