The Wrong Woman

1. Mouna

I screamed into the pillow that I had stuffed against my face. "Mohi!"

"Stop being so dramatic, girl. You need to get these hairy arms waxed or you will be made fun of."

"Who's going to make fun of me?" I frowned, sitting up and looking at the patch of armless skin. "I don't even go out of the apartment."

"You go to work, don't you? You have to wear those uniforms." She put her hand on her saree-clad hips, grey-streaked hair coiled into a tight bun behind her.

She had a point. Devdas—the original one, not the remake—played in the background, mocking my pain. "Because of you, I didn't even get to watch the movie."

"Because of you, I had to stop and wax my granddaughter's hairy arms!" I jumped, letting her do the rest. Mohi crouched down to inspect my legs when I tucked my long skirt over them.

"What are you doing? One, the deal was only my arms and two, don't put so much pressure on your knee!"

"If we are doing your arms, we should do the legs, too."

I threw the pillow on the wooden bench in the living room and ran toward our small, shared bedroom in the shabby apartment. I shut the tattered door so she wouldn't follow me and wax my legs. I pulled my skirt up to take a peek and made a face. If I gave her permission, it would be dreadfully painful. I grabbed the copy of The Climb, my favourite book of all time, and laid stomach down on our bed, wrapping the thin, orange blanket over me. 

The knock on the door made me sigh. "Let me do those legs," she exclaimed.

"Why should I when I only go out to work and come back home? I don't need to go through unnecessary pain."

"It will make you feel beautiful." I didn't respond to that. Nothing could make me feel that way when I had more pressing matters at hand. "And Dr. Arshan will think that, too."

I put down the book and opened the door, glancing at the front door. "No, he will not. Mohi, he is due to come any second."

"Oh, please, he won't be here in a while."

"He said he was on his way. Do you know how embarrassing it would be if he is right outside that door?"

"Well, you said it was unnecessary, anyway. Who cares?"

I frowned at my grandma who chuckled all the way back to the living room. As much as I loved her, she was my only living relative, she loved to tease me. It wasn't until a few minutes later that the door bell rang and I rushed over. I playfully glared at my grandma and put a finger to my lips to which she responded with a zipper across her own.

I let Dr. Arshan in who smiled at me warmly. He was the only one that ever showed me kindness. But he was a doctor. So I suppose he had to be kind to all his patients. I awkwardly gestured for him and his nurse to come inside, despite them paying my grandma a visit at our house all the time. 

He pushed his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose, mocha coloured eyes narrowing as he felt the area around my grandma's knee. He muttered something to the nurse beside him holding a clipboard. I sat on the couch beside my grandma, holding her hand. It was just a regular checkup, but my heart thudded in my chest every single time he came over and did this. What if one of these days he'll deliver bad news?

I was never prepared.

"You said over the phone that the pain was sudden?"

I looked at my grandma but feeling a gaze, he had directed that question at me. I startled in my seat. "Oh! Um, yes. She said it comes and goes."