Twice His Age

15: Past Mistakes

Sabeeha cried profusely as she nursed the wound on her arm. She was seated in the hut, wiping at her tears and wincing whenever it pained a bit more and when she was done, she palmed her face and cried some more. She knew that she had promised herself that she was never going to cry, but there was no way she wouldn't. It wasn't even because of the pain she had felt when Hajia had beaten her, no. Even though that pained as well. But it was what had transpired before and after the beating.

She couldn't believe that because of her, Anas nearly got cursed at by his mother. And she could vividly hear how he had cried openly in the kitchen after Hajia had walked out of it, along with Meeral and when he tried to come close to her to maybe console or help her, she simply stopped him. Because right now, she feared for him and what would happen to him and his life. His mother should never have uttered those words at him. It was probably the most painful words he had ever heard in his entire twenty three years of existence.

She knew she should get back in and finish the breakfast she had started, serve it and proceed to clean the entire house. Her back made a sound when she got to her feet and she wondered if a day would come that she'd wake up without having over a million things to do. She wiped at her tears, even though more cascaded down and walked back into the kitchen.

Walking while wiping her tears in the process had never been so heartbreaking but today. Because, she believe she was only this calm before the storm and when it finally happened, she didn't know if she'd be able to withhold it in her heart or not. But for now, she had to finish her works and then proceed to think of what would be of her. Now that she knew it would never be too old for her to get beaten by Hajia, Sabeeha figured that the best thing she had to do was try to avoid all the things that triggered Hajia to do that.

Especially now that she was going to be their housemaid; permanently. If she married Idi, which she knew she would, she would be stuck with this family forever. And she couldn't afford getting beaten in front of Waleed. Yes, it wasn't the first time Waleed had seen her got beaten by Dahiru, this was entirely different and she didn't want to bruise his heart far more than it already was.

She was done with the cleaning some minutes before noon and decided she would take her bathe within that period before she went back to the kitchen for lunch. Waleed, bless his soul, now watered the gardens for her unfailingly, everyday. It was as if he knew that she had a bad memory attached to that garden and it would probably be hard on her if she tried to walk in there alone and work. And the little boy offered it himself, telling her how he had been taught how to take care of plants at his school and how it was beginning to be something he loved and enjoyed.

She took her bathe and stared at the less then twenty clothes she had, which had all been worn out and looked so dull. But Sabeeha couldn't remember the last time she had gotten a new clothe, save the one Zaid bought for her that day and she knew that was solely because there was a reason attached to it. And she had intended to take it back to him. Because she didn't even know how she'd start explaining to Hajia where she got the gown from.

There was a gown she loved wearing and she brought it out today. Yes, today might be her most dreadful day, but she was going to look at least a bit presentable. So, she wore that gown and slipped off her headgear to comb her hair. When was the last time she even had her hair pleated? Since in Damaturu and this was why she told Zaid no matter how bad Damaturu was to her, she still got to do a lot of things that she dare not to think of here.

She quickly brushed it and tucked everything safely under her headscarf, because the last thing she wanted to happen was for someone to throw one more rude comment about her hair and then she didn't know if the day could get any more worse for her. She quickly went down to the kitchen and started making preparations for lunch when she heard Waleed's voice.