Journal of a Teenage Muslim.

Chapter 41 - Not in Vain

I followed the mysterious lady, completely aware of the dangers of going with a random stranger, but I guess if worse came to worse, I could defend myself with the little bit of boxing that I knew. Her car was a small white Corolla and most of her face was hidden by her sunglasses. Her blond hair was neatly tied into a ponytail at the top of her head and her red lips pursed the whole ride, not uttering a single word until we reached a block of houses. She parked a fair distance away from all the houses.

"Come," She said beckoning me out of the car. I got out of the car and she locked it, the headlights flashed but no sound came.. That was a bit odd...

Her house was small and white and the inside was not much different. I could tell she didn't spend much time here because the paint on the walls were a bit cracked and there was a bucket filled with water that was dripping from the ceiling that was on the verge of overflowing. She took off her sunglasses and set them on the table, her eyes were a simple grey colour.

"Would you like some tea?" She asked.

"Um, sure," I replied since she was already in the kitchen and preparing the tea.

"My name's Alex by the way." She said as she switched on the kettle. The name did not suit her at all.

"I guess there's no need for me to introduce myself.." I said plainly.

"Not really.. How old are you?" Alex asked searching for the sugar in her messy cabinets.

"Fourteen."

"You're quite young," Alex declared.

"How do you know me?" I asked.

"It's not you I know acutally," She said handing me the tea mug. "Would you like milk and sugar?"

I nodded as she poured in a tea spoon of sugar and stirred in the milk.

"I like to have my tea black, healthier for the stomach I heard." Alex said.

"Interesting fact."  I commented.

"Sit," She invited me into what was meant to be her living room but it was only one sofa and a chair. Alex sat on the chair leaving the sofa for me. I took a seat and waited for her to start talking but it seemed like she had trouble figuring out how to explain herself as she took and sip of tea first, fidgeted a bit and than put her cup down.

"So what is it you needed to talk to me about?" I asked, nudging her to get started.

She took a deep breath and than began.

"I knew Jaidah, your mother,"

"Alot of people knew her." I said, wondering what was so important about the fact that she knew her.

"We were close, very close, you could even say we were best friends."

"I never heard of you before." I said honestly.

"You were very young when she left." Alex answered.

"I don't remember seeing you at her funeral." 

"I wasn't there, I didn't even go to offer my condolences to your father." Alex said.

"Some friend you were.. Why are you telling me this anyways?" I asked starting to get angry.

"Don't let your temper heat, let me finish." Alex insisted.

"Ok, finish," I said, not expecting anything much.

"When I say I knew your mom well, I mean extra well. I knew about everything, I knew about you, about your dad, about her unstable relationship with the authorities."

"You know about the real reason she died?" I asked, half in shock.

"I do. Jaidah died for trying to expose the truth."

"It was useless though. Every one thinks she died by accident. No one knows the purpose of her death."

"Your mother was not stupid Maydah, do you think she would give up her life, give up raising a daughter and leaving her hsband on his all for it to be unknown?"

"I don't know," I shrugged.

"Jaidah Ahmad was the spark to the flame, she made sure to leave something behind when she left this earth."

"What's that?" I questioned.

"Two stuff." Alex started. "The first was a small group of people, all aware of what was going on in the authorities, all aware of her efforts and all aware of the reason of her death.  These were not random people, nor were they just her close friends. These were people that Jaidah knew had the ability and the strength to carry on after her. She was the leader of this little gang if you must call it. She gathered all the people and told them about the situation and we all made a vow to do whatever we can to free those kids. But after Jaidah died, we knew we could no longer do our work in the open air and so we had to go covert. Some of us went to work in the authorites in order to get the inside news, others of us tried to make our group bigger.."

"What was the second thing she left behind?" I asked.

"You." Alex said. 

"Me?"

"Yes, you managed to free more kids at once than we could in years, but the war is just beginning.. The authorities have still got their eyes on you and our members have been watching you from afar in order to keep you safe."

"Why have they got their eye on me? I haven't don anything like they told me to."

"Because the head, Mr Daniels told you a little bit of information in the slip of tongue that could actually bring him down.

"What information?" I asked completely confused, Daniels had never told me any information.

"He told you about his stepson's real father."

"What's wrong with that?" 

"Well, at the time Zeke Daniels was a baby, his real father was nothing more than a simple shopkeeper and since he had so little money to support himself here, he was forced to leave and go back to his country, Serbia. But a few years after he was there, he stroke lucky and managed to inherit some money from his dead grandfather.. With that he started up a business, not too big but all businesses start small and grow don't they? Well his grew incredibly large. He now owns one of the world's largest brands 'Lafa Clothing'. "

"I'm still not seeing the problem."

"If Zeke's biological father was to some how hear about this, and maybe dislike the idea, he could make it known all over the world and people wpuld actually listen to him seeing as he's one of the richest people in the world. And if people come to know about this scandal-"

"Than Daniels is going down!" I exclaimed.

"Exactly." Alex nodded.

"So all we have to do is get Zeke to tell his dad right?"

"It's more complicated than that dear..."