Afraid To Fall In Love

Twists and Turns

Mahmud

"Abbah what is going on" that was the first thing I asked, I was too messed up to even say my greetings,

"Mahmud we will explain everything later, right now your wife is not stable, I will call you when we get to the hospital or if there is anything " he hung up without waiting for what I had to say,

I found a spot on the bare floor trying to make sense of what ever was going on, what does Abbah mean by "we will explain " so everyone was in on it except me, this whole wedding thing was a trap to get me down here so they could ruin my life, was this some kind of punishment, or was it all about the ultimatum?

I kept asking myself a lot of questions,trying to figure out what the whole marriage thing was about.

Abbah had called me earlier about the groom and his family not showing up on time for the Niqah, they kept having small meetings with Papi, Mamie and Ammi which I had no clue what it was about. So what if the groom left her?why do I have to be punished for someone else's deeds?

I was happy we would be getting rid of her when she gets married, I guess the joke was on me, I was beginning to sweat excessively, and I hated it, I went to the hotel where Fu'ad and I were staying because there were women in every corner of the house. I took a shower changed into a white kaftan and sprayed some cologne, I called Ammi to find out which hospital they had taken Minal.

The waiting room was filled with her loved ones I doubt if there was any space left in the room, I took baby steps to where they were seated, Mamie walked towards me and embraced me tightly, then raised her head up to look at me with bloodshot eyes,

"is she okay? " I managed to ask,

"she will be In Shaa Allah, she had woken up earlier but her blood pressure was very high so the doctor had to sedate her"

The doctor finally approached us, everyone rushed towards him asking how she was doing, 

"she is out of harms way, right now she just needs to rest a bit, and I would like to place her on observation for two days" the doctor announced,

"when can we see her?" Mamie asked with worry evident on her face,

"you can go in" the doctor looked at the crowd "maybe just the immediate members" he added,

"Thank you doctor" Ammi spoke for the first time since I got there.

Mamie and Amrah were the first to go in, they were taking too long so Ammi followed behind them, I pulled out a chair in the corner of the room and pulled out my phone. I was carried away I didn't even realize how much time had passed,

I felt a pair of warm hands on my shoulders, I quickly looked up , it was Mamie,

"babana you can go see her how" she said with a very faint smile on her lips,

I really didn't want to go,  but I couldn't tell Mamie that, besides what kind of person would I be, I nodded my head and got up from where I was seated,

I entered the room as I muttered a "salam" under my breath, 

Ammi held my hand and pulled me closer to her, Minal was laying down peacefully , her black messy hair covering half of her face, she then turned to to see who it was and our eyes locked, the tears that settled beneath her eyes came running down her cheeks, she kept muttering something that was barely audible. My legs felt cold though it wasn't my fault, I had no hand in it,the last thing I wanted was to be her husband.

Two days after the incident she was brought back home from the hospital, she was no longer the Minal everyone knew, she would sit in her closet for hours, she stopped eating, even when Mamie made her favorite dishes.