Road to Jannah

Chapter Two • Same Mistake

I'm not calling for a second chance, I'm screaming at the top of my voice, give me reason but don't give me choice, cause I'll just make the same mistake again.

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~ J A N N A H ~

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Just like the other two calls, I didn't bother to answer this one too and just let the annoying buzz of the vibration die off in my blazer pocket. Yes, for some reason I couldn't help, today I had to wear a black suit and black trousers and dress like I'm some corporate firm employee instead of a supervisor for an NGO.

It was our last class today, the final lesson of the program for this batch so things were organized to be more special today and hence the suit. Even though the people here couldn't differentiate if I was stark naked or in these formal wears, Maryam still insisted that we all dress like this. To what end, I have no idea since we've done this a gazillion times before and we've never had a dress code.

"Sister Asiya," Miss Jonah beckons me from her desk and I pace hurriedly towards her. "Sister Asiya, please is the laptop still on or is it switched off? I don't hear anything and I've been pressing the on button since."

The computer was indeed off and the screen before her was completely black but poor Ms Jonah couldn't see that, she couldn't see anything for that matter and neither could the rest of the twelve people in this room.

"Yes Ms Jonah, it's off. Didn't you hear the low battery warning? It's dead now, hope you haven't forgotten your charger again?"

"No Sister Asiya, it is in my bag." she answered, feeling for her bag where she kept it under the bench and once she found it, she produced the cord and adapter out of it. "Here it is sister Asiya, please help me plug the socket in."

I had tried time and again to make Ms Jonah drop the 'sister' title she had attached to my name. The woman was almost fifty years old where as I had just turned twenty five a month ago so definitely, she needed no honorific to address me with but Ms Jonah was so sweet that she always treated me with more respect than I deserve. I had even suggested that she just call me by the nickname most of the people I know call me by; Jannah, but she had continued with the "sister Asiya" title making me feel like a nurse or a nun everytime she called out to me. And today since I was dressed in all black, my hijab included, I was feeling more like the latter than ever.

"Thank you sister Asiya." she said with that toothy grin of hers - when I had plugged in the charger and turned on the laptop - and I felt my nun-ness intensify so much that a halo must've appeared over my head.

On this last lesson, the participants task was to browse the internet and gather info about their respective topics with pictures and everything, then write a paper about their research using Microsoft Word, convert it to a document and then send it to me via email. Something a sighted person would have done with great ease and now opening up my email and finding all of their letters, these visually impaired people have done it with even more ease.

I felt proud and a sense of accomplishment that could not be rivalled by anything. That was why even though the pay wasn't that high, this job meant so much to me. I wonder why it was so hard for Hamdan to understand that and as if on cue, my phone buzzed again just as I was done with the last email.

This time since I truly had no excuse of being in class, and everyone was outside in the cafeteria, I braced myself and endeavored to pick up.