What You Wish For: A Jordan love story

CHAPTER 1: Page 4

Elle took a deep breath before walking away from the car, she wished Talal had accepted her invitation now more than ever.

"What plans does he have anyway" she grumbled to herself, "isn't it past his bedtime...STOP IT! SO RUDE!" she scolded herself. No matter how disappointed she was that the old man was not there to give her the sense of security she needed she also knew that she was not entitled to it and therefore should not use insults to pacify the situation.

"Talal if you can hear me, I didn't mean it" she mumbled guiltily as though the old man could hear her or her thoughts. Elle saw a hijabbed woman sitting behind a booth with a poster for the movie she wanted to see. She did not know if the woman could speak English but she hoped that the woman would at least have the answers to her questions.

"Salam. Is the movie still on?" She said, her brows furrowing slightly as she pointed to the poster on the booth.

"Salam. Yeah, it starts in like forty five minutes" the hijabbed woman replied in a thick american accent. Elle let out a chuckle, being caught off-guard by the woman's perfect English.

"Oh okay great. Do you have any recommendations for things I can do while I wait?"

"Ummm...there are some booths when you walk through those doors and when you go around to the courtyard in the back, they have trivia games and stuff, or you can check out of the live panels going on now with some of the actors from the movies but that'll be over in like fifteen minutes."

"Hmm.." Elle said as she weighed the options the woman laid out. She thought the panel might allow her to avoid looking like a lone loser but she also did not want to go in at the last few minutes only to have to choose the booths anyway for the remaining thirty minutes of her wait.

"Out here is a bit empty because everyone is either in the live panels or hanging out at the booths in the back." the woman added, as Elle did a quick look around the near empty venue hoping to spot a chair she could pass the time in. Her scoping was in vain as the only chairs she spotted were behind booths of their own and the booth she was standing in front of which only had the one chair the woman was currently sitting on, she knew she had to choose one of the woman's options.

"I'll check out the booths at the back, maybe I'll win a prize or something." Elle said, drawing the strap of her bag higher on her shoulder. She always shifted her bag around when she was nervous, it helped her feel a bit more in control of any situation when she knew that she had everything she needed to get back home securely on her shoulder. Elle thanked the woman and made her way to the back.

The woman was right about there being more people at the booths, however the "more" she stated could thankfully be seen as an exaggeration. Elle paused as she counted the number of people she saw. "Thirty. Thirty isn't bad." she said to herself, "I'll start at the booth to my right and make my way down, then'll stop at that big poster, check the time on my phone and decide from there if I'll go to the theater or finish checking out the rest of the booths."

Her game plan was set. Elle raised her chin a bit higher, squared her shoulders and secured her bag once more. She refused to look like the lone loser no matter how few people would  take notice of her. As she stepped forward confidently, she felt a tug on her jacket snapping her back to the introvert she really was.

"بدي أحكي معِ" said an elderly woman holding on to her jacket draped over Elle's folded arms, "انه مهم جدا"

"Is that your booth? You want me to come to your booth?" Elle asked, trying to make sense of what the elderly woman was saying to her. The woman stopped, stomped her foot and put her finger up as though she was saying to Elle, "No little girl, listen closely"

"اسمعني بدي أحكي معِ" the elderly woman said slowly. Elle was grateful the woman slowed her speech a bit, however she still did not understand what was being said.

"Did I drop something?" Elle said, turning in a circle while looking at the floor. The woman stopped what was being said and stomped her foot once again.

"انه مهم جدا" she repeated, this time even slower and with some added hand gestures "الرأس الذي يحمل التاج لا يخلو من الهموم"

"I don't understand, sorry." Elle said to the woman with an apologetic look. It was clear the woman believed what she had to say to Elle was important enough to keep repeating it while tugging at her jacket sleeve.

"I'm sorry I wish I knew what you're saying but I don't understand" Elle said a bit frantically. Her two months of beginner Arabic helped her with day to day life in Jordan, however, she knew nothing of the dialect and struggled with the variations of the accents.

She wanted to pull her iPhone from her bag to attempt Google translating what the woman was saying but she decided against it as she believed it would be obnoxious.

"كيف ممكن أساعدك ؟" A warm voice said beside her. She had no idea what the guy had said but she was relieved to not be feeling utterly hopeless trying to help the woman.

The guy took the hand of the elderly woman and shook it gently. With each sentence exchanged Elle squinted at the the guy and the elderly woman hoping to pick out a word here and there to get an idea of what was being said. It was obvious they were talking about her which made her even more frantic to figure out what was being said but she also feared that she may be better off not knowing.

"She's telling you your future" the guy said, still looking at the elderly woman.

"My future?" Elle said, her head whipping toward him, "Is this some sort of scam?" Elle said looking around the room halfway expecting to see John Quiñones hiding in a booth.

The guy let out an amused scoff and continued speaking to the elderly woman.

"You must change your ways to get your heart's desire." The helpful man said slowly, clearly taking his time to translate the woman's words to the best of his ability. "Heavy is the crown but full is your heart. Do not give up, the lion is the queen..I'm sorry that's the best I've got"

"Heavy is the crown but full is your heart? What are you talking about? I'm sorry I have to go. Thank you." Elle said looking down as she scurried away.