Short Story: Where is my Khadija Chapter 7 (Continued)

By Alawiya Abdallah

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Bismillah

Mohamed

I am backstage waiting to go on stage after the Arabic translator guy, who is supposed to have gone on a couple of minutes ago

It is so nerve racking waiting to go, I have not really thought about it until now

Where is the guy?? The presenters are trying to buy some time, but it looks like I am gonna go first.

OH NO! OH NO! You see I told myself I had a few more minutes before I go first, and that kind of made me calm.

And now I have to talk to myself again, and warn it that it looks like I am about to go first

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear__

Thunder__Maybe thunder will come and__

Nope, I do not see no thunder about ready to distract the audience

Just me, All alone__

Ready to__

“Salamu Alykum Mohamed, Long time no see,” says a tall butch man It takes me a second to realize that the butch body belongs to Ali.

Subhanallah, I have not seen Ali since high school. We went to the same Primary school, and then to the same High school.

I did not start Primary school from the beginning, but I heard from my friends that Ali has been through A LOT when he was 9 years old. Something involving fire and his dad dying!

We never really crossed paths before, mainly because I was a scrawny boy at Primary school and Ali was on his way to buffness waaay before me.

Ali is the sort of guy who would send us average guys sobbing to our beds, because let us face it, how could you compete with that really

He was popular, but never arrogant though__

Basically we were not so close, but we were always civil and friendly towards each other.

“Wa Alykum salam Ali, how you been?” I ask him, noticing that he is holding some papers

“I’m good, mate, the guy who was supposed to speak Arabic isn’t here yet and they asked me to fill in,” he explains the situation to me.

“Do you speak Arabic??” I ask him puzzled

“I speak Arabic Fusha (Original). I hope they understand me though, I’m not very good,” he replies self consciously.

“Look, just relax you’ll be alright Inshallah. Have you ever gave a speech in front of an audience before?” I ask him, feeling the clock ticking for the poor guy.

“No never,” he says biting his lower lip.

Oh well, basically you are screwed mate!

Well, that is what I was thinking but I said,

“Trust me, you will be fine Inshallah.” Yep he is totally screwed

So he goes on stage, stumbles upon his words which incidentally makes me think

Thunder__Maybe if thunder came and distracted the audience for a bit

Nope__No thunder about I am afraid! The weather is actually quite magnificent really, the sun is out and__

WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER?? Subhanallah it is nerve racking this waiting business

Ali is still stumbling on his words, but he also seems to be looking at someone in a box!

Yep he is totally screwed

I wonder who he is looking at though? I peer through the curtains and I see that he is looking at that girl who is NOT supposed to walk on the streets of London, who came with Dada Fawziyah

“Sister please wait, I need your Wali’s number,” says Ali through the microphone!!

Why am I feeling agitated?? It is the lack of thunder I think_Yep that is what it is

WHERE IS THUNDER WHEN YOU NEED ONE

I look closer at the girl in question, and I notice that she is not putting her Hijab over her mouth and looking closer I see that she is______________

HABIBA????????????? What is she doing here looking all pretty??


Khadija

Oh shoot, Oh shoot! Where is a girl supposed to run? Like seriously__Why did he have to say that?

All I know is, I am running towards__well, I am running towards the__

OK I DON’T KNOW WHERE I AM RUNNING TOWARDS

Then I see it. No one will look for me here__Suddenly everything will be alright Inshallah.

Suddenly I will be like the invisible woman__

Suddenly__

OK, I am just going to hide in the toilet that is all So I make my way there.

I am almost there, I can totally see the ladies sign__

I can see myself touch the door knob and turn it round and__

KABUM

I stumble, and I am about to totally fall on my back in a spectacularly unlady like manner. So I ninja hop and chop out of it avoiding the__

DEAD CORPSE LYING ON THE FLOOR WITH IT’S HAND ON IT’S HEAD

Wait a minute! Are not corpses supposed to be dead anyway? So I should not really say dead corpse, I should just say dead person

Or is it just a corpse? But are not corpses supposed to be dead for a while? So really this is a dead person if my guessing is right and__

OH FOR ALLAH’S SAKE WHY AM I PONDERING ABOUT THE TERM?

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IS, THERE IS A DEAD CORPSE IN THE HALLWAY! Or is it a dead person?

OH OH I have GOT to stop pondering

“Hi,” says the dead corpse

So I do what one would do when a dead corpse says hi to oneself__

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH,” I scream.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH,” screams the dead corpse.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH,” I scream back, because I do not like the fact that it is competing with me in terms of who is louder

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH,” screams the dead corpse back

OK, this is DEFINITELY not a dead corpse It is__IBRAHIM??? Yep, that is Ibrahim lying on the floor motionless!

“Ibrahim? What are you doing lying on the floor like that?” I ask totally baffled

“Habiba? So you are the girl that made my little brother go all shy?” He seems to be really surprised that it is ME, Habiba.

“What are you doing on the floor?” I repeat the question to him, because I do not know how to answer that really

“Well, I was trying to find someone who could compete with me in the screaming match,” he says with a lopsided grin

I just give him a look that says, OUT WITH IT

“Fine, I was searching for this amazingly beautiful lady and I twisted my ankle,” He points to his twisted ankle.

“How did you twist it?” I ask him concerned.

“Well, it started with Ahmed’s prayer towards me.” He stops for a second and remembers, “Oh yeah. He told me May Allah curse you if you go after her.”

I should not laugh, I really should not but I cannot help the laughter coming out of my mouth

“Yeah OK! Well why were YOU running?” He asks me, shrugging off the laughing incident

“Well, someone just told me that they want my Wali’s number” I tell him.

“Is that it?” He asks puzzled

“Through the microphone” I reply in a shocked voice

“Ooooh that’s embarrasing!” He finally gets why am I trying to hide.

“It’s petrifying actually,” I blurt it out

“Why?” He asks, concerned.

“I’m just not comfortable with this whole centre of attention business,” I lie to avoid having to explain about Saydi.

“Then don’t. You strike me as a sort of girl who’s homely and shy, and those are not bad qualities you know.” He says the things that were going through my head, but I never really understood.

I like the fact that I prefer to stay home than going out, I like the fact that I had prefer to wear natural make up than a heavy one.

To be honest with you, I like the fact that I am homely. I just wanted to do what the other girls did, but that’s just not me.

“You’re right you know. I think I’m gonna head home right now, Jazakallah,” I say it making my way back to my box.

“Have you ever considered writing novels? It’s just the way you described my character was spot on.” I turn around, to encourage him to try an new venture.

“I’ll tell you what. I’ll do that if you marry my brother Mohamed. He’s a good guy, and he’s never looked at someone like that since Khadija,” He says it casually, like it’s not embarrassing at all

“Only if you stop looking for superficial girls, and look out for a girl with a name beginning with a J,” I challenge him, really I should help out my friend Jawahir without making it too obvious

“Who’s J?” He asks curiously “Wait! Are you not gonna help me?” He continues his questions, but I just walk away

To help him get up, I have to hold his hands and then I have to explain to him that I do not hold men’s hands__

It is gonna take too long to explain, and I just wanna get home to my boring life__

I quite like it, I have come to discover Alhamdulilah. Saydi does not physically abuse me, so I will just enjoy my life the way it is for the time being

I am content Alhamdulilah

I go and inform Dada Fawziyah that I want to head home, but she tells me that she wants to stay until the end and that she’ll take a ride with Mohamed and his brothers.

I take the cab home, thinking Saydi and his family will probably stay till the end too. So I probably have enough time to change and go to sleep peacefully

I go in the house, and I turn on the lights. I go to the living room to check for facial wipes, as I know that when Alawiya and Zahra get ready for going out, everything tends to be everywhere

As soon as I put on the lights, I see him

I see Saydi’s face looking at me__

He’s not raging, he’s not angry

He is smiling creepily


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