Short Story: Where is My Khadija Chapter 8

By Alawiya Abdalla

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Bismillah

Khadija

Have you ever heard the term my heart fell into my stomach?

That is exactly how I felt when I saw Saydi’s face

What is he doing here? Is he not supposed to be in the event with the rest of the family! Subhanallah, I felt so scared, I could picture myself emptying all my contents from my belly

“Are you surprised I’m here?” asks Saydi, the creepy smile never leaving his face

“I..I…I…I can explain!” I reply stammering and thinking how do I explain the situation to this monster.

How do I explain that, I just wanted to see what the big fuss is all about. Girls always talk about how they went out with their friends and had fun, I just wanted to know how they felt like

I wanted to be a normal girl for just one day, that’s all Saydi my friend

Well, I wanted to say all of that to him hoping that he would understand for a change. However, somehow I doubt he will be very understanding as he is the cause of all my sufferings

“I went to the event with our next door neighbour to see what the fuss was all about, that’s all,” I try to keep my answers casual.

YES! I should keep it casual__

Casual is good, right?

“Yeah I saw you. I saw everything, I saw you teasing and acting all innocent,” he says, moving closer to me like a slithering snake

“In fact. You have been teasing me for months now, right Habiba?” he asks with that smile, never leaving his face.

“You know what, Habiba. I never saw you as anything before, other than that ugly servant we hired to clean and cook. But I have to admit that after you changed yourself, I was impressed! Who knew this beauty was hiding beneath that ugly person.” Now he is way too close

Then he does the one thing that I was dreading, but hoping it would not happen__

The one thing that would change everything__

And everyone__

He grabs me from my arms pulling me closer to his face I should have ran away the moment I saw his twisted smile.

But fear found me first. I do not know why my legs are not co-operating with me

It is the shock of it all! I know he is vile, aggressive and abusive but I never thought he would stoop to this level.

He reminds me of a fish at this very moment, I can actually imagine seeing his gills popping out of his skin at any moment

Then something extra ordinary happens. My legs TOTALLY saves the day

In the midst of my shock, I find the strength to get my legs to move and__

You guessed it! and if you are a man reading this, you will understand Saydi’s reason for slumping on the floor__

He is calling me all sorts of names, whilst bending in intense pain

Walahi, I have never felt this happy before

Serves him right I say. Who would have thought I could do that? Making a grown disgusting man cry in pain! I have to say it is a pretty good feeling.

I feel so empowered all of a sudden, I feel like I should do a little more damage to him

WHAT? He totally deserves it the fool. About I was teasing him!! I was just trying to BE a girl__

A normal girl for a change. I did not wear any clingy clothes, I did not walk around the house in provocative clothes!!

I refuse to think that I was enticing him in anyway.! He IS WRONG, and I am never EVER going to be physically or mentally abused AGAIN.

Just as I was about to inflict some more pain to the fish man, I hear the sound of the keys on the door.

Manafisa comes in first, and her eyes falls on her husband who is on the floor tossing in pain from the__

Well, if you’re a man you will know why he is tossing in pain

“What happened here?” She asks, a LITTLE bit concerned

Manafisa NEVER shows any emotions on her face, it is like she is dead inside. One day her daughter Alawiya fell, and had a really terrible cut on her arm she needed stiches.

You would think she would have at least pretended to be panicked or something, because the blood was everywhere! But oh no, she just slowly took her to the hospital, and watched silently until it was all finished

It was like that the whole time I lived with them, she was just emotionless. Sometimes she would stare into a wall FOR HOURS, and not say anything to anyone.

And now, she is standing in front of her husband watching him, and waiting for an explanation.

“SHE did this to me! She tried to seduce me for weeks and now she did this because I rejected her” He tells her in a pathetically faked agony voice

Zahra and Alawiya look at their dad on the floor, and then back at me in shock

“You must be kidding right? Habiba will never do such thing! And why would she seduce YOU dad?” asks Zahra, in a you MUST be kidding me kind of voice.

“So you believe her and not your own father??” He tries to guilt trip her into picking sides

“You KNOW what you tried to do! I’m not going to repeat it out of respect for the whole family.” I feel my cheeks burning from anger, as I say it to them

“LIAR!” He shouts at me.

We all look at Manafisa to see what she has to say. I cannot read her face at all! I have been nothing but a loyal servant to them, and I hope for ONCE that I would be rewarded for it

She says nothing for a good one minute, you can actually hear a pin drop as silence fills the air.

“Leave.” She finally speaks, although we do not know who is she talking to exactly

“I said leave,” she repeats her command.

“Who are you saying it to?” asks Alawiya in confusion, and I do not know if it is my imagination but I feel like she is hoping Manafisa is talking to her dad and not me!

“Leave, Habiba,” she says with her head bowed to the floor

“NO MUM! YOU CAN’T!” says Zahra in my defence

I  am too numb to say anything to be honest!! All I could think about was how cold it is outside

Part of me feels betrayed for being abandoned after all my hard work working for this family, and part of me feels relieved.

Relieved that my nightmare will be over soon__

Relieved that for more than 10 years I had the chance to run away, but I did not.

I stayed faithful and doing my best for this family. And now I can go away safely, with no guilt hanging around me.

I really am free this time

I go in the girls room, and I take the one thing that matters to me the most__

My doll__

The doll that shared my secrets and pain all these years

I am in no position to take anything else at this late hour anyway. So I say my salams to the girls and I leave.

I make my way to Dada’s house_

She is the only one who can help me at this moment, I wait for her outside her house.

I wait in this freezing night, praying that she will not take long to arrive


Mohamed

The night has been a total success apart from a few hitches Alhamdulilah. My speech went really well, and alot of the Somali community donated generously MASHALLAH

After wrapping everything up, we decide that we are gonna split ourselves into two groups.

Ahmed, Ibrahim and my mum will take Ahmed’s car home, and I will take Dada Fawziyah to her house Inshallah.

I was in the car driving towards Dada house, when I noticed that she was clutching her chest from my front mirror

“Dada, are you OK? You don’t look well!” I ask her, pulling over to the side of the road.

“My left arm is hurting and I feel like I can’t breathe,” she manages to tells me.

“I’ll take you to Northwick Park hospital, it’s not that far from here Inshallah,” I tell her calmly, even though my whole body is in a panic mode

We arrive there within 10 minutes, and the nurse ushers us straight to the examination room.

The doctor arrives within seconds, they both look at each other and say one word.

Suspected heart attack

They tell me to leave the room, and wait in the family room

I pace the floor up and down, and I call my mum to let her know what is happening. They all arrive including Asha half an hour later, but I have no news for them about Dada’s condition

After an agonizing two hours wait, a nurse comes out with some information.

“Your relative had a heart attack, but she is now in a stable condition.” She tells us sympathetically, ”There is no need for any of you to stay here, but you will need to bring her some essentials from her house for when she wakes up.”

My mum decides to come with me to Dada’s house to help me.  Ahmed and the rest head home after checking on Dada who is in deep sleep at the moment.

We go to Dada’s house immediately.

As we near the house, we notice that someone is sitting on the floor outside the door

I peer closer and I see a shivering person sitting there. We get closer, and realize that it is Habiba sitting on the door step

What is she doing out so late

“Habiba? What are you doing outside so late?,” asks my mum.

“I…I was waiting for Dada, where is she?” She stammers the answer.

“She’s in a hospital darling. What happened?” Replies my mum.

“Is she OK? What happened to her??? I wanna go see her please!” She talks in a panicked voice.

“She had a heart attack, but she’s stable now. Look at you shivering! Have you been out here for hours??” asks my mum, as she clearly registers Habiba’s situation.

“I have nowhere to go, and I came here hoping Dada will let me stay with her for a while,” she replies tearfully.

“You’re coming to my house now, I’ll just go inside to get Dada’s stuff and we’ll head home Inshallah OK?” My mum puts her hand on Habiba’s shoulder for reassurance.

She does not say anything, but she follows us to the car obediently as she has no other choice.

Maskeena, who would do that to someone at this time??

Habiba’s story is very intriguing, who is her family? There is something about her that is so familiar, but I just cannot seem to put my hand on it

We make our way to the hospital to drop Dada’s stuff, and we let Habiba go to see her. She spends 10 minutes, because this is not visiting hours.

And after a long day, we head home. As soon as we enter the house, my mum orders me and my brothers to go stay in Dada’s house.

We all understand that it would be improper to stay there, now that Habiba is staying in our house for a while.

Asha was practically jumping for joy, she was actually pushing us on the way out

“This is going to be a girls' house from now on,” She squeals, jumping around and managing to make Habiba smile

As I was leaving, one thought dominated my mind___

Who could do such thing like kick a girl out of the house at this hour

What kind of people did she live with? Who is her mum and dad?

Habiba is really an intriguing person indeed________

“Verily Allah possesses infinte Mercy”


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