by Emma Easter
Lauren nodded and walked away.
Zainah watched Faizan’s face to see if he would look at Lauren as she walked away, but he didn’t. He took her hands and said, “What’s wrong, beloved?” She shook her head, but his gaze pierced hers. He said, “There is something wrong. Tell me what it is.”
“It’s really nothing,” she answered.
He kept looking at her and then said, “It’s about Lauren, isn’t it?”
Zainah’s heart thudded. How come he knew her so well? It was as if he could read her thoughts. She pressed her lips tightly together and refused to speak. Her jealousy was wrong. Even though Lauren was clearly attracted to him, she was certain he didn’t feel the same about her. Still, she couldn’t help her jealousy.
He smiled and chucked her chin. “Are you jealous, Zainah? You know there is nothing to be jealous about, don’t you?”
“I’m not jealous,” she lied.
“Yes, yes you are jealous. Well, I will tell you everything that happened between us.”
A terrible dread came over her at his words. She blurted out, “Something happened between you two?”
“Nothing for you to be jealous about. However, you need to know what happened. I would have told you some time in the future, but I may as well tell you now.”
“What about Trisha…?”
“I’ll go visit her and Frank before they leave for Paris.” He took Zainah’s hand. “I went out on a date with Lauren.”
Zainah gasped and her mouth flew open.
“I was pining constantly for you. Everyone told me I needed to move on, but I just couldn’t. Even though I knew you and I could never be together because of your vow, I couldn’t let you go in my heart.”
Zainah’s heart raced as he told her about Lauren’s attraction to him and his constant resistance. At last, after Sienna and her husband had left for South America, he’d decided life was too short to waste away alone. He’d asked Lauren out and they’d gone on a date.
“Lauren is a great girl, but as much as I tried, I couldn’t get myself to be interested in her. After our date, she wanted to kiss me.”
Zainah shut her eyes as images of him kissing the beautiful Lauren crossed her mind. Faizan put his hands on her cheeks and continued, “I backed away. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kiss her. I kept thinking of you, and though I knew it was hopeless, it felt as though I would be cheating on you.” He caressed her cheeks. “I love you with all my heart, Zainah. I hope you know you can always trust me. Lauren is probably the one jealous of you!”
Zainah opened her eyes and looked at him. Because of her vow, she completely understood why he’d given in and gone on a date with Lauren. But it didn’t stop the jealousy tearing at her. She looked into his eyes and saw again his intense love for her reflected in them. She stepped toward him and said, “I trust you completely, Faizan. And I apologize. You were right. I was a little jealous.”
He smiled, teasing her. “Only a little?”
“Okay, very jealous. But I was wrong to be. You are a handsome man. Of course women will want you. But you belong to me, and that is what matters.”
He pulled her close. “And you belong to me, Zainah. Nothing and no one will ever separate us. Do you hear me?”
She nodded.
As he claimed her lips and kissed her the way she had dreamed of being kissed for months, her emotions churned with a mixture of pleasure and worry.
Chapter Two
The steward opened the door and Karim Keita walked into Jibril Mohamed’s house. The steward led him through a wide foyer into a living room that was tastefully furnished. He opened a door that led into Jibril’s now familiar study and Karim walked in.
Jibril looked up as he came in, held out his hand, and then pointed to the seat in front of his desk. Karim sat and turned to greet Dauda who was sitting on the chair beside his. He turned back to Jibril again and then asked why he had been summoned to the man’s house. Jibril said to him, “You know why I asked you to come to my house. Stop pretending like you don’t.”
Karim said nothing. He knew exactly why, especially since Dauda was here as well, but he was not willingly going to say he did. Dauda and Jibril kept staring at him and he sighed wearily. “Okay,” he said, looking at Dauda first and then facing Jibril. “You sent for me because of your wives. I asked you some days ago when you and Dauda brought this up to give me some time. I’ll find a way to get my daughter and her friend back to both of you.”
Dauda said, “You’ve been saying the same thing for months. We want our wives right now. When your debts came due and we made that agreement not to destroy you financially and cancel your debts on the condition that I would marry your daughter while Dauda married her friend, you agreed wholeheartedly. But now you want to back out of our agreement. You can’t. As you well know, the wedding rites were already said, and we are legally married to those women according to our custom. And since we are married to them, they belong to us now.”
“I am not trying to back out of our agreement, and I know they are both yours now.” Karim shook his head and stared at the brothers. They both looked alike, with the same bushy beards and eyebrows, though Dauda’s complexion was darker than Jibril’s. “I’m just asking to be given some time to find them and bring them to you again. You know what happened at the wedding was not my fault. How was I supposed to know that my daughter has armed men as friends?”
Jibril laughed harshly and then glowered at him. “You are asking me how you were supposed to know that your daughter, Zainah, is involved with dangerous men.” He looked at his brother and said, “We were thoroughly humiliated on our own wedding day.”
“I know, I know,” Karim said exasperatedly.
“That is why we called you here,” Dauda said. “We were robbed when those men took our wives. We don’t care how you get them back. Just give us our wives now.”
Karim sighed loudly as he looked at both men for a long while. He finally said, “I’m working on it.” He muttered under his breath, “It’s not as if both of you don’t have harems full of wives already.”
Dauda glared at him and said, “What’s it to you? All we are saying is that you give us what rightfully belongs to us. How many wives we both have already is none of your business. You made an agreement with us and we are holding you accountable to keep that agreement.”
Karim said, “I am simply asking both of you for more time. I am still trying to figure out a way to lure Zainah and her friend, Leila, back to Nira. I am sure I’ll be able to do that in no time.”
Jibril stared him down and said, “We are giving you only one month. If you have not produced our wives within one month, we will destroy your business.” He glared at Karim. “Everything you own will burn to ashes.”
Karim trembled with fear on the inside, but did not allow the men to see that he was afraid. The brothers had lived in Saudi Arabia for half their lives and had only returned to Nira, their hometown, last year, after their parents died. They had come with their wives, their children, and their copious amount of wealth that they had gathered abroad. They had built magnificent mansions for themselves in Nira and settled in them with their large families.
He had been so impressed by their wealth that he had quickly made friends with them, seeing the potential their friendship held for his business. If only he had not borrowed so much money from them. But he had needed the money at the time to grow his farms. When the time to pay had come, he’d found he didn’t have the money to repay the brothers, and the threats had begun.
The men had seen Zainah and Leila when the two came to Nira months ago and had immediately wanted them as wives. They had instantly approached him and told him they wanted to marry the girls. And then they’d promised to cancel his debt if he would give them Zainah and Leila’s hands in marriage. At the time, he had thought he was very lucky. Not only would his debt be cancelled and the threat of financial ruin be lifted off of him, but he would have a rich in-law. If only he’d kn
own how things would turn out. But then again, it wasn’t as if he had the money to pay them now or any way of ever getting it in the near future. Perhaps he’d been destined to be bound to these men.
The brothers were staring at him as though he had gone insane.
“Are you going to say anything, or will you just keep staring at us like an idiot?” Jibril said.
Karim thinned his lips and then reiterated his promise to bring Zainah and her friend, Leila, back to Nira in no time.
“You had better do it quickly,” Jibril said. “We will be very watchful this time. Once you bring them to us, we will move back to Saudi Arabia with them and our entire family immediately if there is any sign of trouble. What happened last time will not happen again.”
Karim nodded. “Of course,” he said.
Five minutes later, he left Jibril’s house. Once he was outside, he quickly made his way to his own house. He sat on the sofa and sent one of his men to call Malik. When the men went to do his bidding, he called out to his daughter, Khadija.
She appeared in the living room almost immediately and walked up to him. She looked at him quizzically. “Yes, Papa. What is it?”
He stared at her and said, “What do you mean, ‘what is it?’ When did you start speaking to me like that?”
She sighed loudly and said, “I’m sorry.” But she did not look sorry at all.
He shoved aside his anger and asked, “Do you know your sister’s new phone number? I have been trying to call her with the one she gave me when she was here, but it’s not going through.”
Khadija stared at him as though he had gone mad, and he barked at her, “Why are you looking at me like that?” She was the second person who had looked at him as though something was wrong with him within just a few minutes. That was not right.
“But, Papa, I don’t have a cell phone, so why would I know Zainah’s number?”
He felt as though steam was coming out of his ears as he glowered at her. He almost stood up to hit her but held himself in check. He needed her help at this time. Sighing wearily, he leaned back in his seat and said to her, “So you don’t have her phone number. Are you sure of that?”
“I don’t,” Khadija answered.
“And do you know if your mother has Zainah’s new number?” he asked. Zainah and Khadija’s mother was away on a visit in the next town to see her own aged mother and would be gone for some time. It was unlikely that she knew Zainah’s new number though, as she would have told him if she did.
Khadija said, “I don’t think Mama has it either. You know she doesn’t even know how to use her cell phone. It just lies around her bedroom. She calls no one and no one calls her except Grandmother.”
Malik walked in and Karim turned to face him. As usual, he was sour-faced. He had been the same way for months now. Thankfully, Karim didn’t have to deal with Malik’s brooding all the time. He had sent him to work on his farm in shifts. Karim wasn’t sure whether to be amiable to try to get the information he wanted from Malik or whether to threaten him. Almost immediately, he chose the former and smiled. “Malik, I’m glad to see you back after your weeks away.”
Malik glared at him. His animosity was clear and palpable. Karim struggled to control his anger. Both his children were treating him with such disdain. He had to find a way to put a stop to it all. But for now, he would let it go.
Malik said, “Please, Father, do not pretend that you are happy to see me. What do you want from me?”
Karim stared at him for a long moment and then stood up. “I am very sure you have Zainah’s number, or at least that Leila girl’s. I need you to tell me what it is.”
Malik rolled his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t have Zainah’s new number and Leila does not have a cell phone. But even if I had their numbers, I would not tell you what they were. Not after you showed me clearly that you do not have their best interests… or mine, at heart.” He turned around and left the house before Karim could say anything else.
Karim stared at the door for a long moment and ground his teeth in anger. He turned around to face his daughter, but she had also left the living room. He wanted to go after her and Malik, grab them by the ears, and scold them for their insolence, but he reined his anger in and sat down on the sofa again.
How will I get Zainah and her friend Leila back to Nira? he thought to himself. How was he going to get Zainah and her friend to come back here when he didn’t even know where they were? He had to find a way to get them to come back now, before the one month Jibril and Dauda had given him ended. If he could not get them back here by then, he would have to kiss his farms and everything he had goodbye.
*****
Just before the break of dawn, Leila left the prayer tent after the general morning prayers. She removed the shawl covering her hair as she walked to her tent. The other women milled around her. Some were in groups of three or four, chatting, while others yelled at their children, ordering them to stay still. Leila barely noticed any of the women or children. In fact, throughout the prayers, she’d struggled to concentrate. Her mind refused to remain on anything but her misery. She longed for Malik with all her heart and she missed Zainah terribly.
She was confused by Malik’s absence during her and Zainah’s almost forced marriage and conversion months ago. He’d been the one to help them escape the shack Zainah’s father had locked them in. And he was the one who had hired the driver who was supposed to take them out of Nira, Zainah’s tiny hometown. But the driver had not taken them out of Nira. Instead, he had waited on the roadside for them to be captured again by Zainah’s father’s men. They had been locked up again. Thankfully, Faizan’s armed friends had rescued them.
Zainah had insisted then that Malik was the one who’d betrayed them. But Leila didn’t believe that then nor did she really believe it now. However, it was all so strange. How had the driver gotten in touch with the men who’d recaptured her and Zainah if he didn’t know beforehand who the occupants of his taxi would be? They had not seen him make any calls while he drove them almost to the outskirts of town. Worst of all, Malik had been nowhere in sight after they were captured again nor had he tried to find her since then.
“He promised we would be together,” Leila whispered to herself as she entered her tent.
“Who did?”
Leila turned and saw Halima, one of the women she shared the tent with, staring at her. She’d thought she’d spoken in a whisper. Apparently not. “No one,” Leila said impatiently to the petite young woman.
Halima shook her head, sympathy clearly written on her face. She put her hand on Leila’s shoulder and said softly in Arabic, “Since Zainah left for America, you have been so sad and very quiet. I know she was your best friend, but you have other friends here as well. You can’t keep isolating yourself from everyone.”
Leila gave her a small smile. “I do miss Zainah, but I am so happy for her. She’s with the love of her life now.”
Halima shook her head. “But you don’t look happy at all.”
Leila sighed. She’d tried so hard to be happy for Zainah, but envy tore at her constantly. Zainah was now with the man she loved and they would soon get married, while she was left aching after Malik, wondering if she would ever see him again. Zainah’s absence had only made her misery worse. She would have liked to have her closest confidant to talk to. Zainah always knew what to say even if Leila sometimes didn’t listen to her.
She sighed and sat down on her sleeping mat, sadness weighing her down. Halima sat beside her and put her arm around her shoulders. “Will you be able to go to Zainah’s wedding?”
Leila turned. “And how do you suggest I go to America even if she invites me?” she snapped at her. “Should I fly there like a witch? Are you too dense to know that I need a visa and money that you have never even seen in your life in order to get there?”
Halima’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She stared at Leila in obvious shock.
Leila shut her eyes, deeply regretting
her outburst. “I’m sorry,” she said to Halima. She opened her eyes and looked at Halima. “I don’t know what came over me. Please forgive me.”
Halima smiled thinly. “It’s okay. I understand your concern.” She stood up and quickly left Leila alone.
Leila sighed again. Halima was right. She was isolating herself and not talking to the other campers. But Zainah was the only one that really understood her.
She smiled in self-mockery. Zainah understood her except when it came to men and relationships. While Zainah believed that Christians were supposed to leave finding their life partners to God, Leila believed Christians played an active role in it. They had quarreled a lot in the last few months because of that. She knew what Zainah would tell her now if she shared her deep yearning for Malik. Zainah would tell her the same thing she had said when they were in Mali. She would say her brother didn’t share Leila’s faith and therefore they couldn’t have a relationship.
And Leila had believed the same thing for years until she’d fallen for a Muslim man. She knew she couldn’t marry Malik because he was not a Christian, but it didn’t stop her from falling in love with him and vice versa. She pursed her lips. It was another thing she had to worry about. If she ever saw Malik again, how would she convert him? Because, in spite of how in love she was with him, Zainah was right. She couldn’t marry someone who didn’t share her love for Jesus.
She lay on her sleeping mat and closed her eyes. The sun would soon be up. She was supposed to fetch water at the well for the women whose turn it was to cook breakfast for the camp, but she didn’t feel up to it at all. Depression had sucked up all her strength. She would tell them to replace her with someone else today because she wasn’t feeling well.
How long will you continue like this? she thought.
She couldn’t go on like this for much longer. She had to do something. If Malik wasn’t going to do what he promised and find her, then she would go looking for him. And when she found him, she would not rest until he became a Christian. Then they could get married.