Falling In Love

by Emma Easter

  Audrey put a hand on Ken’s shoulder and said, “Ken, you need to try to speak to Jake again.”

  Ken didn’t say anything for a long moment, and then he sighed and said, “Okay, I will call him.” He frowned. “But you will have to manage your expectations.”

  “Will you call him now?” Faizan asked eagerly.

  Ken frowned again and pointed at the clock on the wall. “Look at the time, Faizan. If I wake Jake up now, all I will get is a grumpy, angry man who will refuse any and every request I make. Please let’s wait until morning.”

  Faizan groaned in frustration and pressed his lips tightly together. He finally sighed loudly and nodded. “Okay, we will wait until morning.”

  Ken stood and Audrey stood up with him. “Ok, it’s all settled now. I will call Jake in the morning.” He smiled at Faizan and then took Audrey’s hand. “Let’s go.”

  After Audrey and Ken left the living room, Faizan sat back on the sofa and shut his eyes. He felt better, but only a little. Jake might refuse to even hear them out. All he could do now was wait.

  He picked up the remote control from the coffee table, knowing he couldn’t go back to sleep now. He switched the TV set on to distract himself from his morbid thoughts and began to flip through the channels. Finally, not finding anything that could sufficiently distract him, he switched off the TV again.

  He closed his eyes and began to pray that the Lord would grant him favor and that Jake would somehow agree to their request. Because if Jake refused to help him, he would have to resort to finding a way to help himself. And that would mean trying to sneak out of the country on his own without being caught and getting thrown in jail for the rest of his life.

  Faizan’s eyes flew open as someone tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up and saw it was Ken. “Is it morning already?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. He had dropped off to sleep in the living room while still praying.

  “Yes, it is,” Ken said. He sat down beside Faizan and looked at him. “I called Jake early in the morning, Faizan.”

  Faizan sat up and nodded. “What did he say?” he asked, as his heart pounded with hope and dread.

  “I told him to help you unofficially, as a friend. It took a lot of pleading, but he agreed to help.”

  Faizan’s eyes widened in shocked joy, and then he raised his fist in triumph and roared, “Yes.”

  Ken lifted a finger and added, “But you will have only twenty-four hours to get Zainah out of there. A private plane will be waiting for you at the same place it was the last time you left the country. It will take you to Bamako and you will find your way to Zainah’s hometown. You have to retrieve her quickly and then be at the spot in Bamako where you were dropped off by the plane, as soon as possible. If you are not there when your twenty-four hours expire, the plane will leave without you and Jake will wash his hands of you. You will then not be able to get back into the country.” Ken searched his eyes. “Can you do that, Faizan?”

  Faizan nodded, his heart soaring.

  “You are sure about that, Faizan? You will be considered a fugitive if you are not back in the time Jake set for you.”

  “I understand that,” Faizan said.

  “Okay,” Ken nodded. “You leave for Mali this evening, at six o’clock on the dot.”

  Faizan smiled. “Thank you so much, Ken. Thank you!”

  Ken sighed. “Please try to come back. And be very careful back there. Audrey will kill me if anything happens to you,” he sighed, “even though she was the one who encouraged me to call Jake and ask him to help you.”

  “I’ll be careful and try my best to come back.”

  Ken smiled again and then stood up. “Well, I have delivered the message I was given. Your sister is waiting for me in bed. For, you know…” He winked at Faizan.

  Faizan shook his head quickly and pretended to shudder. “No, I don’t!” He chuckled. “I certainly don’t want to know what goes on in private between you and my sister.”

  Ken laughed as he walked away. He turned back before he left the living room. The expression on his face was sober again. “I mean it, Faizan. Please come back.”

  Faizan sighed and then said, “You know, Ken, that there might be a chance I don’t come back, either because I am not able to get Zainah out of her town fast enough, or because I get hurt. There are really no guarantees.”

  Ken pressed his lips together and then sighed loudly. “I know.” He smiled sadly at Faizan and then turned around and walked out of the living room.

  Faizan stared at the wall for some minutes. His sisters would be devastated if he didn’t come back to Rosefield. They had gone to so much trouble to look for him. He wondered whether to tell Trisha and Sienna, who had arrived with Bryan from Peru yesterday, about his quest to rescue Zainah.

  Almost immediately, he decided not to. Knowing his sisters, especially Trisha, they might try to talk him out of it because it would be dangerous and there was a chance he might not ever come back to the US. Not that anyone could talk him out of it, but he didn’t want them to try. And he especially did not want them worrying about him needlessly. Audrey was a police officer. In situations like this, she was less emotional. He would trust her to make up something to explain his absence for the next two or so days. But if he couldn’t come back for whatever reason, she would have to tell them the truth. Poor Sienna was pregnant. Hopefully, it would not affect her or the baby in any way.

  He stood up and went into his room to prepare for his trip to Mali.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Zainah opened her eyes as the door of the shack flew open. Her father’s bodyguards walked in and made for her. She backed away from them, but they pulled her up on her feet. They also pulled up Leila who was asleep beside her. Zainah shielded her eyes from the sun as they led her and Leila out of the shack. She walked with unsteady steps as they took her to her father’s house. Leila stumbled slightly and was steadied by one of the bodyguards.

  Zainah glowered at her father as they entered the living room. He was sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, drinking a bottle of beer. He looked up at her and ordered his bodyguards to let go of her and Leila. He said, “Both of you, sit down.”

  Leila sat down on the couch, but Zainah refused to sit. She stood, glaring at him.

  He shrugged and said, “Well, have it your way.” He looked at Leila and then faced Zainah again. Dropping his bottle of beer on the table, he said, “Any moment now, your husbands will be here to take you away. You’re both to get ready so that when they come, you will both look presentable.”

  Zainah’s heart filled with such hatred for him that she felt like putting her hands around his neck and strangling him for all he had done and was doing to her and to Leila. She shut her eyes briefly and confessed her violent thoughts silently to the Lord. She opened her eyes and said to her father, “And what if we refuse to go with those men?”

  He laughed and said to her, “Then you will both die. It will not be at my hands, but at your husbands’ hands. They will have the right to kill you.”

  Leila whimpered beside her, while Zainah continued to glower at her father. She said, “What kind of law or tradition allows such a thing to be done?”

  He said, “That has always been how it is in Nira. And there is nothing you can do about it.”

  Leila began to wail.

  Zainah felt like doing the same herself, but she knew it would accomplish nothing. She also knew that life as it was and had been for her would end today. Or maybe it had ended on the day she’d come back here.

  Once again, Faizan’s face filled her mind. It was what caused the greatest pain. That she would never see him again.

  Her father snapped at one of his bodyguards, “Go and call Rabia and Khadija.”

  Zainah raised her brows. So her stepmother was back from her long stay at her mother’s. Her own mother wasn’t back yet, but it wouldn’t make a difference if she were. She had not protected Zainah when her father had chased her out of Nira years ago o
r married her off to one of his friends. Instead, she had totally supported him.

  A minute later, Zainah’s stepmother walked into the living room. Khadija walked in after her. Zainah noted how they totally ignored her and Leila as they stood before her father. She kept staring at Khadija, trying to catch her eye, but her younger sister completely ignored her. She wasn’t surprised by her stepmother’s refusal to look at her, but Khadija ignoring her was another thing.

  Their father said to Khadija and Zainah’s stepmother, “Both of you, you’re in charge of making sure that Zainah and her friend here look as beautiful as possible. Their husbands are going to come and take them to their matrimonial homes today, so they have to look their very best.”

  Zainah shifted close to Leila, who was still crying, and put her arm around her. She would not let go of Leila willingly. And she would not go with the man who her father insisted was her husband willingly. They would have to drag her away.

  Her stepmother stood before her and Leila. Khadija finally looked at her and said in a small voice, “Let’s go, Zainah.” She looked at Leila and then averted her eyes quickly.

  Zainah looked up at her and said, “Khadija, you know what is happening here. We are being forced into a situation that we don’t want to be in. How can any woman be forced to marry a man she doesn’t love or even really know? You know it’s not right.”

  Khadija looked away, and then looked back at her with pleading eyes. “Please, Leila, Zainah, please let’s just go.”

  Zainah looked away from her and sat where she was, her hand still around Leila’s waist. Her stepmother said in a more commanding voice than Khadija’s, “Get up, Zainah.” She looked at Leila, “And you, too. Let’s go now.”

  Zainah ignored her.

  Her father snapped his fingers, and two of the bodyguards came and hauled Zainah and Leila up. Zainah winced in pain as one of the bodyguards dug his fingers into her arms. Khadija and her stepmother led the way while the bodyguards forcefully pulled her and Leila along with them behind.

  They got close to the bathroom and the guards stepped back. Zainah’s stepmother led her and Leila to the door of the bathroom while Khadija followed behind. “Go into the bathroom and wash up,” Zainah’s stepmother said to her and Leila. “And be fast about it.”

  Zainah glared at her and refused to move. She knew her resistance was futile, but she didn’t feel like being pushed around by anyone, especially by the people who were supposed to be her family but acted more like her enemies.

  Khadija came and looked her in the eye. “Please, Zainah. Please do as she says.” She looked at Leila with tears in her eyes and then quickly looked away again. She said to Zainah, “Please.”

  Zainah searched her sister’s eyes. There was something in them that caused her to finally give in. She took Leila’s hand and then went into the bathroom. Shutting the door behind her, she turned to Leila. “We have to find a way to get out of here,” she said.

  Leila wiped the tears from my eyes and laughed without humor. She said, “Look around you, Zainah. Your father’s men are everywhere. There is no way out of this place. There’s nothing we can do. God has abandoned us.”

  “Don’t say that, Leila. God has not abandoned us.”

  “Yes. Yes, he has. Our fate now is worse than death.”

  Zainah’s heart was heavy, but she tried her best to inject hope into her voice as she said, “God has a plan for our lives. You have to believe that, Leila.”

  Her words were spoken out of a lifetime of continuous trust in God. But at this time, she spoke them with very little faith. She looked up at the bathroom window. It was small, like the window in the shack, and it had iron bars.

  She bit her lip. Outside, her father’s bodyguards were all around the house. His men lurked in every corner of the community. Maybe Leila was right. Maybe God had truly abandoned them.

  Somebody suddenly knocked loudly and Zainah jumped. Her stepmother yelled, “Zainah, I can’t hear the water running. What are you both doing in there?”

  Zainah looked at Leila and said, “We better start showering now. Knowing my father, he would not hesitate to get his men to stand watch while my stepmother bathes us.”

  Leila quickly shed her clothes and got into the shower. Zainah walked to the mirror beside the bathtub and gazed at her face. Her eyes looked glazed and hopeless. It was just the way she felt. For the umpteenth time since she woke up, she prayed, “Lord, please do something! Please deliver us!”

  Leila said over the sound of the running shower, “Is that woman out there Malik’s mother?”

  Zainah lifted her brows, wondering why Leila was asking her about that. She reluctantly answered, “Yes, she is. Why do you ask?”

  “Umm… maybe she can tell me where Malik is… or maybe if we tell her what your father did to Malik, she might get angry and help us escape.”

  “Leila, forget about that,” Zainah said. “It’s not going to work. Everyone in this house, including my own mother, bows constantly to my father’s wishes. My stepmother is not going to do anything if we tell her about Malik. I doubt she will even believe us if we did.”

  Leila didn’t say anything more about it. She stepped out of the shower minutes later and began to dry her body with the towel hanging near the shower curtain. Zainah shed her own clothes and got into the shower. She showered quickly and then stepped out and wrapped herself with the towel folded on the shower rack.

  Leila, a pink towel wrapped around her body, said, “So this is actually going to happen. We are going to be wives to those men who are old enough to be our fathers. And then we will spend the rest of our lives in purdah.”

  Zainah had no words. She began to take deep breaths as she felt herself starting to panic. She still held onto a shred of hope that the Lord would come through for them. But doubts had mostly polluted her heart, and she couldn’t see a way out of their predicament.

  Someone pounded on the door again, and Zainah’s stepmother said angrily from behind the door, “You two… are you both giving birth in there? Come out right now!”

  “We better come out now,” Zainah said to Leila bleakly.

  They both left the bathroom together and followed Zainah’s stepmother to her bedroom. Khadija was there, waiting beside the bed. Zainah felt like throwing up. Colorful beaded kaftans were laid out on the bed, clearly for her and Leila. They had washed and were going to now be stuffed and dressed like holiday turkeys in preparation to be feasted upon.

  Leila grabbed her elbow and looked away from the clothes.

  Zainah’s stepmother looked at her and Leila and ordered, “Put those on.”

  Zainah didn’t move. Neither did Leila, and Zainah’s stepmother said again, “Put the clothes on, both of you, or I will have to call the men to force you to do so. You would not want that, would you?”

  Zainah drilled her with an angry stare and then whispered to Leila, “Let’s put them on.” She said loudly so her stepmother would hear, “The same way you treat other people’s daughters is the same way others will treat yours.” After she had said the words, she wished she hadn’t. Not that the woman didn’t deserve them, but it was completely useless and she didn’t want to be this sort of person who said words like this when she was hurt.

  She felt like laughing in self-mockery at her thoughts. She was about to face a situation which she considered a living death, and she was thinking about what was appropriate to say to her stepmother or not.

  Her stepmother sneered, “My daughters will not have to be forced to do anything they are supposed to, Zainah. Neither will they neglect the faith with which they were raised for a strange one.”

  Zainah turned her back to the woman and picked up one of the kaftans. It was a blue, intricately embroidered outfit. In ordinary times, she would have loved to put this on. Today, all she wanted to do was rip the kaftan into tiny pieces.

  Leila picked up the other one. Hers was red, with a different pattern of embroidery, but equally elaborate. She e
xamined it carefully and then turned to Zainah and whispered, “I’m not putting it on.”

  “I don’t want to put it on either, Leila, but we don’t have a choice. Just like my stepmother said, you don’t want any of those men to come in here and supervise us while we dress up.”

  Zainah put hers on and then watched as Leila did as well. She refused to look at herself in the mirror and then stood unmoving as Khadija began to comb and then braid her hair. Her stepmother braided Leila’s.

  Somebody knocked on the door and Zainah’s stepmother went to see who it was.

  “He wants them to come out now,” a male voice said. “Their husbands are here.”

  Zainah shuddered. She prayed in her heart, Lord, if you will ever help me, I need your help now.

  The door shut again and her stepmother walked up to her and Leila. “Your husbands are here,” she said in a matter-of-fact way. “You better hurry up, Khadija, and finish Zainah’s hair.”

  Khadija finished with Zainah’s hair quickly and then stepped away. Zainah’s stepmother also finished Leila’s hair and stuck a shiny pin in it.

  “Let’s go,” Zainah’s stepmother said. She put her hands on Zainah and Leila’s shoulders and led them to the door and out into the living room.

  Zainah pursed her lips. Her father was sitting on the couch, drinking a glass of liquor. Across from him were the two men who her father had given her and Leila to in marriage. Zainah’s father looked up at her and Leila as they slowly walked into the living room.

  The men her father had called Dauda and Jibril gazed at them. and Zainah cringed. The men were looking at her and Leila like cows being closely examined in order to determine how best they could be slaughtered for consumption. One of the men, the one she had been given to, who she remembered her father called Jibril, finally turned to her father. He nodded and said, “She is very beautiful. Just like I remembered.”

  The other one said the same thing about Leila, and Leila grasped her hand.

  The men and her father continued to talk for a while about her and Leila, but Zainah tuned their words out. She looked around her, looking for a way of escape, but there was none. Her father’s men stood around the living room.