Nora rolled her eyes and sat back into her chair.
“You don’t pray five times daily anymore, your wardrobe has so much revealing clothes that even I worry whether you might be going about naked in school”, she continued.
Nora folded her arms across her chest and continued to stare blankly at the woman. It was classic Lama; buttering her victim up before finding ways to hit her hard and well.
“I don’t assume your mother would want you dallying in anything occult or even tossing our ways down the drain”, Lama tilted her head to the side as she concluded her sentence.
Nora jolted to her feet, rammed her hands into the table and yelled, “You’re not my mother!”
The lunch table suddenly fell silent enough to become a graveyard, while her father had his spoon glued to his lips as he exchanged subtle looks with his wife.
“You two keep acting like you give a hoot about what’s going on in my life, and she hasn’t even taken your last name yet!” Nora noted.
Lama’s lower jaw dropped in response to the hurting words, while her husband shot her a consoling look, hoping to keep her mellow and calm through the ordeal.
“This is why I don’t come home”, Nora sighed tenderly, excused herself from the table, and left briskly for her room.
Muzin reached for his wife’s hand and held it tightly, while they both watched the girl disappear out of sight within seconds. Nora’s implosion left them with the bitter truth nobody in the house ever spoke about. Muslim home built on the foundations of Islam, which still had the wife bearing a different name from her husband’s was one’s obeying the true teachings.
She had just pointed out how much of a hypocrite they are and that in itself, gave her the edge she needed to vent her frustration. Two years had passed since that unfortunate incident that ripped her soul out and cast her down the path of turmoil.
“I will go and speak with her”, Muzin looked sunken with guilt as he leaned closer to peck his wife on her cheek.
He excused himself from the dining table and dusted his hands gently, before walking the same path his daughter had followed. Muzin Kareem regaled himself with the specific words her would recite before his daughter, but regardless of how gentle he hoped they would be, something told him the young lady shooting fire and brimstone wasn’t in the mood to get trampled on with words.
Walking briskly and as loud as possible so she can hear him coming, he paused before her door and recounted his words once again before tapping against it.
“Nora”, he whispered.
Muzin heard nothing but his daughter’s insistence not to answer him. He paused momentarily, before knocking against the door once again.
“Nora! I know you’re in there and I would love to come in”, he spoke in more demanding, yet pleasing tone.
Her silence answered him once again, before her voice broke through after a few seconds. “The door is unlocked… you can come in”.
Muzin reached for the door knob and froze. He bit his lower lip and closed his eyes as thoughts of how his late wife used to be the one to merge bridges on such occasions. Summoning as much courage as he could find within his weary heart, he gently turned the knob and granted himself entrance upon his daughter’s request.
Nora stood by the south side window, gazing into the fields, without acknowledgment of her father’s presence. Muzin held his hands behind his back, while his robe swept the floor upon proceeding to stand by her side. The beautiful sight of endless roses planted in gorgeous landscape seemed to make the air feel better for them both, while Nora would choose the silence over her father saying anything to her at that moment in time.
“I know you’re angry”, he finally sought to break the ice between them.
Nora wondered if he believed in the words he was pelting.
“The problem is, you never let me in or allow me to reach you”, he added, before turning to stare at her.
Nora scoffed, closed her eyes and leaned her head towards the ground.
“If only I believe you”, she whispered. “If only I believe you haven’t forgotten about mom since you remarried!”
Boldly, and with trembling lips while her arms crossed her chest, she looked back up and into his eyes. He broke his gaze away immediately, seemingly too uncomfortable to face whatever reality she was about regaling him with.
“I loved your mother dearly, Nora”, Muzin sighed and parted his lips to continue, but halted halfway.
With a raised brow, she awaited her father to finish whatever he had to say.
“I miss her every day and even while you don’t think so, trust me… “, he continued, but got interjected.
Nora scoffed, flailed her arms in the air and grumbled. ‘You miss her? Yet, everything about her seem to be going away! Her favorite Chinas are no longer even being used to serve soup or even exist in the kitchen!”
Muzin raised his hand but brought it down slowly
Nora wasn’t done. “I know you blame her for what happened… I know you still blame her for her death and the sense that she was naïve”.
Muzin sighed and placed his face into his hand. He looked back up and slowly at his daughter, lips parted and looking like they were about to spill, before slowly clamping them shut again.
“You sound just like her”, he finally muttered. ‘You’re beginning to act like her too, and it scares the living hell out of me to even begin to think about it!”
Nora stepped backwards upon hearing her father roar.
He looked away subtly and held his hands behind her back. ‘I don’t blame anyone but your mother for her own death and she could have avoided it had she listened to me”.
It was the closest thing the man had ever said or mentioned about her mother’s death in years. It prompted Nora to step closer, hoping for more information on the mysterious
