Mother and daughter smiled with relief as the doctor handed the teenage girl a prescription for contraceptives.
Sual tightened the hijab around her face and bowed her head. She told no one about her pregnancy; she now feared for her life.
Mor
“My name is Claudia,” said the beautiful woman who had entered the room wearing a smile that exposed a set of perfect white teeth that lit up the whole room.
A woman with silvery hair gathered neatly into a bun at the base of her neck crossed the room with small, quick steps, her heels clicking sharply on the floor, to offer Claudia a manicured hand. “Nice to meet you, dear. Theo simply cannot stop talking about you,” she said in Italian with a hint of a foreign accent.
“Ah! The two women I love most in the same room,” the young man said with a proud smile, eyes gleaming with happiness and an arm embracing Claudia’s slender figure.
“Theo, enough,” Claudia scolded him playfully, her cheeks blushing.
Mor couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the young woman’s glowing face. Something about this woman melted his heart. She was beautiful. Her sleek black hair fell wild and free over her shoulders, the look in her big brown eyes exuded kindness, and Mor thought that if she so wished, she could melt the glaciers in the Arctic, or at least what was left of them. This woman filled the room with joy. He could almost feel her body heat and her arms encircling him in a scented embrace.
Theo also seemed completely captivated by his young wife.
A young woman came running in barefoot and flopped down at the dining table. “I thought I was the woman you loved most,” she teased Theo with a smile and propped her bare feet on the seat next to her.
“This is my sister, Sharon,” Theo smiled, his hand not leaving Claudia’s waist.
“Sharon, take your feet off the chair,” scolded the silver-haired woman.
Sharon rolled her eyes. “Mama, enough. I’m hungry,” she said brightly and, without pausing, reached for the salad bowl.
“Well, call Papa,” the mother replied.
“Here I am,” said the striking man with silver-grey hair who opened the door just then.
A racket and wide smiles filled the room, and Mor’s taste buds were aroused by the sight of the fresh bowl of pasta being passed around the table.
The cheer around the food-laden table was almost too perfect. Theo spoke about his new appointment at the embassy, everyone began talking at the same time, and wine glasses were raised in toasts.
Mor was moved by this family, but it was Claudia who really touched his heart. He was enchanted by her contagious joy. There was something about this woman; something pure that radiated from her like an aura, and he longed to feel the warmth of her arms around him, enveloping him in a refreshing perfume. She would be the best mother he’d ever had, he thought with longing.
Theo and Claudia were the first couple he had seen, but Mor had no need to see any more families. He knew exactly what he wanted, and he wanted her, Claudia. In his next reincarnation, he was going to have a wonderful childhood. He deserved to finally have one of those.
“I’ll sign the waiver,” he told the good-natured clerk who looked a little disappointed as he signed the holographic form.
The Second Gate
The Birth
Chapter 3
Anise
Sual glanced at her watch. It was five in the morning on a Friday. She looked out the window, the mosque minarets and gilded church domes still covered by foggy tendrils. Jerusalem – still asleep.
Sual gently lifted the thick duvet, taking care not to wake her sleeping husband. She stretched her legs out, sadly gazing at her swollen ankles and the blue veins that had recently emerged on her thighs. This body, which had until recently been so flexible and youthful, was now puffy and bloated by the more than seventy pounds she’d gained. For the last several weeks, she’d been having trouble sleeping; her large belly made it difficult to find a comfortable position. Feeling the infant in her moving, she absentmindedly stroked her round stomach as she always did.
Every day, Sual was thrilled anew by the life growing within her. For nine months, the two of them had been sharing the same body, she and her daughter. She’d come to love the tiny kicks, kicks that grew stronger with each passing day.
Her distended belly forced her to roll onto her side before she could sit up in bed. Through the window, the first rays of the sun dispelled the fog and made the dome of the large church across the street gleam.
Mahmud, her husband, turned onto his stomach and let out a loud snore. She looked at him. They had been married for four years. As far back as she could remember, she’d been intended for him. Nobody had ever asked her or even sought her consent. That was the community’s way: the families had arranged the marriage when she was still a baby and it had never occurred to her to protest. Sual knew what happened to women who didn’t conform, and she wanted to live.
She remembered her best friend Lucy. They’d been sixteen. Lucy had been promised to some distant cousin from the south, a fat, balding man of fifty or so. A day before the wedding, Lucy disappeared. She’d tried to run, but her brothers caught up with her at the central bus station as she was boarding a bus. After being beaten up by her family, Lucy had to spend a whole month recovering at the hospital. Sual would never forget the sight of her beautiful friend – her bandaged body, swollen face, broken nose. Lucy was left with a limp, a permanent reminder of the shame she’d brought on her family. As far as Sual was concerned, Lucy was lucky to be alive.
Despite the beating, Lucy didn’t give up and continued
