The next morning I jumped on the sound of my
phone blasting into my ears. I slid the arrow on the screen, thinking that it
was my alarm, but when I put my head back on my pillow, I heard a sound coming
from my phone. I put my phone against my ear, and heard someone call my name;
it was Adam.
I rubbed my eyes, to
check if I was dreaming, but I wasn't, “Hey." I yawned.
“What did you say to
Noor?” He jumped straight into the topic, that was the first time I ever find
him being impolite.
“Wow, so she told you I
asked her to stop texting me?”
“She also told me how
you think she only became your friend out of guilt. You know, even if that was
true, did you ever think about how nice she has been treating you?”
My uncles' words from
last night echoed in my head, but I shook them away and continued with my
argument, “I'm the one who has been nice to her, because she is the one who has
been nagging about missing you. She didn't even visit me much when I was at the
hospital, all because she misses her boyfriend!” I shouted.
“That wasn't the
reason why she wasn't visiting you. And whenever you have seen her sad, it
wasn't because I'm away or because I was leaving. If you look deep enough into
things – or just ask her what really
wrong -, you'll realize how shallow your judgments are.” Then he hung up the
phone, without saying a word after it.
I got so mad at him
for saying that I was wrong to be mad and for closing the phone like that. How
could he say that I am the one who doesn't care about the other? She is the one
who obviously only became my friend out of guilt; she didn't even deny it when
I comforted her. She is the one who kept frowning at our faces. Besides, what
did he even mean by “ if you look deep
enough into things, you'll realize how shallow your judgments are.”?
I look at the time, 11:30.
After I washed up, prayed and grabbed a light breakfast, I decided to let my
sister drop me off at the mall, where I decided to meet up with Talal. I was
hoping that spending time with him might let me forget about this unreasonable
fight I'm having with Noor.
When I met up with
Talal, we decided to walk around a little then watched a movie. After the
movie, Talal excused himself to go to the bathroom. I stood by myself looking
at the almost empty movie theatre entrance. My eyes gazed at one of the
theatres for a while then crawled a little towards the popcorn machine and then
sled towards a familiar face; towards Dalia's face.
I moved forward,
thought about talking to her, but then I remembered our conversation on the
plane, so I stopped in my place. I didn't know what to do, I wanted to talk to
her so bad, but I didn't know what her response would be if I did. What if I pass in front of her, she might
start a conversation? That probably won't happen. I thought hard for a plan
that would allow me to talk to her. My eyes were stuck at her, as my mind went
to a different place, picturing different scenarios of the two of us talking
the way we did last time. I got it!
I walked towards the
prettiest girl on the planet, getting more nervous with every step, and my
heart beating harder and harder like a drum, which made breathing more
difficult after every second. I took a deep breath when I was just a few feet
away from her, and marched up to her, “Hey,” Dalia didn’t say a word, she
looked stunned because of how I approached her so casually, “Excuse me, but do
you know where I could find a good place that sells ice cream?” I asked, as if
I didn’t know her.
Her reaction didn’t change,
and she didn’t answer me.
At that moment a tall
guy, who looked to be in his twenties came up to me. He had the same features
as Dalia, so I assumed he was her brother. He seemed a bit mad and confused,
but then his face expression changed, as he analyzed my face for a moment, “I
know you.” He whispered.
“Sorry, I can’t
remember you. I had an incident and lost my memory.”
He looked stunned, as
if he figured out some life changing mystery, but then he continued with what
he has been saying earlier, “You were that boy who was hiding behind the store
the night the old man scratched my car last year.” He mumbled.
“Abdullah, what are
you saying?” Dalia interrupted.
Just when I was about
to excuse myself I remembered.
FLASHBACK
On my way, I saw the men who were
yelling earlier. I hid behind the closed shop they were next to, and observed
what was going on. There was a young man, about twenty years old. He had dark,
long hair that went right under his shoulders along with dark green eyes, the
colour of a maple leaf. He was wearing a light blue shirt, with dark jeans. The
other guy looked like he was in his mid-forties. He had grey, thin hair. I
couldn't really make out his eye color, because of the glasses he was
wearing.
"Just pay me the money for
this scratch, so I can move on with my life already!" The younger man
shouted.
"I've already told you, I
need this money to get my medications, and I need to get them now!" The
older man said coughing.
The dark haired guy swore under
his breath, then shouted, "Alright if you really are saying the truth,
what the hell do you need to get? What's wrong with you!"
The older man coughed a
little, and murmured, "I need to-" he started coughing again, and
then soon he was on his knees coughing out blood. I just froze there, staring.
The dark haired guy helped the other guy up, and started looking around with
his startled eyes for help. When he didn't see anyone around he clamoured,
"Don't worry I'll get you to the hospital!" He helped the man into
the car, and drove away.
“No wait, I think I
remember. But I made sure you didn’t see me that night.”
Dalia looked
astonished, “You knew my brother?”
Abdullah ignored her,
and explained to me, “I saw you in my cars’ side mirror when I was about to
drive off to the hospital. I want to thank you, because when I saw you, for
some reason I realized that change could happen in matter of seconds. Maybe it
was because seeing a young, and innocent boy.” He shook his head, “you just
resembled a green light for me to start a fresh page.”
“What happened to the
man?” I asked without really thinking about it.
He smiled, “He's been alright. He spent a week at the hospital since that day, but he’s fine,
and I’ve been visiting him every week.”
“I’m sorry, but would
it be okay for me to come visit him with you one day?”
“Sure.” He grinned.
I exchanged phone
numbers with him, took one quick glance at Dalia when they turned and went back
to Talal, who has been eyeing me from a distance.
“Who was that?” He
asked.
“He’s just some old
friend.” I answered.”
“And the girl?”
“His sister I think.”
“That’s all you’re
going to tell me about these two?”
I laughed, “Yep,
sorry.”
The next day, I got a call from Abdullah. He told me to that he was going to visit the man, and that
I should be ready at 4:00. I told my dad that he was a friend of mine from
school, but graduated a year ago. He didn’t seem to be suspicious or anything, he just asked me for his full name and number.
Abdullah asked me a
few questions about myself, to know me a bit better, and know about my
background, and I did the same with him. When the car finally stopped, we
approached a decent looking house; not too big or small, fresh colored wall,
with multiples of windows, that welcome the sunlight in.
Abdullah rang the
doorbell, and we waited for someone to open the door. I stood behind Abdullah,
admiring the trees that hung over the walls of the house. A minute later,
someone finally opened the door.
“Hi, Noor, is it okay
if I come for your uncle. By the way, I brought a friend with me this time.”
“Oh, any friend of
yours-” She stopped when I walked from behind Abdullah to see her. It wasn’t
any Noor; she was my ‘friend’ Noor, “is a friend of mine.” She continued with
her sentence, but this time with a less cheerful voice.
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