I shuffled awkwardly into the house, trying not to make eye contact with Noor, but I still felt her confused and mad eyes at me. Before we walked any further into the house, we were asked to take off our shoes, and when I walked into the living room I understood why. It was a wide living room with a beautiful, soft, frieze patterned carpet, which covered almost the entire room. Centering the carpet was a short, glass table with a vase on top of it. Two white sofas, with chocolate-brown pillows, formed an L shape on the sides of the table, and on one of the sofas was a middle-aged man sitting, with a soft grin on his face. I was finally able to see his gentle, and hazel eyes; the same eye color as his niece, Noor.
“Uncle Omar, this is
Abdulrahman.” Noor greeted me to her uncle.
Omar rose easily from
the sofa, and shook my hand with a strong grip, “I know who he is, everyone
heard about his story and how he lost his memory.”
“So you know how he
lost his memory?” Abdullah asked immediately.
Omar started laughing,
“Well, I heard multiples of stories and rumors, so I can’t really say I know
how he lost his memory.”
Abdullah’s face went a
bit pale, “Excuse me, I need use the restroom.” He mumbled, and left us.
Omar sat on one of the
sofas and asked me to sit on the one next to it so I could face him. Noor sat
on the same sofa her uncle was sitting on, but she was sat far away on the
other side of it.
“How are you now, did
you gain your memory back?” Omar started.
I chuckled, “I’m the
one who supposed to be here to check up on you, but I think I got most of back
now.”
“Yeah how did you even
know about my uncle?” Noor snapped.
“It’s a long story.” I
replied as Abdullah walked back and sat by my side.
“I’m sorry I kept Noor
away from visiting you, but she was always worried about me and refused to
leave my side since my wife had to stay with my twin daughters in college.”
I stared at Noor, not
understanding why she didn’t tell me about this. I also felt guilty because I
misjudged. I guess Adam was right when he said I should have looked deeper into
things and asked her more about herself instead of just getting angry with her.
“Why didn’t tell me?”
I looked at her.
“I tried to at first,”
she stopped to calm herself down when she noticed the other people around her,
and then continued, “but you didn’t give me the chance, and if you look at the
messages I sent you, you’ll see that I explained everything in them.”
“Why did you let me believe
you were always upset-” I stopped for a second remembering her uncle’s
presence, because I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to bring Adam’s name, “Umm…”
She cut me off quick,
“I’m sorry, could you excuse us for a moment.” Noor said embarrassed.
I followed her out of
the living room, “So?” I asked.
“You seriously wanted
us to have this conversation in front of them?” She whispered angrily.
I shook my head, “ I
meant so why did you always make it seem like you were upset because of Adam?”
She turned around to check if there was
anyone listening, “What good would it do if I talked to you about it?”
“We won’t be having
this argument right now.”
“I’m serious.”
“First, you know that
you can trust me. And it’s good to tell the people you trust about your
problems to ease off the pressure and sadness you’re under.” I took a moment to
remember that night when I saw her helpless uncle coughing out blood on the
empty road, “Besides, I could have visited him from day one to keep him company
and happy; to make both of you
happy.”
She smiled, “Let’s go
back, I don’t want to get asked a lot of questions later.”
We stayed for about
fifteen minutes with Noor and her uncle and then Abdullah told me that he has
to leave. I walked to Omar, and thanked him for having me, when I was shaking
his hand, he pulled me closer and whispered into my ear, “The past will soon
catch up to you and you’ll remember an important part of your life, but don’t
let that frighten you, okay?” He let me go, and I looked into his hazel eyes,
trying to make sense of what he said.
“What do you mean?” I
asked puzzled.
“Abdullrahman, lets
go.” Abdullah yelled from the car. I looked at Omar for an answer, but all I
received was a wink from him.
We sat inside the
moving car quietly for a while; I used that chance to go into one of my deep
thoughts as I stared at the sinking sun. What was Omar talking about? Did he by
any chance see me that night when he scratched Abdullah’s car? But he was too
sick, and was too busy coughing blood to notice me. Did he know something about
my past that I don’t know or cant remember? Then again, how could that even be
possible, I just met him today. He said it was an important part, if it was
that important, why didn’t he just tell me what it is? How did he even know I’m
going to remember it anyway? Unless if he wasn’t the one who knows that
important part of my life.
“Abdullah!” I
whispered to myself.
“Yeah?”
I got nervous and my
face went warm; he wasn’t supposed to hear that and I didn’t know what to say.
Abdullah waited for me
to speak, but when I didn’t say anything he decided to ask me a question
instead, “Haman,” Abdullah said then cleared his throat, “you umm,” He stopped
to take a deep breath, “You never asked me where I was heading to that night.”
I looked at him, but
his eyes were too focused on the road to look at my confused eyes, “Why are you
bringing this up now?”
“You know that I
changed that night because of you and Omar, right?” He asked, and ignored my
question.
“Yeah.” I murmured.
The car started to
slow down, and he stopped it just a few blocks away from my house so he could
look at me. His eyes were so wide and focused on mine that I was able to see
the reflection of my frightened face.
“Abdullah, what are you
talking about, and why did you stop?” My eyes never left his, but my hand
started to search for the door handle so I could race out of the car.
His eyes shot at my
escaping hand. “Abdulrahman, you’ll need to hear this.”
I waited. The
following sentence that came out of his mouth, changed his life and mine, and
due to the actions he’ll take after what he said, his life will take a much
scarier and extremer path than mine, “Abdullah, what is it?”
He sighed, “I think I
know who almost killed you and made you lose your memory.”
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