A flame in the Storm

Chapter 35

The day of the opening had arrived and my nervousness knew no bounds. I got up and prayed a supererogatory prayer in the middle of the night and wished that my store and my brand have a stupendous success. Grand maa had arrived from the Coorg. She was going to be our chief guest and the inauguration by cutting the ribbon was to be done by her. Massive marketing for the store had been undertaken but I was against the idea of a celebrity opening my store as it would go against my belief and moreover I wanted to honor my grandmother.

"Hey you are up," mom said startling me as I entered the dining room. She was mixing sugar in the milk.

"Yes," I said slumping on the chair beside her. "Why did you get up so early?"

"It's my daughter's big day. How can I get to sleep?"

"I am so nervous," I said fidgeting my legs. "What if it flops? What if we have losses?"

"Don't think negative," she assured "everything will be fine. You have done your best. And why do you think it will be a flop? Your online business has gone well so will this."

"The enormity of the scale on which we are opening scares me," I said slumping my shoulders.

"Trust Allah," she said keeping her hand on my shoulder. "It is going to be a huge success.."

"Hope so."

I left for the store after having light breakfast to check over the last minute preparations. Farah and Salman arrived after a few minutes, so did Raafay.

The store was designed in such a way that upon entering, the wall was covered with different types of scarves, next to them were everyday abayas and after that, we lined up abayas for special occasions. Opposite to this wall, all the knee-length jackets, half jackets, and coats were hanging. As we go inside, another wall with maxi dresses, long dresses, long skirts, loose shirts and blouses for wearing on skirts were lined up besides changing rooms. After that was a storeroom.

We had an image of a girl wearing a maroon long skirt, white blouse and maroon scarf sitting with black boots on a bench with the sea as a background cover the area of transition between abayas and western wear. The wall with hijabs was covered with a girl wearing hijab in the cockpit of a plane.

The mannequin behind the mirror wall at the entrance of our store was covered with knee-length coat on jeans and boots with brown color scarf wrapped around the head, on second mannequin full-length black Abhaya with pastel pink sleeves which culminated again in black cloth was put on and the third mannequin had a long white maxi dress with light blue half jacket along with matching scarf and sandals.

The counter area was occupied by either side with our jewels raging from formal to wedding wear in bracelets and rings.

I had a last look around the shop, all the sales girls were given a uniform of black abayas and scarves were of different colors for each one as I didn't want everyone to look black. They were at their respective counters and smiled at me as I passed them to the end near the changing room. They were instructed to be fast, polite and patient. Given the advertising huge crowd was expected in the store.

I got a call from dad that investors were starting now so be prepared to receive them. I hastily went into the dressing room and got into the dress of the event, white blouse, with blue and white printed long skirt and blue scarf. I tied a leather brown belt across my waist. As I came out of the room, I saw Farah who was wearing a printed white maxi dress with a black jacket and brown scarf and boots.

"Let's do it," she said extending her hand and I nodded taking a deep breath and gripping her hand in mine interlacing our fingers.

As we went outside our families arrived. I went and touched grand ma's feet as a gesture of respect. She held my arms and raised me up.