❝ I know. I could be happy until midnight if I wanted to. But what about after midnight? What about two AM? What about four AM? What about months and even years later?
I don't want to let him in knowing sometime in the future I'd have to let him go...
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"I left the prayer room shortly after you did."
Ammi Jaan stared at Daneen. "It is not possible Tabish didn't speak to you at all."
"He was making du'a until you were in the room." Daneen looked away. "After you left, he picked up the Qur'an."
"I reckon you were there with him at breakfast."
"Yes," Daneen nodded. "I was. Fareeda Aunty had asked me to polish his shoes for him."
Ammi Jaan draped a white scarf around herself, pulling the hem down until the entirety of her forehead was covered. "And did he let you?"
"He gets me into trouble every time he approaches me."
"Did he let you?"
Daneen's cheeks burned recalling the memory—how close they'd been sitting, the scent of his cologne, the frazzled mess her mind had been in. "No."
Upon the revelation, Ammi Jaan's lips stretched into a smile that lit up the room. "My darling boy."
If only Daneen's joy mirrored the old woman's. "His mother overheard him asking me to leave, and told me off for it."
"She needs a nice good scolding from me."
Daneen wiped a ragcloth over the dresser. "Let it be."
"You're here specifically to look after me, and not Fareeda. Why do you let her treat you as her slave?"
"She's an elder and I don't have it in me to say no when she asks me to massage her feet or take her clothes out of the dryer."
Ammi Jaan turned her chair to face the qibla, and then seated herself on it. "Do you want to leave?"
"I've considered it plenty of times."
"Then you should."
"Who's going to be there for you if I leave? You need help walking to the bathroom, and I don't think Fareeda Aunty would be willing to fill in my place."
Ammi Jaan smiled. "You know I could run a marathon if I want to."
"You'd probably come last."
"If anyone else was in your place, they would've left by now. It's not easy to look after an old woman and yet still tolerate mistreatment. There is someone else keeping you here as well."
Daneen waited until the silence between them had stretched and Ammi Jaan had commenced her ishraaq prayers. She stepped out of the room, closing the door softly behind her. And it was in the silence of the hallway that she whispered the answer to herself.
"Yes. I guess he is."
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