❝ 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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Daneen entered Ammi Jaan's room after a soft knock on the door, keeping her gaze rigidly fixed to the ground as she strode to the closet in the far right of the room.
Fixing her gaze for more than just a few seconds on anything caused an irrefutable sting in her eyes—consequences of no slumber greeting her the night before.
Daneen glanced once at Ammi Jaan who was hunched over on her chair in sajdah—next to a man cradling a shirt in his lap.
She moved through the dresses hung in Ammi Jaan's closet, pretending not to but still being hyperaware of Tabish' presence in the room. Her gaze stopped at a cream cotton salwar kameez with small, multi-colored crochet flowers all over it. Daneen pulled it out and walked to where Ammi Jaan had completed her salah.
"Would you like to wear this today?"
Ammi Jaan didn't look at the dress, only at the hardly concealed paranoia on Daneen's face. Ammi Jaan gestured for her to come closer, thereafter placing a lingering kiss on her forehead.
"The world can be awful place to live in, Daneen. You will come across people who will either make you wish for their death or your own." Daneen looked at the ceiling. "That shouldn't mean you won't meet those who will bring you to your knees before Allah, begging for Him to extend your lives just so you can be with them."
Daneen tilted her head to the side, a slight smile on her lips. She felt Tabish's gaze on her.
"Why should I pray for comfort in a world that keeps looking for ways to separate us? Why should I not instead pray for us to be together in Jannah?"
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