Chapter 26: Chapter 26
Aspire park. Aspire park was one of the greatest places in Qatar, and Ihsan couldn't control her awestruck expression. The place was just so beautiful that she couldn't help taking a hold of Sadeeq's arm and swinging them with herself. She laughed at the trees that look like a trunk in their middle and normal tress at their top. Everything there was adventurous.
"Let's get something to eat, this place is making me famished. Then we will move to were the water is, and that aspire tower, what do you think?" She was walking with her face facing him and her back facing her front, at the same time taking backward steps.
"It's okay, that would be sweet. But please Ihsan, why wouldn't you walk like every other human? You might bump into someone you know?" Before Ihsan could register what he was saying, she bumped into a pregnant woman and they both fell on the ground.
"Innalillahi! Sister I'm so sorry, Ya Allah. Please tell me you aren't hurt, else I won't be able to forgive myself!" Ihsan rambled in one breath, unable to help herself stand upright not to talk of the pregnant woman.
Sadeeq hissed inaudibly and walked towards them. He stretched his hand towards Ihsan and helped her stood upright before Ihsan helped the woman, whom was smiling genuinely. Amazed at how Ihsan seemed genuinely concerned.
"Oh easy there lady, I'm not hurt. It's not even that bad, we fell on the grasses, so nothing happened to me." She said and hugged Ihsan, whom smiled widely out of relief.
"Alhamdulillah, Sister. I'm glad nothing happened to you. I pray you deliver safely." Gingerly, Ihsan placed her hand on the woman's bulged stomach and felt it for a second before she pulled away.
"I have this secret obsession for babies that no one knows. Please would you mind we exchange number and you'd tell me when you give birth so I could come see the baby I bumped into? Who knows we might be buddies?" She kept on rambling without pausing or taking a breath, and all Sadeeq could do was to stare at how her face scrunched while she talked about the things she loved.
"Oh that would be my pleasure dear. I'm Marwa, glad to finally meet you. You seem nice and friendly." Marwa said and pulled out her phone from her side bag and handed it to Ihsan whom hit her digits in it.
"The pleasure is all mine, Marwa. I wish you safe delivery. My name is Ihsan, I'll be awaiting your call." Just then, they heard Marwa's husband calling her from afar, she smiled apologetically and walked off.
Ihsan heaved a sigh and smiled widely. The kind of smile one only did when a feeling of satisfaction and contentment filled his heart. She looked at an awed Sadeeq and said "I can't wait to see the baby she's going to give birth to. Babies are so Masha Allah, aren't they?" He could see the undeniable love she had for children through her eyes, and right this instant Sadeeq wished he could tell her what his thoughts are, but he knew not to change this beautiful mood of hers.
"Yeah Ihsan, babies are so irresistible, I pray you get one soon." It loomed she didn't hear him, because her attention was carried away by a candy seller and she ran to him. She was ecstatic because Daada didn't let her do all the things normal people do, she didn't have the childhood she was supposed to, always ensnared in the house while he read her newspapers.
She bought two candies, payed and handed Sadeeq one. Licking it away with the lipstick on her lips, she looked at Sadeeq with an expression he never knew she had. She was happy beyond words could express. "Sadeeq, let's move over that seat, I'm not famished anymore. I want to talk, it's been long I talk as freely as I want to." And she dragged him to the chairs beside the water, where they could have the perfect view of the aspire tower.
It was getting dark, some parents were calling out on their kids so they could leave home, while some were just entering the park with picnic baskets in their hands. Ihsan looked at the families, everyone of them was happy, and that made her thought when she would ever get a family like that. A family where love existed, a family were there are no fights and love is shared between its members.
"Sadeeq, do you know what I'm thinking?" She asked him innocently, her eyes still fixed at the families going in and out of the park. She lived all her life without a sibling and she lived with a single parent. She knew the value of a family, and she would forever wish she had one.
"I can see this park is making you emotional. What's it Ihsan? If it's making you feel bad we can leave you know? The first idea was to make you feel refreshed and have a life again." He was concerned, because he could see her trying to buckle up an emotion she had never shared with anyone, not even her Daada. No one had ever known her impeccable love for kids, or her desire to have her own family.
And now, she knew all these dreams of hers are being washed away the moment she married Sadeeq. That was among the things she cried for. They're in good terms now, and she prayed she didn't mess it up like she did before they got married.
"No! I actually love it here, because it reminds me of my dreams and wishes I thought I could leave. But wallahi I can't, Sadeeq. Would you help me please?" She took his hands in hers, and tears began clouding her eyes. She didn't know how to make him understand without making him feel insulted.
"Subhanallah, what are you crying for; Ihsan? Insha Allah I'd make sure and do it for you. Now keep quite and tell me what it is." He consoled and cleared away the strand of tear that successfully rolled down her cheeks.
"I want to have babies of my own, to build a family of my own, to turn a house into a home all by myself. I don't want my kids to live the life I lived, I don't want them to grow up with a single parent. I want my kids raised in a house full of love, where telling a spouse I love you is like telling him/her that breakfast is ready. A home where my children would know the value of love, and how to take care of the person you love.
I'm a sickle cell patient, giving birth wouldn't be something easy for me, but Sadeeq I want to give my children siblings as much as I can until these feeble bones of mine couldn't take it anymore. What matters more is that, I want to get married to the man I would love with all my soul and the man I would respect as though the father whom gave birth to me and provide all I need in life."
She looked distant, her eyes fixed on the tower that now had radiant lightings coming out of its building. She didn't look like someone addressing the person sitting just inches beside her with her hands still entwined with his. She seemed unscathed by her words, not being able to know how effective they were. She seemed to be in a dreamy land, where all she could think of was her unborn kids.
"Ya Allah! Ihsan, this got me speechless. I've heard all you said, and every human is bound of having an undeniable love and obsession towards something. I've understood all what you said and wanted in this life. But something confused me, Ihsan; you said you want to get married to the man you could love with all your soul and respect as well. Aren't you married already? Or were you referring at me?" He knew he sounded as the most dumbest human to ever live on earth, but he couldn't come to understand what Ihsan meant. How can a married woman be dreaming of marrying another man she could bore kids until her feeble bones get tired and decided it's time to stop? While she's still into the first marriage?
"Yes Sadeeq, I mean when next I get married. Or you still don't get me?" She fluttered her eyelashes, having them wet with her unshed tears made it so hard for Sadeeq not to smile and run a finger through them.
"When next you get married? Does that mean you think of a separation between us? Wait, do I even care?" He didn't know his last words were uttered outwardly until he saw the relieved smile on her lips. His heart was pounding so hard he could feel its beat within his ears.
"Let's make it a deal now, you're going to divorce me as long as I find the one I love. I'm going to get married here because Daada and Abbu would never agree. Nobody here knows about our marriage, so we don't have to get worried right?"
He swallowed a lump down the road of his throat, seeing how widely she was smiling. "Yes, Ihsan. I'm going to divorce you the moment you fall in love with someone, and I'd make sure you marry the man you'd love with your soul." It was sealed. A promise made, shall be fulfilled.