What We Learned Along the Way (10 page)

“What’s wrong? Why can’t you sleep? He could
tell from the tone in her voice it was going to be a long
conversation. He sat up in his bed.

“How often do you work with Aliya?” she
asked.

“Almost every day. We have a lot of the same
shifts. That can’t be what you called for.”

“And when you two are working together, how
is it? I mean, is it fun? Do you all talk and laugh a lot?”

“I guess you could say it’s pretty fun. You
know how Aliya is. Never a dull moment with her.”

“No, I don’t know how she is. Why don’t you
tell me, Rashad? I’m sure you know way better than I do.” With each
question, Mariam was getting more and more upset.

“Where is this going, Mariam? It’s 3 in the
morning. I don’t have time for games.” Rashad was starting to get
angry, too.

“You might as well admit it. I know you’re
cheating with her. Guess you got tired of waiting on me to put out,
huh? Our wedding was just a little too far away.”

“Are you serious? You called me at 3 in the
morning to accuse me of sleeping with your best friend? I thought
you knew me better than that, and I thought I knew you better,
too.” Rashad said. There was silence on both ends of the phone.

“Hello? Hello?” Mariam yelled. Rashad had
hung up. Mariam called back three times, but it went straight to
voicemail every time. She left a message on the last call. “Don’t
get mad at me because you’re caught. You did this to yourself, you
hear me? You did this!” She was crying so hard that the message
sounded like a jumbled mess.

She woke up the next morning with red eyes
and a puffy face. The night before seemed like a dream. She
couldn’t even remember everything, but she knew she over reacted.
She practically called their wedding off and she didn’t even know
if her suspicions were valid. She heard a buzzing noise coming from
beneath her pillow. It was her phone. Aliya was calling. She didn’t
want to answer at first, but she did anyway.

“Hey, girl. Sorry to call you so early. Are
you planning on seeing Rashad anytime today?” Aliya said.

“I don’t know. Why?” Mariam said plainly.

“Me and Langston are going out tonight and I
think I lost one of my favorite earrings in Rashad’s car. I was
hoping you could get it for me because I don’t work today.”

“Aliya, are you sleeping with Rashad?” she
asked in an unusually calm voice.

“What! What are you talking about?”

“You’re always hugging and laughing in his
face. You’re strutting past him all day in your tight clothes and
low-cut shirts. You’re even leaving your earrings in his car.”

Aliya was quiet. It took her a minute to
digest what she was hearing. “I’ve know Rashad longer than you have
and not once have I ever tried to go there with him. I may be a
little flirtatious, but I don’t cheat. And as far as my earring, it
fell off when he gave me a ride to the mechanic the other day.”

Mariam barely recognized Aliya’s voice. She
sounded like a completely different person. Mariam knew there was
anger in her voice, but she could also hear hurt.

“I’ve got a good thing going with Langston
and I wouldn’t jeopardize that for anyone, not Rashad or any other
man.” The two of them were quiet for a second. “Answer this one
question, Mariam. Langston is a self-made millionaire. So what the
hell would I want with a second-rate cook like Rashad?” Aliya’s
words stung. “I don’t have time for this drama.”

Mariam found herself alone on the phone
again. Before talking to Rashad last night, Mariam was sure she was
right, but after hearing their reactions to her accusations, she
had changed her mind. Neither of them sounded angry like they had
been caught. They sounded angry like they couldn’t believe she
would think such a thing. And Aliya did have a point. Langston was
wonderful. Why would she mess that up by cheating with her best
friend’s man? Mariam had a ridiculous headache. She lay back in her
bed to go to sleep. Maybe the whole thing was just a bad dream.

After countless trips to the craft store,
Jaime was finally satisfied with her apartment. Things were going
well for her. She was living in her own place, and her relationship
with her parents was better than it had ever been. A few days after
she told them she was moving out, they told her they wanted to
talk. She thought they were coming to tell her she wasn’t going
anywhere, but they said nothing of the sort.

“We never wanted to make you feel trapped,”
her mother said.

“We love you so much and want you to be
happy,” her father added. “But after your sister passed, we
promised ourselves that if Allah blessed us with another child, we
would protect it with our lives.”

Jaime started to tear up when she thought
about Hayyat. She never met her older sister, but she had seen many
pictures. She would never forget the day her parents told her about
her. She was five years old.

Jaime was in her room playing with her toys
and her mother came in and sat down beside her.

“You know how you’re always saying you wish
you had a sister?” her mother asked.

“Yes,” Jaime responded.

“Well, you do,” she said, trying not to cry
as she lay a picture of a small girl on the floor in front of her
daughter.

“What a pretty baby! When can I meet her? I
love her,” Jaime said.

“I can’t do this,” her mother said as she got
up and ran out of the room. Jaime’s father was standing in the
doorway and caught his wife before she left. He led her into the
bedroom and told her to lay down. He went back into Jaime’s
room.

“Where’s my sister?” she asked while holding
the picture up to show her father.

“Her name was Hayyat,” he said softly as he
walked over toward his daughter. “She would have been seven now.
She died before you were born.” One tear fell from his eye, but he
wiped it away before his daughter saw.

“Where did she go? I want to see her. I want
her now!” Jaime said angrily.

“For now, you can see her in this picture,
and one day you’ll see her in the hereafter.” He gave his daughter
a big hug.

“When is that?” she said as she stared at the
picture.

“I’m not sure, honey, but until then, we have
tons of pictures for you to see.”

“But I miss her.” Jaime hugged the
picture.

“I miss her too, honey.”

Years later, when she was old enough to
understand, her parents told her that her sister had been hit by a
car. Ever since then, she had slept with the picture under her
pillow.

“You’re all we have, Jaime. All we wanted was
to take care of you. We couldn’t stand the idea of losing another
child, but you’re right. You are a grown woman who can take care of
herself. So if you want to move out, we’re fine with that,” her
mother said.

“And I’m sure you’re probably planning on
getting a job, but for now, I’ll pay your rent,” her dad added.

“Dad, you don’t have to do that. I’ve saved
up a little money.”

“I know I don’t have to. I want to,” he said
with a smile.

Now that she had actually moved out, she
spent more time talking to her parents than she did when she lived
there.

“What do you think of the apartment?” she
asked Joseph.

“I think you’re finally done. That floor rug
really did warm up the room.”

Jaime and Joseph worked together on the
planning committee at the mosque. He was the only member that
actually liked her. People always thought Jaime was so uptight, but
compared to Joseph, she was a party animal. Joseph always had some
type of religious book tucked neatly under his arm and he never
left the house without a kufi on his head. He was a sweet person
that really cared about people, but he didn’t have much tact. He
was always correcting people, telling them what they should and
shouldn’t do and giving long speeches about the Holy Prophet. He
meant well, but his friends usually felt like he was trying to be
their father.

Jaime and Joseph had liked each other for
over a year, but because of her parents, it was hard for her to
talk to him. Now that she was on her own and had her own cell phone
in her own name, things were different. She and Joseph were
spending a lot of time together. They were both very concerned
about doing things Islamically, so they never went on dates alone.
They always made it into a group thing. Even when he came over to
her house (which was rare) they always kept a respectable
distance.

It had always been Jaime’s dream to get her
own apartment and have a housewarming party. Now that she had the
apartment, all that was missing was the party. Mariam would be
leaving for Chicago soon, so she had to have it quick.

“I want to invite all the girls, but I don’t
know if Aliya and Mariam are talking again,” she told Joseph. Ever
since she moved across town, she only got bits and pieces of what
was going on back home. She knew about their falling out over
Rashad, but she didn’t know what had happened since. She decided to
call Malikah to get the scoop.

“They’re talking again. But things aren’t
like they used to be. You know Aliya. She doesn’t hold a grudge,
but she was pretty hurt by the whole thing,” Malikah said.

“I hope they get over it soon,” Jaime said.
She was used to her friends being mad at her, but she didn’t like
them being mad at each other. “And what about Mariam and Rashad? Is
their wedding back on?”

“I don’t know how she did it, but it’s back
on. On the same day and everything.”

“That’s great,” Jaime said with a sigh of
relief. “That means I can invite everyone to my housewarming party.
I’ve been living here over a month and you all still haven’t been
by.”

“We tried, but someone kept saying ‘Wait til
I get my curtains. Wait til I get my walls painted.’ You’ve been
working harder than Martha Stewart,” Malikah joked.

“I just want everything to be perfect. I’ve
been waiting on this forever.”

Jaime managed to get her party planned in two
days. It was a lot of work, but everything came together nicely.
Still, she was nervous.

“Relax, Jaime,” Joseph said as he made the
punch.

“Do you think I have enough food? What about
games? I knew I should have gotten a few more.”

“Everything is fine. The food is great and
you have more than enough games.”

The doorbell rang. It was Malikah, Isaiah and
Mariam.

“Congratulations?” Malikah said. She wasn’t
sure what one was supposed to say to person that had just gotten
their first apartment. They put their gifts on the coffee
table.

“The place looks great,” Mariam said as she
looked around. “Rashad couldn’t make it. He wasn’t feeling
well.”

“Looks like you’ve been eating good,” Malikah
said. Jaime was still thin as always, but she looked a little
hippier than Malikah remembered, and her stomach had filled out
some.

“Yea, I see your curves peeping out,” Mariam
added.

“I wonder how Joseph feels about your banging
body,” Malikah joked

“I think she looks like a respectable young
woman,” Joseph said in a nervous voice as he came out of the
bedroom.

“Um, excuse us,” said Malikah. She was
surprised to see Joseph coming out of Jaime’s bedroom. Jaime was so
uptight that they always joked that she would make her husband
sleep in the living room. Joseph could read the looks on both
girls’ faces and felt the need to explain himself.

“I only stepped into the bedroom to make
prayer.”

“Sure you did.” Malikah and Mariam said
together. They loved making Joseph squirm.

Aliya and the crew showed up about thirty
minutes later. Jaime hadn’t seen Aliya in a while and she looked
different. She wore a pair of pinstriped pants with a white
tailored blouse and a pair of red suspenders. She still looked
great, but she didn’t look like the usual, wild Aliya. This was the
first time in years Jaime had seen her in a pair of pants that
didn’t look painted on.

“You must be Harlem,” Jaime said to the
little girl. “I’ve heard so much about you. I’m Jaime.”

“Hi,” the little girl spoke in a tiny voice,
peeking out from behind her father’s leg.

“Give her about ten minutes. She’ll talk your
ear off,” Langston said. “You’ve got a beautiful place here.”

“Yea, I’m really impressed. Girl, I might
need you to help me redecorate,” Aliya said as she gave Jaime a
hug. The eight of them spent the rest of the night eating,
laughing, and playing games. Around ten, Harlem started
whining.

“She’s probably ready for bed. You want to
leave, Langston?” Aliya asked.

“One more minute, babe. I’m ‘bout to win,” he
said as he slapped a card down on the table. Langston loved playing
Poker.

“You all don’t have to leave,” Jaime said.
“Give her to me. I can put her to sleep in my bed. You all finish
your game.”

“Are you sure?” Aliya asked. She had never
seen Jaime be this nice to anyone. She usually didn’t have enough
patience for adults, let alone whiney toddlers.

“It’s no problem at all,” Jaime said as she
picked up the girl. “You’re sleepy? Yea, me too. Let’s go lay
down,” she said in a relaxing voice as she carried Harlem to the
bedroom.

Harlem only cried for a few minutes. Jaime
put her on her lap and rocked her slowly. Then she put on a CD of
Quranic recitation. The melodic sounds of the CD put Harlem right
to sleep. She lay her down in the bed and then laid down beside
her. Langston peeked his head in to make sure everything was going
alright.

“I can’t even put her to sleep that fast,” he
said.

“It’s the CD,” she said. “The recitation is
so calming. Babies love it.”

“What is this?” he asked, picking up the CD
case.

“It’s Quranic recitation. He’s reading verses
from the Quran in Arabic. I love his voice. Abdullah Ali is the
best.”