Continental Divide (3 page)

“We’ll see. Besides, I like you in a pony
tail. Your hair has really grown since I last saw you. I did bring
you a gift though, something for your hair. I kinda thought you’d
need something to help you out.” Tanya smiled at the couple, their
happiness something she envied and wanted for herself.

“Come on show me to this paradise you claim
to have found. Then I want to go and meet Hamid’s brothers.” The
look that passed between the couple didn’t go unnoticed by Tanya.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Doesn’t Hamid know why I came?” When
Heaven groaned she knew he didn’t.

“Do you think you could have given me a
chance to make introductions to Hamid’s brothers and see what
happens? Dang, Tanya. Could you be a bit more blunt?”

At that remark Tanya stopped moving and
planted her hands on her hips and did a head roll. “What are you
talking about? You know I love the culture. I love learning new
things and I could have easily fallen for Hamid if he hadn’t been
so gah gah over you.” She stopped and smiled up at Hamid. “Now
you’re fronting. You’ve got me all the way here, made me take shots
which we both know I hate. I’ve been sick as a dog.” She pushed
Heaven’s hand away as she tried to shush her.

“No, you’re not going to stop me from
talking. I get it. You don’t want Hamid to know. That’s your deal.
He’s your husband, not mine.” Ignoring the blazing fury in Heaven’s
eyes Tanya turned toward Hamid.

“Hamid, Heaven has been trying to get me to
come here. When I kept refusing she dangled your brothers in my
face. She told me they weren’t married.”

She tilted her head toward Heaven and gave a
smirk. “And she told me that they were as fine as you. Now I’ve
been on a plane for what seems like a hundred hours. I’m tired. I
want to see this utopia Heaven told me you two found. And I want to
meet your brothers pronto.” She swished past both Hamid and Heaven
and straight out the door.

***

“Heaven, tell me you didn’t do that.” Hamid
turned soft, adoring eyes on Heaven. “You know Tanya is not my
brothers’ type. My family will never accept her as they have
accepted you. She’s a bit crass. My brothers are not going to fall
in love with her.”

Heaven turned from the door Tanya had just
gone through to give her husband a look. “Are you saying my friend
isn’t good enough for your brothers?”

“Those are your words, not mine. Why did you
do this? ”

For a long moment Heaven held her husband’s
gaze. “I was lonely for my friends.” She shrugged and looked away,
knowing that this would be one of the times Hamid would forget
about the limited touching of her in public places. He reached for
her hand and pulled her to him, giving her a light kiss and a
hug.

“You’ve given up a lot to remain in Pakistan
with me. We can return to America if you want, us and our son. It’s
okay if you’re ready to leave. I will not hold that against you.”
Hamid gave her fingers a squeeze. “Whither thou goeth I will go
dear wife.”

Making her husband feel guilty wasn’t her
intent. Well, maybe just a little. “Hamid, don’t worry, I love
having you happy and you’re happy in Pakistan. I just missed my
friends and thought it would be nice to have at least one of them
come to visit. Tanya is the only one of them bold enough to give
the country a try. But you know how she is. I had to give her a
good enough reason for doing so.”

Pulling back a little Hamid looked into his
wife’s eyes. “So you devised a plan to use possible marriage to one
of my brothers as the bait?”

“Not exactly. To be honest, Tanya came up
with the crazy scheme to marry one of your brothers. I know she’s
not right for them, but she’s perfect for Imran. The two of them
are so alike and they’re both a lot of fun. I really do think Imran
will like her. Tanya needs a nice guy,” Heaven answered softly.
“Will you help me get the two of them together?”

After pretending to think it over Hamid
tilted his head a slight bit then turned to look toward the door
and spotted Tanya waiting for them. He did like Tanya, and she was
a lot of fun. Imran needed a woman who was fun. That was one thing
Heaven was right about. They did have a lot in common. He sighed as
his wife discreetly gave his fingers a squeeze. “Yes, for you, I
will do what I can,” Hamid answered at last, then smiled. “But
you’re going to have to make my part in your little conspiracy
worth my efforts.” He grinned and gave her another kiss before
going out to join Tanya.

***

Tanya gazed at the white mansion taking in
the well kept lawn and enough trees that one could easily think
they were in a forest preserve. “Dang gurl, is this really your
house?” Tanya asked before the car had come to a complete stop.

“You never told us you were living in a
mansion. I am so not going home without one of Hamid's brothers.”
She laughed at the pained expression on Hamid’s face. “Don’t worry,
Hamid, at least I’m not after you.”

Tanya followed Heaven into the house
demanding to look around, oohing and aahing at the paintings, the
costly furniture, not stopping until Heaven stopped moving, her
hands planted on her hips and a glare on her face.

“Are you never going to ask to see my son?”
Heaven asked as she glared at Tanya.

“Our son,” Hamid came behind Heaven and slid
his arms around her. “Well, Tanya, would you like to take a moment
from touring the house to have a look at our real treasure?”

“My bad,” Tanya laughed, embarrassed. She
couldn’t even lie her way out of this one and say that she hadn’t
been so impressed with the house that she’d forgotten about the
baby. But she did try. “I thought maybe he was sleeping.”

“Nice try,” Heaven laughed, reaching for
Tanya’s hand and pulling her toward the nursery that was next door
to her and Hamid's rooms.

“Fatima, this is my friend Tanya. Tanya,
Fatima, Hamid’s sister. I think you two will get alone and become
great friends.”

Then Heaven raced for her son, but Hamid
beat her by a step and had lifted the baby from his crib. He was
looking down at the baby with awe the same kind that he had each
and every time he held him. Heaven watched as Hamid walked toward
Tanya.

“Tsukama, this is your mommy’s friend,
Auntie Tanya.”

Tanya reached for the baby and gave Hamid a
look when he moved away from her with his son in his arms.

“Hamid, what are you doing?” she asked.

“Do you know how to hold a baby?” he
responded.

“I work with kids for a living, you know
that.” Tanya laughed holding her arms out for the baby.

“But most of the kids you care for are
older. I’ve never actually seen you hold a baby.” Hamid held the
baby closer to his chest. “In fact I’ve never heard you even
mention that you’ve ever held a baby.”

“Give me that baby.” When he still refused
she looked toward Heaven in disbelief. “Are you two crazy or what?
Heaven, give me that baby before I go off on you.”

When she finally snuggled the baby in her
arms she looked across the room and saw Fatima eyeing her warily.
Damn, she’d gotten off on the wrong foot with the first member of
Hamid’s family that she’d met. She looked down at the baby. At
least he liked her. He had a big grin on his face and was bouncing.
At least she was hoping it was a grin. Either way she didn’t come
to Pakistan to fall in love with Hamid’s sister. If she liked her,
she liked her, if she didn’t…. well, if that was the case, she
could just go to hell. Tanya had no intention of living in Pakistan
with her new husband as Heaven had done with Hamid. No, she was
taking Hamid’s brother right back to America.

A few moments later the grunts from the baby
told Tanya it might have been something other than a grin for her.
“Here change your kid,” she said and handed the baby back to Hamid
and walked out of the nursery. She saw the stunned surprise on all
three faces.
What
? she thought. She hadn’t traveled this
many hours to play nursemaid, nor was she fond of watching parents
change a baby’s poopy diaper and go crazy over it. And the way
those two behaved she could just tell they were the kind of parents
to do something crazy like that. She heard Fatima mumble something
and was positive it wasn’t anything nice, but oh well.

“Tanya, what do you think about Tsukama?”
Heaven came and stood in front of her friend.

“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything. But
why the heck did you name that child Tsukama? Don’t you think Black
men have enough problems without you and Hamid giving him a name
like that?”

“It’s an African name. It means ‘learner’”.
Hamid walked from the nursery.

“And I repeat, that child isn’t African. Why
saddle him with a name like that?”

Tanya wasn’t backing down on that. It was
her opinion and she was sticking with it. Besides, she’d promised
everyone she was going to give Heaven a hard time on the baby’s
name for not making one of them the godmother.

“Hamid chose the name long before we were
ever married. In fact he chose it when he was so angry with me, I
didn’t know if I’d ever see him again. The name has great meaning
for us.” Heaven stood next to Hamid and defended their newborn’s
name.

“It’s still ugly.” Tanya glared first at
Hamid then Heaven. She was finding it hard not to laugh at the
looks on their faces. She wondered how long she’d keep it up before
confessing that the idea of giving a baby a name with a meaning
really appealed to her. The baby smiled at her and the smile tugged
on her heart.

Maybe it was time to lighten up, just a bit.
“It was an ugly name to give to such a cute little baby,” Tanya
smiled and blew a kiss at the baby and walked out of the
nursery.

Hamid looked toward Heaven then swore softly
in Urdu.

“You promised,” Heaven said in response.

“Promised what?” Tanya interrupted. “And,
Hamid, while I’m your guest, you will either tell me what you’re
saying, or speak in English.” She laughed when Hamid’s mouth flew
open and Heaven rushed to his side. Okay, she’d taken this ugly
American bit too far. If she didn’t stop they would more than
likely be taking her butt back to the airport.

“Okay, okay, the baby is beautiful, but you
both knew that. With you two for parents the baby had no choice but
to be beautiful. Heaven, you’re beautiful and, Hamid, you already
know I think you’re yummy. You’re super fine. I just hope your
brothers look half as good.” She gave a smirk. “That’s why I know
one of your brothers and I will make beautiful babies. Now all I
have to do is pick the one I like best.”

“You’re going to do what with our brothers?”
Fatima asked entering the room and bringing the freshly diapered
baby with her.

Tanya sized Heaven’s new sister-in-law up,
the woman who’d taken the honor one of Heaven’s friends should have
been given, the godmother to Tsukama that Tanya desperately wished
she was. Fatima was frowning at her, her look one Tanya didn’t
approve of. When she saw her glancing in Heaven’s direction as if
for an explanation “nasty” snapped to attention inside of Tanya.
“So you work for Heaven? Are you the nanny?”

“Tanya, stop it okay.” Heaven rushed Tanya
toward the other end of the huge house. “Let me show you your
rooms.”

When they were safely inside Tanya figured
if she and her friends were going to be living together in the same
house for six weeks, she needed to know what was going on. They had
to be straight with each other as they’d always been.

“What the heck is going on, Heaven? You’re
giving me looks every time I open my mouth, and I see you looking
at Hamid. You told me when I asked that I didn’t have to do
anything any different than I did at home, that I didn’t have to
change to come here. You know how much I wanted to come here first
hand and learn about the culture and everything. I’m glad you gave
me this vacation. But why are you suddenly acting like I’m doing
something wrong? And that sister-in-law of yours, she has her nose
all turned up in the air like she smelled something bad.”

“You’re being rude and you wonder why we’re
all giving you looks. What’s wrong with you? You know better than
that. Fatima is one of the nicest people that I know and if you’ve
pissed her off I don’t even know if I should introduce you to the
rest of the family.”

“But you told me I didn’t have to change the
way I behaved.”

“I know that. But who knew you were going to
hop off the plane and call my baby ugly, threaten to hit on my
husband and then straight out ask my sister-in-law if she was my
servant. You have more class than that and we both know it. Come
on, what gives? Why are you doing this ghetto diva bitch
thing?”

“Was I really that bad?”

“Yes. What gives?”

“I’m tired.”

“That doesn’t excuse your behavior and you
know it.”

“Promise me you’re not going to laugh,”
Tanya pleaded.

“Just tell me,” Heaven fumed, “before Hamid
tells me to get you outta here. Hurry up.”

“What if none of Hamid’s brothers like me?
What if his family won’t accept me? And you know I’m being for real
about not coming here to live.”

For the first time Heaven breathed a real
sigh of relief and hugged her friend. She’d hoped Tanya would love
the country as much as she did and she wanted her to get alone well
with her new family. Whether or not Tanya left Pakistan with a
husband was a different matter. Heaven just wanted her friend to
have a good time and help Heaven alleviate her homesickness.

“You’re crazy, you haven’t even met them and
you’re worried about them liking you and following you to America.
First, I don’t think that’s going to happen. But I do know you need
to take it down a notch. Hamid and I will have the entire family
over in three days for a party. Behave, okay. Now, for real, do you
think my baby has a stupid name?”

“First, you tell me, do you really like
it?”