Hiding in Plain Sight (19 page)

“Tea is fine, if that is no bother, thanks.”

They follow him into the kitchen. Bella sits as he pours water, but Salif, who has brought his camera, wants to take photos of them, and he asks them to pose for him, his first photo of two adults outside his home.

Mahdi insists on seeing the camera before posing, and after receiving it, he admires it. “Nice camera, must be expensive.” Then he asks, “Where did you get it, I never knew you had such a beautiful camera?”

“A gift from Auntie Bella,” says Salif.

“Well, well, a grand camera for a lucky boy.”

“She got one for Dahaba too.”

“But that is wonderful.”

Bella listens in silence, happily beaming.

Mahdi and Bella obligingly pose for Salif and he takes a couple of photos just to be sure, and then goes upstairs to join the others, a fresh spring in his gait and a broad, joyful smile covering his features.

The two adults are now alone in the kitchen. Mahdi brings out a tray and teacups and the ubiquitous UHT milk and sugar. Bella notices that his hands are shaking, and wonders if he is very, very sad not only about Aar's early tortured death but also about Fatima's cancer.

Mahdi says, “When a country like ours goes to ruin, it takes our best too.” He sighs. “We go back a long way. Your mother taught me at
the law faculty, Aar was a schoolmate of Fatima's. His name was on every girl's lips, but he took very little notice of any of them because he was hardworking, always thinking about schoolwork, competitive, the best in everything, soccer, chess, games, you name it. Later, at the university, they went to different faculties, he to economics, she to agriculture, but they still kept in touch and we reconnected when they both graduated and he came to our wedding and then he often visited our home for the odd meal. We would tease him about women and Fatima even tried to set him up with one of her girlfriends. Not interested. Fatima would say Aar was meant for greater things, certain that he would do well at whatever he set his mind on, for he was talking of doing his PhD. Then I was in political trouble, the dictator threatening me with prison, and we left Somalia. Then came the civil war and we lost touch, but we were happy to reunite with him here. You were much too young for all this.”

“I remember Fatima,” says Bella. “Her beautiful dresses above all. I recall these bright dresses with great envy as a young thing, touching, feeling with my hands the material they were made from. She would bring me marzipans and I would follow her and Aar to the door as they left, hoping they would take me with them wherever they were going.”

“We loved him,” says Mahdi.

“My memories of those days are still with me and they remain sweet in my mouth and I feel as though I can taste their ambrosial residues,” says Bella. “I too was sweet on my brother, as were many other girls.”

“We loved him and now hold you and his children very dear.”

Even though they are standing apart, it is as though, with their reminiscences of Aar safe in their memory, Bella and Mahdi are wrapped in a single cloth woven out of their sorrows. And they fall silent, neither wanting to add to what has been said.

Then the sudden entrance of a cat startles them out of their stupor.
The cat rubs against Mahdi's legs, and then Bella's, meowing. Then they both hear a key turning in the lock and see Qamar barging in, excitedly lugging a huge shopping bag too heavy to lift. Fatima brings up the rear, admonishing her, “Do be careful, my sweet.” Then she catches sight of Bella and, the door still open, the key still in her hand, she exclaims, “Oh my God, I had no idea.” Fatima sweeps her up in an embrace, her joy at the sight of Bella quickly giving way to fresh grief over Aar, but not before Bella takes in the headscarf that Fatima has on, the first Bella has seen her wearing, the headscarf meant to hide Fatima's loss of hair from a combination of chemo and related treatment. Also, Fatima's skin looks pallid, with a worrying patchiness, which Bella associates with the taking of drugs. Bella's own sorrow grows more acute with the awareness of this new sadness, and it is doubly painful to be able to speak of the one but not the other.

Qamar is waiting patiently for them to finish their hugging before offering her own commiserations to Auntie Bella. Fatima, noticing this, gradually releases Bella from the tightness of her embrace. “My sincere condolences, Auntie,” Qamar whispers.

Bella says, “Oh, my sweetness, thank you.”

“We must stay strong,” Mahdi says.

Bella says, “Thanks for all your support.”

“What else is there to do, what else to say?” says Fatima.

There is a serious struggle all round and Bella is unable to stay on her feet, struck afresh by the reality of Fatima's illness, and she sits down, exhausted. Mahdi, Fatima, and Qamar surround her, watching in perturbed silence until Mahdi gestures to the others to give her space.

“Tea?” Mahdi says to Fatima.

“I could do with a cup,” Fatima says.

“What about you, Qamar?” her father asks.

“Not now,” she says, and then she bolts up the stairs.

Bella longs for something a lot stronger than tea, but she is not sure there is such a drink to be had in this house, and she doesn't want to discomfit her hosts by asking for it. She hasn't felt the need to take strong liquor since leaving Rome—not even in the plane. She will have sufficient time to make the cultural shift and knows not to expect to be served wine or other liquor in the homes of Somalis, and she reminds herself that she hasn't been around her fellow nationals in a long time.

Mahdi says, “How would you like your tea?”

“Black, strong, no sugar, please,” Bella says.

Mahdi and Fatima are staring intently at Bella, who finds herself unable to recall how she got from the kitchen to the couch in the living room. She realizes she has been daydreaming of happier days, when Aar was alive and the children were young and all of them looked forward to a future uncomplicated by deaths, diseases, civil wars, and other sorrows. Her eyes closed tightly, she balls her hands into fists and sits still for quite a while, conscious of Fatima and Mahdi still watching her. The instant she sees them both standing, her fists unclench, and she pats the couch on either side of her, and the two of them take the free spaces she has indicated.

Bella says, “You give me strength. Thank you.”

As they take the time to contemplate the ruins of the world around them, Dahaba, prancing down the stairway with her camera in hand, breaks their reverie. Fatima looks up, amused by the girl's expression, as serious as if she were ready to announce an important event.

Dahaba says, “I would like you to pose for my first picture of the three of you with the first camera I've ever owned, a gift from Auntie Bella.”

“How would you like us to pose?” Fatima asks.

“Please stand up and smile for the camera.”

Bella thinks it is an odd request to make of them at this point in
time, but she decides to let it pass because Dahaba is unfamiliar with the etiquette of taking photos at a time such as this. The three of them stand and let her arrange them until she has taken the photos to her own satisfaction.

Then Mahdi brings the tea and, spoon clinking against saucer, Bella tries to think of the best way to broach the subject of Fatima's cancer. She gets her moment when Mahdi takes his leave with a bow, on what she is fairly certain is a pretext that he needs to complete a piece of writing. He takes his tea and sets off up the stairs in the direction of his study.

“Would you like some biscuits?” Fatima asks.

Bella shakes her head no, wondering if Fatima is loath to burden Bella with her illness when she is already grieving.

“I hear their mother is here,” Fatima says.

“Yes, she is.”

“And I hear you hosted her last night.”

“Yes, we did indeed.”

“And I hear she is trouble.”

“We won't let her cause disruption in our lives.”

Fatima says, “If marriage is heaven and hell, then Aar was heaven, where he now must be residing, and his widow—if she is entitled to such an office, which I doubt—is hell, from what my children have told me.”

Bella is a little miffed that someone, most likely Dahaba, has shared family secrets with either Qamar or Zubair, who must have passed them on to Fatima, the very thing against which she has been inveighing.

Fatima can tell Bella looks put out, and she guesses the reason. So she says, “Our children are very close, and they talk their hearts out to one another, especially at moments of great sorrow.”

“I understand,” Bella says, “but don't we Somalis say that a secret known to more than one person is no longer a secret?”

“Aar guarded his privacy and so does Salif.”

“Not so Dahaba.”

“There is in each of us a secret chamber whose key we offer to those we choose—a husband, a wife, a brother, a sister, a lover, or lovers known to no one but ourselves. I am sure there are personal secrets that Dahaba won't divulge to anyone, and with age, she will learn to know how to treasure more secrets, keep them hidden.”

“I do hope so.”

“If I may be so bold, might I ask who is the custodian of the key to your secret chamber?” But when Fatima sees the hesitation on Bella's face, she says, “Consider it unasked.”

“I am no different from Aar, say, who entrusts a password to his computer to Salif, the details of his banks in Europe to me, having also given me power of attorney to them, and who then makes you and Mahdi serve as witnesses to his most recent will. We guard our secrets in different ways and entrust some to those we feel close to.”

“We've always wondered why you never married.”

“With a brother like Aar, how could I?”

“I can see where you are coming from,” says Fatima. It seems to be confession time. “Mahdi never tires of telling everyone that Aar was every girl's favorite boy. But I can tell you he was very hard to get to know, and it was difficult to plumb his persona, a smart, lovely guy like him. It is sad that he ended up with a woman who walked out on him.”

“I may have fancied him too,” says Bella.

Fatima pours Bella more tea, and then asks, “So what are your current plans?”

“I am thinking of moving here,” Bella says.

“There is nothing standing in the way, is there?”

“How do you mean?”

“A love, a mortgage, a professional commitment?”

“Nothing I can't clear away.”

“It'll be great for all of us to have you here.”

Ill at ease, knowing what she knows, Bella shifts her position as if awaiting a blow. She stretches her hand to touch Fatima's, and then tears well up in her eyes and, with words failing her, her Adam's apple moves up and down and, her breathing agitated, she seizes her opportunity to take Fatima's hand, which she kisses. Then she says, “Do I hear cancer?”

“Yes,” Fatima says. “We didn't discover it in time, my fault. I was never in the habit of self-examining. With me, it all started with an unusual swelling of the breasts as well as a lump in the underarm. I consulted my GP, who, after examining me physically, sent me to the breast clinic. The results of the initial biopsy came back showing that mine was in an advanced stage. I was put on a chemotherapy with a drug called Doxorubicin. I am feeling a great deal better, but you can see how the combination of the chemo and the drug has caused my loss of hair, and I am weak and sweat frequently and am moody. Mahdi has been very supportive, my other friends also. We are going to England to see a consultant at Barts, and maybe we will go to France or America later.”

“This is most sad.”

“Aar knew about it even before I told Mahdi, in fact.”

What a touching tribute to their friendship! thinks Bella.

Fatima continues, “He was sorry he wasn't here with us. He tried to bring his return forward, intending to visit me at the cancer clinic where I had gone for a minor procedure. In a way, I am to blame, though, because I kept postponing my mammogram until it was too late.”

“It's good you're getting a second opinion,” says Bella. “When are you off to Barts to see the consultant?”

“In a month or so,” replies Fatima.

Bella clears her throat and says, “I'll want Zubair and Qamar to stay with us when you do go. And if there is anything else I can do, please let me know.”

“Qamar and Zubair would love that, I am sure.”

“It would excite the children to be together,” says Bella.

“And I hope for their sakes and everyone else's that Valerie doesn't cause further upsets in the existing harmony,” says Fatima.

“I'll make sure she won't,” promises Bella.

“What are their mother's prospects in the new setup?”

“None, legally speaking.”

“Is she going back to India or moving here with her partner?”

Has Dahaba been speaking again? Bella asks herself.

“I doubt they will move here,” ventures Bella.

“But it is true that they are trouble?”

Bella changes her position. “They've been indiscreet.”

“With movement in the small hours of the night?”

Bella then tells an edited version of the events as they occurred. “For all we know, Padmini may have gone out for a smoke when Dahaba saw the unoccupied couch. Not that it matters in the end.”

“Is it true that Valerie wants Aar's corpse to be exhumed, brought here, and then cremated? Because in the will we signed as witnesses in London, there is no mention of cremation or where he should be buried.”

“Valerie has the habit of creating confusion.”

“But that's madness,” Fatima says.

They sit in silence, not knowing how to move on.

Fatima is the first to speak. “What are your plans?”

“I am here to mother Salif and Dahaba.”

“You are relocating—completely?”