Chapter 29 : Her Hair

Tentatively, Maryam stared at him as she contemplated whether to believe what he had said or not. But then her hand ached and she was so tired that she could as well begin to cry. And when Intisar touched her hair she didn t die, right? Maybe since she now didn t have Intisar, she might as well trust him enough to let him loose it for her.
Maryam moved slowly towards him until she sat down between his legs on the carpet, just like she did whenever Intisar was doing her hair and she handed him the metal she used and the comb. Na im wondered how to go about it, he was afraid to be wrong and he had never loosen the hair of a woman. He couldn t even remember touching it past the lovely uncle pats of the head to his nieces.
"Bilkisu!" He called out, and in a minute she was in the room as she bowed her head. He was aware of the look she had shot them, of the position they were even though Maryam was on the carpet and he was seated on the sofa, but she quickly took her eyes off them.
"How do I loose her hair?" He asked and Maryam was about to flinch away, thinking that Bilkisu would demonstrate to him with her hair when he held her by the shoulder and whispered, "She s not going to touch your hair."
"I offered to help her but she declined, Your Highness," she said in a wavering voice, thinking that she had done something wrong in his eyes.
He smiled to help her calm down a bit, "I know, don t you worry about that, okay? Just..." He looked round, not knowing how they were going to do it, "Is there a way you can show me how to loose it for her?"
Bilkisu walked towards them and she knelt at a respectful distance before she pulled a single strand of her rows, "Watch carefully, Your Highness. Loose it thoroughly because if it gets messy she ll suffer when she s combing the hair." She ordered and he had his entire attention on her while she loose her hair and when he asked if she could do it again, Bilkisu pulled another strand of cornrows from her head-tie and she did it again, and again, until he seemed to have understood the tactic.
"Thank you. You can leave." She left them and Maryam looked up at him, "I ll touch your hair now," he said, and waited until it got registered into her brain clear enough to have her expression changed before he touched her hair, but knowing he was about to touch her still wasn t enough to stop her from gasping, but after some minutes, she was calm again.
It took him minutes to loose one of the cornrows and after they had spent over an hour while he did, Na im gasped and she immediately jolted out of his touch, "What is it?" She asked, her eyes dilated at him.
"Your hair is so dirty, you should have it washed." He saw how annoyance took over with the panic she had felt and the pout was back on her lips in a matter of seconds before she shifted away from him.
"I don t know how to wash it, but then I will really die if someone washes it for me apart from Intisar." She whined at him and he chuckled at how innocent she looked. Everything about Maryam was different and it amazed him in some ways. He liked the fact that Nafisa had called him and that had prompted him to come over and check her, he wouldn t have been having such an interesting afternoon.
"But it s too dirty to leave it this way. Let s go to a saloon, will you?"
She shook her head even before she spoke, and when she asked, "What s a saloon?" He had to laugh. So she had already declined his offer even before she knew what it meant, right?
"It s a place where they can wash your hair, take care of it and make it look beautiful. They do all sorts of things, if you want, I can take you there." He was smiling genuinely at her, somehow, he was enjoying being in her company today. He didn t know whether it was because of how comfortable she was with him or it was because he chose to let his guards down and just be with her without thinking of how much trouble she was to his life.
She shook her head again, "They ll touch my hair."
"But your hair is so dirty, Mairam. Someone has to wash it for you, and I don't know how to. You were here when I had to ask how to loose hair, and you won t let Bilkisu do it for you, will you?" Before she replied, Maryam turned her face away from him and he could see the way her eyes were getting filled by tears. Oh dear god, what s with this woman and tears? Or better, this girl and tears?
He slid down onto the carpet and smiled at her, "What s with the tears now? I did nothing wrong, right?" She shook her head, still not looking at him and instead of him to be angry at her like he had always been, Na im found it amusing and he smiled. "I'm ready to apologize, talk to me."
She slightly turned to face him before she pouted her lips and it occurred to him that she didn't even know she did and even if she were told of it, she didn t know what it was called. But he would be damned if it didn t look so cute on her. "You said I was a dirty girl." She cried and no matter how Na im wanted to keep a straight face, he burst out laughing and she shot him a glare without intending too.
"I ve never said that. All I said was your hair is dirty, and it is. Don t you see?" With his eyes on hers, Na im was assured that she was aware of his moves, he slowly touched her hair and pulled a bunch to her eyes, "You see? Even the end is so dirty and lets not talk about the roots. Please, let s go to have your hair washed, you ll love it, I promise."
"They ll teach you how to do it and you ll do it, right?" She asked and he took his time before he nodded his head, realizing that was the only way to get her to accept that they would go to the saloon and Na im planned on taking her there tomorrow after they were done with the hospital.
Gently, he pulled her head to his laps and continued to loose the hair while she played with the comb in her hands, in utter silence before he chose to break it. Having them sit like this, with his back resting on the sofa and Maryam s head rested on his laps while he had his hands all over her hair, he didn t want to do it while not having something to take his mind off things.
"We re going to the hospital tomorrow," he began and she slightly moved to show him that she had heard him and was waiting for him to be done to see if it required a reply from her, she would. But things hardly required a reply from Maryam, even though he knew she was trying so hard in replying him. "Dr Nafisa told me you re going to see another doctor but she ll call her for you. She ll make you feel better, so tell her everything that s bothering you, okay?" She nodded her head to him and he smiled before he continued with what he was doing and he heard her tiny yet melodious voice asked him a question.
"Will she make my eyes look normal?" She asked and it was rare for Maryam to ask him or speak to him unless it was her answering his question.
"What happened to your eyes? Are they hurting? Are you not able to see?" He asked the questions at once, sounding faster than he intended to and instead of an answer from her, she laughed. Because she had realized while her brain was trying so hard to understand what he had asked at first, the other two questions went undefined by her brain. He stopped as he heard her laugh and it wasn t usual for her to laugh this way.
"What s so funny?" He couldn t help but ask and Maryam took her time before she sobered up and stared up at his face, her hair dispersed everywhere on his laps.
"I didn't understand a word you ve said. You ve never talked this fast before." There was still a smile on her lips and her eyes were so colorful that he wondered how they would look when her heart was devoid of all the pain she was going through and she was all but happy.
He chuckled too, "I asked, if something happened to them?" He waited a bit until she shook her head before he asked again, "What about pain, are they hurting you?" This time too, she shook her head at him and even though Na im thought he knew why she asked if Dr Sumayyah Tambuwal was going to turn the color of her eyes to normal but he just wanted her to admit to it openly. "If not that then, can t you see with the eyes?"
She was still looking up at him and it seemed to him that she found his laps more comforting than her pillow and he smiled at the thought. "I can see you perfectly fine. It s just that..." She let her words trailed off as she looked away, remembering how she had scared him off for two weeks when they had that eye contact before he came back and since then, she had been making sure he didn t look directly into her eyes.
"Just what? Talk to me, I won t yell at you, I promise." She turned to his face as if to ask him if what he was saying was the truth and he nodded his head at her, "Speak up, okay?"
Maryam sighed before she closed her eyes, there were times that even with him, she found it hard to be able to lay out her emotions. She had to fight with her emotions to get them out and right now, she had to clench her eyes shut as she said, "Last time when you asked about my eyes and you said it was beautiful, I know you lied to me too. You were terrified, you thought I was a witch too because it took you more than two weeks before I saw you again." And surprisingly, it still hurt like it did at the time and she felt tears vertically rolling down to the sides of her ears.