Chapter 33: B

"Her name is Maryam." Maryam who was warily looking at him seemed not to have liked the idea of this strange woman that she didn t know, knowing her name but he gave her the its okay look. Even though he had been flashing that look to her when she should have already let that Yana of a lady do it for her.
"Maryam, we re going to make you look beautiful here, don t you want it?" She asked and fished out her phone with a smile, showing her a picture from the distance she stood, "I ll do your dilka, your hair, your facials, and henna, won t you like it?" Maryam was silent for a while, but she was staring earnestly at the pictures she was showing her the beautiful intricate designs of henna and it seemed to be a good idea when she did that. "Do you want it?" Maryam slowly nodded her head, she wanted it so bad that she could as well make some magic to just make it happen.
"You might be a paediatrician with this logic of yours," Na im said before he chuckled with a smile.
"With the way she's frightened, I need you to take her mind off what we re doing, can you do that, Captain?" She asked with a triumphant smile on her lips and he nodded his head. He was the one that guided Maryam to the chair she would have her hair washed and made her comfortably sit down.
He didn t know what he would do but he knew he just had to do something, so he took out his phone after she had lain on the chair and he motioned for her to continue with her work. He got to the website he sometimes watched a movie in and decided to play one of his best romcom movie for her, "Let s watch a movie, will you?" He asked and she gasped just when the woman had poured a certain amount of water in her hair and she grasped Na im s hand to keep her stable.
It took time before her body adjusted to having someone else s hand in her hair before she turned to him, her hand still clasped into his with a scared smile, "Yes please, do that." He played the movie in front of them and their heads were practically adjoined while they watched. She laughed at some point of the movie and it caught Na im s attention when he saw that he was more interested in how earnestly her eyes looked at his phone than what was in front of him. How she chuckled and when the woman s hands moved swiftly in her hair, he was aware of how she tightened her hold on his hand.
Her hair had been put in the dryer because she figured if she used the hand dryer, the constant movements might make her fret. "Let me go and bring all that I'll need for the dilka and henna before her hair is done."
"Okay," he answered with a smile and she was about to leave when he thanked her, "Thank you, Fatima." She only smiled at him, but there was something in her eyes that told him she had noticed something else, just that it was none of her business and she wasn t going to ask or go about saying things about him.
He stared at Maryam as she looked at him with puppy eyes, "It s hurt, can t she take me out of this thing?" She whined and he sat opposite her to have a better look of her face while he shake his head.
"Didn t she promise to make you look beautiful?" He asked and her tiny head that was going through the trauma of what she was going through in that dryer. He chuckled and softly took her hand in his, "It s going to be fine and worth it at last, okay?" She nodded her head and clutched his hand tightly with a grimaced expression.
"Aren t you hungry?" He asked, to take her mind off what she was going through. She looked at him for a moment as if she was going to think if she was hungry or not and then she nodded her head at him with tears brimming in her eyes.
"I want to go home, let s leave." She had never had to go through this ordeal before with Intisar. Washing her hair then had always been easy for her, it was wash, and let it dry before Intisar applied the little hair oil they had and then it was done. But it seemed like she had brought herself to her grave today.
"We can t go home, Mero. Let s wait until she s done making you look beautiful, okay?" She nodded her head but the tears had already rolled down to her cheeks in a anguish line that made him tightened his hold on her hands while she broke into tears completely.
"It s really hot in here, why can t she come back and take it off? I feel like I'm getting suffocated." He looked around to see if Fatima was coming over or not and swiftly, he lifted where he thought would make it possible for her to pull her head out and she did, sighing out of relief.
"Rest for a few seconds and let s get you back in there before she comes in, okay?" Maryam surprised him by laying her head on his laps as she closed her eyes, taking in labored breaths to calm herself down.
Na im placed his hand on her back as he tried to soothe her with nothing but his touch and it seemed to have worked, for she was a bit relaxed and he had his yes fixed on her face when Fatima walked in on them and gasped. "Na im!" She exclaimed and they both jolted at the way his name was called. "You can t bring her out of the dryer, Ya Allah!" She didn t seem to be bothered with the way she had found them, but more by the fact that she had brought her head out of the dryer.
She gently pushed Maryam back who started crying almost immediately and Na im sighed, foreseeing how today was going to be a very long day for him. He held her hands warmly and tried to shush her with his eyes but Maryam wasn t hearing a word from it. "Please tell her to bring me out of this thing, it really hurts, please?" She begged and Fatima only laughed while she continued mixing all the things she was going to make the dilka and the henna on her.
It was a torture Maryam had never known she would have to endure. And it wasn t until her hair was done and Na im was asked to go out before they were going to scrub her entire body with the dilka that Maryam really started crying. It was funny to watch, to them, yet Na im knew it was so real to her mind. He had to ask to speak to her for a few minutes while they weren t in the room.
Her sobbing face looked up into his eyes while her trembling lips began to speak, "Please take me back home, will you? I can t stay here with them without you, please." Her entire body shook with her cries while she did that and gently, Na im pushed her to his body and patted her back.
"They re not going to hurt you, Mairam."
"I don t want to look beautiful!" She proclaimed and cried even harder that he knew, if not because he knew she was mentally terrified of people that were strangers to her, he would have laughed so hard at how she was sounding. He wished he had come along with Bilkisu, at least seeing someone she knew would ve lessen it.
"Look into my eye," he slowly peeled her off his body and she stared up into his eyes with her wavering ones. "You have to calm down, okay? I'll be by the door and if you want something, just yell out my name and I'll burst inside. They won t hurt you, Mairam. You can even fall asleep so you won t know whether they touch you or not." That idea seemed to have worked. Because Maryam had to force herself to sleep before they began doing everything and when she woke up, hours later, she was surprised to have her whole body done and the henna was even beginning to dry.
She looked around and there he was, seated beside her on the reclining chair she had been put on by them while he went through his phone, unaware that she was awake. She smiled, taking that time of him being oblivion to have a full look of his face. She had known, for the few times she had taken the courage to stare at his face longer than a minute, that he was very handsome. But she seemed to have never fully seen how he looked but today.
Once, she had seen Intisar s boyfriend and Maryam thought he was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life. Even though she knew she might be wrong because she had never actually looked at someone s face apart from his when it came to that gender; until now. Until with Na im Bolori.
"You re awake," he said as he looked up and she internally groaned for having her thoughts and soft caress of her eyes all over his face. She managed to smile and tried moving her hands when he shook his head at her. "You d smudge everything if you do that and it wouldn t be beautiful anymore." Nevertheless, she sat upright and a gasp escaped her lips at how beautiful the henna looked and she was aware of the now lushness of her skin and its glow.
She turned to him with a smile, "It s beautiful," she whispered and he nodded his head, loving her innocence in everything she did. She was no longer as slow as she was before and he loved it.
"Yes, it is. You ve been sleeping for almost three hours, I bought something for you to eat, but I'll feed you since you can t move your hands." Her stomach made a growl to remind her of how hungry she was. He scooped her into his arms, as they both were careful with her hands and feet and he helped her rinsed her mouth before he took her back.
She smiled at him when he sat down and he had to ask, "Why are you smiling like that?"
She shrugged her shoulders and tried to look away but nothing was more pleasing than his handsome face, "How are you so strong to carry a whole human being?" He threw his head back and laughed at that.