"But the business was always doing well", She said, exasperated at mixed news coming from America. Some people reported that the business was lucrative. Some said Adeel was very worried and chased by debt collectors.
"I have no idea what's going on over there", Hamza said. He was the only involved brother. The other four largely stayed distant and cold.
"If the business runs to the ground", Kausar said with trepidation at what was going to come out of her mouth next, "We won't be able to live there. How can I support four kids in the United States of America without a solid income? My salary doesn't cover that much".
Hamza looked at her. True that he had anticipated Arshad and Kausar insisting on leaving with the kids. When he had spoken to Arshad before everything went up in smokes, Arshad had expressed the thought that they'd take the kids with them to the USA and Hamza could visit. He had certainly never thought that Kausar alone would be raising his kids.
"You're not going back to the USA now", He blurted out, "I won't let my kids go there all by themselves".
She looked at him coldly. He was an odd man to be suddenly switching up his act to concerned brother and father.
"Then keep your kids here, except you signed over the rights to me", She shrugged her shoulders. The last thing she wanted was to let him know how terrified she was of leaving them with this monster who had eaten her sister alive, "But just so you know, Aunty was going to come with me".
"Ha!" He exclaimed, "That's even worse. Two women are worse than one. And two of your kind. I don't trust Ami just as I don't trust you".
"You don't trust me?" She laughed incredulously, "You certainly have a way with your ego. You've proved to be so untrustworthy that your own wife had her kids adopted while you were alive and able. And you don't trust me. Wow! Learn something new everyday".
"I won't send my daughter to that country where she won't listen to me once she turns eighteen. I can't send her there with you. It's not safe. She needs good role models. Women who can tell her about culture, religion, our values…."
She raised a hand,
"Save it!"
She left.
"Ami!" He banged the door open. Nasima opened an eye and looked at him. He was her youngest and had enjoyed some favoritism from her over the years but this was uncalled for. What was he barging into her room for?
"Hamza!"
"Arshad's business is deteriorating. I have to call Adeel tonight. But that's a problem that I will deal with later. First, I have a bone to pick with you. Were you planning on leaving here with Kausar and the kids to the USA? My kids?"
She straightened up in her bed. Her glasses had fogged over from the tears and sighs. She cleaned them meticulously. It was so important to see these men for what they were.
"That's correct".
"And you didn't think consulting with me was even the least bit important, did you?"
"I suppose I didn't".
"Zehra won't go", He said, his tall frame shaking with righteous fury, "My daughter won't go. She won't go where sex is allowed. She won't go where she can have a boyfriend. She won't go. Take Noor".
"Hmm", The prologue of this story was going to be just as pathetic as the ending, she could tell. "And why, do you think, I'd agree to it? You signed the adoption papers knowing Zehra would be going to the USA".
"With Arshad", He screamed, his face red with passion. He had never hated a woman as much as he was starting to hate Kausar. She probably had sown this seed in Rabia's head. He had always been a good father. Even Rabia, in her death couldn't deny it. This was all Kausar's doing. She had duped Rabia, conned his own mother and was now going to the USA with four kids. What did she mean to gain from it all? Maybe there was some monetary benefit. Maybe she thought that if she had four kids she'd get more in the inheritance that was soon to come from Faraz. Ah! So this was it!!!!
"I won't let her take them", He said, more calmly now. "I will not let her take them. Whatever her highly doubtful motives maybe, I won't let her".
He turned and stomped out of the room.
Nasima fell asleep again.
Summers are a killer in Karachi. It gets humid and hot. Fatigue creeps into every longing beings body. The sun shines bright from dawn to dusk. No time of the day appears to be without some degree of sunlight.
One one summer afternoon, Nasima entered her room, unexpectedly smiling.
"Your iddat ended today", She asked gently, touching Kausar's leaf-green dupatta.
She smiled back. It didn't seem like four months had passed. It felt like a hundred. This house had become suffocating. It boiled under the sun and then got colder than death at night. The constant modulation that her body had engaged in to regulate the temperature inside and outside of her had drained her. She just wanted to go back to New Jersey.
"I see you're packing", Nasima looked around.
"We are leaving next month, Aunty! It's only three weeks until then".
"Hamza won't let you take them", Nasima said.
"It's all talk", She said briskly, "He's a spineless jerk".
They had butted heads frequently in the last few weeks. She had never counted on him being assertive and forceful. Unsurprisingly, she had countered him with equal force.
"They're my kids", He had screamed.
"That you happily helped me adopt", She screamed back.
"I wish Rabia burns in hell for the power she gave you", He always resorted to getting to her by using Rabia.
"You didn't deserve her", She said contemptuously, "She was such a fool to marry you. She could've been alive if she hadn't married you".
He made her, if possible, even more miserable than Arshad did. With Arshad the misery came with some sort of strength. With Hamza it was amazing that men could still overpower her.
He entered the room. Usually he didn't come to her room unless someone was there with her. She didn't know if it was a sign of respect or distrust but welcomed any way in which she could avoid him.
"Kausar!" He said quietly, "I won't let you take them, especially Zehra".
She kept quietly folding clothes.
"I've lost my wife. Why do you want me to lose more?"
"I don't trust you with them", She said briefly.
"Take Noor", He always said this like he was offering her some type of ransom money, "I'm not objecting to that. In fact, he'll have better education, more opportunities, he'll see the bigger world".
"And what about Zehra?" She asked sharply, "She doesn't need to see the bigger world?"
"No", His nostrils flared, "A woman seeing the bigger world is never good news. Look at you! You and Arshad were happy for the first few weeks of your marriage when you were here. The moment you landed there, trouble started".
Arshad was dead. She wasn't going to denigrate his name. It wouldn't be fair.
"Please, Kausar!" He stood in front of her. Even though he was exceptionally tall, she was only about half a head shorter than him.
"I don't know what to tell you", She finally said, "I can't leave Zehra with you. Especially Zehra".
"What do you mean?"
"Women aren't safe with you", She said briefly and went back to folding her clothes.
He looked stung. Like someone had slapped him. He stared at her for many minutes. Then he turned and left.
A few days later he saw five tickets, one for each of the kids and Kausar, on the dining table. Maybe she had left them for him to see. They were leaving in about three weeks. It surprised him that Nasima's ticket wasn't there but knew that Nasima was considerably more secretive than Kausar.
A restlessness took him over. Sure he had consented to his kids being taken away but if he ever found out that Zehra grew up like girls could in the United States then what was he going to do? His mind kept whirring. His eyes flew open in the middle of the night, his body drenched in sweat. Girls in American movies looked like Zehra. What would he do if Zehra called him one day and told him that she was dating? He developed insomnia.
It didn't help that the only man in the world, his father, had taken to his room since Arshad's death. For whatever reason, Arshad had always been Faraz's favorite. It looked like Faraz was going to be the next to go.
"You've got quite the conundrum on your hands", Faraz said, after hearing everything.
"Papa! Have you seen Kausar? She's so strong-willed. Never gave a day's comfort to my poor brother and now she threatens to take my kids from me. Do you think that just because Rabia made an emotional decision on her deathbed and I went along with it to appease her, I should be punished like this?"
"No one punishes my sons", Faraz said, "But I think that she's not so strong on her own. It's your mother. If she's making plans to leave with Kausar and the kids then that witch is executing what she always wanted to execute which is to leave me. Your mother is not as sincere as she pretends to be. She's spiteful".
He didn't care about his parents' relationship. It had been dysfunctional since the beginning of time.
"I saw the tickets. She's so crafty. Left them in clear vision for me to see. She doesn't even want to have a conversation with me about it all. Where is she going to eat from? Where is she going to feed this family of six from? The business is going downhill. Adeel called and he said that the store hasn't opened in two months".
"Shut the business down", Faraz growled, "That piece of slimy dirt is the last of my worry. He can go down with the business. Arshad had some deal with him but we have no onus of providing for that pathetic Adeel. I care about my family. He can rot in hell".
"He's calling me everyday, Papa! Sometimes more than once".
"Is he asking for money?"
"Yes. He thinks that twenty thousand dollars should help him get the business back up and producing".
"No", Faraz stood up. He was a man of impressive proportions, just like his sons. When he was young, he was extremely good looking. Both Arshad and Hamza looked a lot like him. Even now, in his seventies, he radiated power and assertion.
"I don't want you to communicate with him again", Faraz said, "You understand that?"
Hamza nodded.
"Now coming to your problem", Faraz looked at him, "How can we stop her from leaving for the USA? You might think that this is a weak woman who will ask for our scraps but that's not the truth. She has really been very headstrong and oppositional. Her pride, even though her downfall, is also the force that keeps her going. Don't underestimate her. Now, are you really okay with Noor leaving with her?"
He contemplated his answer. The truth was that his daughter being in the West without him to guide her was killing him. He didn't think Noor was just as big of a problem.
"I've made my peace with Noor eventually leaving with her", Hamza finally said.
"Offer her marriage", Faraz said. Hamza's head jerked up.
"I will absolutely not", He retorted loudly.
"Listen, idiot!" Faraz said, lying down back in bed and staring at the wall ahead of him, "I have some interest in this so I've been thinking about it. When Arshad was here, did you notice that he wasn't happy?"
He didn't know where his dad was leading with this but obliged him with an answer,
"Everyone noticed, Papa! But what are you getting at?"
"They didn't sleep in the same bed".
"I know", Hamza said, exasperated, "Everyone knows".
"There was discord in that marriage. Do you know why? I've asked your mother. She wouldn't tell me. But she did tell me that they were never close, Arshad and Kausar".
"How does any of it apply to me?" Hamza snapped.
"I want to keep Arshad's kids here. They're the last living memento of my favorite son. There's no other way to keep them here. Kausar's stupid mother already agrees with me that she'd be safer here. Think about it! If you offer marriage, would she decline? You're young, closer in age to her, the father of the kids she so earnestly adopted. It's not like this hasn't happened in history".
"Papa!" He hesitated, "I have already promised marriage to someone. She is just waiting for a year to pass since Rabia's death but I have a wife picked out already".
"You can have more than one", Faraz smiled, "You won't owe Kausar anything. You're not getting it. You're taking a woman with two kids, who has no prospects. Her business is in ruins. She has the additional responsibility of two of her sister's kids. People will love you. A beauty she's not! She's the most mediocre woman you could've chosen but look how this is the very act of altruism that'll catapult you from the status of a cheater to a savior. Think about it! You have three weeks".
The thought of marrying Arshad's widow was abhorrent.
"Papa! I love you but I think your brain is addled. This is impossible. Arshad won't forgive me ever…."
"Marry her! Just for the heck of it. I'm not asking you to have a marital relationship with her. This is just a technicality. There are many women in the entire Pakistan that you've had relationships with. What's one more? It's charitable that a young and eligible bachelor who could've had his kids out of his way, could've had any woman, is choosing a damsel in distress. Son! You're not mine if you can't see the genius of this scheme. She'll be forever indebted. With Arshad she was the young and fertile wife. With you, she'd be the widow you housed and clothed. What's not adding up?"
Hamza stood with his shoulders hunched, his mind racing, his thumbs intertwined. Faraz watched with satisfaction. What did Nasima think? That she'd punish his sons for him? She had never won. It wasn't possible for her to win now.
He knew Hamza would come around.
Hamza hated Kausar but no one hated Kausar more than Faraz did. She had eaten his son and when she spat him out, he was unrecognizable.
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