No Matter What: Chapter Nineteen

‘Nurse nurse, she’s awake’ Hilal rushed to the corridor calling out.

Fajr smiled for the first time in a long time as she saw her friend’s tired eyes open. Brushing her brittle weak fine hair she kissed her cheeks ‘7amdillah 3al salamah love’ she said as Noor gripped her wrist to not go anywhere. Her pale yellow face that was washed out of blood made Fajr want to cry. She knew what Noor’s eyes were searching for and what she wanted to ask about. She felt the pit of her stomach turning as she took a deep breath and told her, ‘He’s fine. So long as you get better and try not to leave us again that is’.  Masking her ever growing concern with a fake smile, she calmed Noor’s senses down as she loosened her grip and felt relieved.

They rushed to the ER in panic looking around in hopes they would find him along with the policemen who were waiting to walk them in. ‘Excuse me, Shihab my brother. He was involved in a car accident and we were told that he was admitted here by his friend. Is he okay?’ His entire immediate family arrived worryingly as they rushed into the sliding doors to the cold hospital ward.  Shihab was finally stabilized and had broken a few ribs but was now in need of blood as he had lost a lot during the accident. ‘It seems that he may need some blood, his blood is a very rare type and we need one of you' the doctor said. With all his siblings turning to each other knowing that they won’t be able to help, they remained silent but for the loud cries of their mother, and then she spoke ‘But doctor none of us match his blood group’. Surprised at the confession, the doctor raising one eyebrow asked ‘Aren’t you all siblings? We’ll do some testing and see who matches his ’. Fearing the painful outcome, they all decided to stay quiet until ‘Doctor he isn’t really my son. With everyone in the room looking at them, his sister broke down to tears knowing she has failed Shihab just like the time when he fell off his bike and started to bleed as a youngster. Exactly like the time she lost the grip of his hand as he collapsed on the soapy floor as a teenager and right about the time where he found out that the family he thought were his flesh and blood weren’t but two young couple who took him in and raised him as one of their own.

It was pitch black as they drove back home. Chuckles mixed with the oud playing at the background as they looked each other in the eye hand in hand. He was driving slower as they approached familiar territory; their newly built house. Anticipating the smell of freshly painted walls mixed with the scent of frankincense, they got even more excited to get home and surrender into each other’s hugs and snuggles. He stops abruptly as he reaches the driveway ‘Sorry darling, I was mesmerized by your presence that I was about to miss our house’ he smiled and reached out for her hand to kiss. Stepping out of the car to open the gates wide open, he took a deep breath of the misty allure in the air and blew her a flying kiss as he rushed to open the gates until a sound pierced his ears and punched his heart. He thought he was imagining for a second but then he heard it again and again. The sound kept on repeating until he couldn’t take it anymore and headed out to search for it. She sat at the passenger seat and noticed he wasn’t heading towards the car. She followed him with her eyes to see him headed to the dumpster. He reached out his hands in between the smelly trash to pick up a nude thin almost skeleton like baby in his arms.  ‘Oh my god, it’s a baby’ she screamed out as she ran with her 70s platforms towards her husband. Covering the baby with shawl wrapped around her, she took him into her arms and said to the now quiet baby in her arms ‘Aren’t you just the cutest thing ever? How can anyone throw something so precious’ She nuzzled him and looked into her hubby’s eyes, he was angry, and fuming ‘How dare someone do this to a living soul?’. ‘Let’s get inside, it’s too chilly for him’ she urged him as they headed home as three members after they were two. Shihab from that day onwards remained the apple of their eye.

'We’ve been through this before and no one turned out to be a match to his blood group’ she continued as she gasped for air trying to stop her hiccups.  Shihab now laid in the mercy of a donor who matched his type specific blood.  Shihab’s condition just became critical.