chapter 12
For the next few days Stella didn't get the chance to meet Fatima. As Fatima already told Stella that she will not be able to come to university for few days, as some important guests had arrived and there are some family functions. Stella spend whole week alone with her mother and on weekends she went to library but didn't get to see Mustafa as well. She noticed some people outside Fatima's house in some traditional clothes almost every day. After one week, she saw them going and among them she saw a pretty girl in some casual clothes but she wore henna on both of her hands and Fatima's family see off them till airport.
On another day, she sat with Fatima and they started talking like usual but she didn't remember to ask her about the guests she saw the day before, neither Fatima mentioned anything regarding them.
Stella arrived home late as she had to complete her thesis. She knocked on the door, but nobody opened. She stand there for five minutes but her mother didn't opened until she took out keys from her bag pocket and tried to open. As her mother usually went to do groceries, she assumed it for today too. As she entered, it was complete silence. She put her bag on the sofa and went straight to her room, after changing clothes she went straight to the kitchen. To her shock, her mother was lying on the kitchen floor all unconscious! She almost ran. Feeling desperate she tried to wake her up, while calling her she rushed to the glass of water and splash on her but she didn't wake. She checked her breath, adding horror to her situation, she was not breathing. She dialed a number with shaking hands and in heavy shivered voice she asked them to come immediately. While she tried to pick her mother up and with lots of effort she laid her on the sofa.
After 10 minutes, ambulance arrived, she rushed to open the door. She helped carrying her mother to the ambulance and went to hospital with her.
Feeling all shattered inside, tears running down her cheeks, her heart aching and only thing she could wish at the moment was "dear god! Let my mother live".
All she could think was about begging to God and ask for her mother's life. She held her mother's hand in her palm and rubbed her gently, trying to warm the bluish cold hands. She gently removed the hair from her mother's face, and touched her cold face. Then again she looked at the hands and kissed them softly trying to feel the touch of her bare skin and again her heart begged, "let my mother live". But her heart didn't seemed to be satisfied.
They ran and carried her mother to emergency while she waited outside.
For the first time she felt real pain as she was going to die and she can't live anymore, she felt difficulty in breathing as something was stuck in her throat but she cannot produce a sound, as if someone has snatched her voice, she couldn't utter a word or even cry with voice. She wanted to cry loudly but she couldn't. She felt completely insane. She closed her eyes, but she felt horror as she will never be able to wake up again. She stood up and started roaming around.
After sometime the doctor came outside, "your mother has hardly any chance to live, we have put her on ventilator, her pulse rate is very low we will observe her until she shows recovery or she'll might die as pulse rate is continuously dropping"
"Mam this is bill, please submit following amount so we can proceed on your patient" the nurse handed over the paper. Stella took the paper and read the amount, it didn't shook her as the trauma she was suffering was already far apart from it. She went home straight and took heavy steps towards the empty home. Suddenly she hear something unusual again, "DONOT LOSE HOPE NOR BE SAD" someone was reciting Quran again with translation but now it seemed to be Mustafa's voice. It was indeed enchanting and for a moment she forgot her sorrow and dwelled in, like someone was only talking to her. She felt peace in the voice, like all her pain was being washed away, someone was with her, consoling her. Just then the reader stopped and she heard the azan from far away but she couldn't understand it.
She woke up from the moment suddenly and ran to her house. Her tears dried, and she entered in her mother's room and opened the cupboard. She put the clothes aside and found her mother's purse, she opened it and found some dollars, counting them she realized they were not enough. Then she took out the bank card which was hidden in her mother's drawer. Holding the card, she remembered when her mother told her that her father left money for her studies and she kept it safe in the bank. She found the passcode along with the card and then ran out of the house after locking the door. Just then she again heard the same voice but different words, someone was talking to her!"AND SEEK HELP THROUGH PATIENCE AND PRAYER, AND INDEED, IT IS DIFFICULT EXCEPT FOR THE HUMBLY SUBMISSIVE"