Chapter 46: "Wrong Message"

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First draft: May 25, 2021

Turns out, it was no dreaded proposal from any eternally blasted Torgul 'Princit Sparkles'. Rather her mother had made some pies and she wanted Salma to take one to Anne's because --

"Your brother ate half of it the last time I asked him to deliver a pie at Anne's!" her mother complained.

Salma sighed in exasperation for the umpteenth time as she grabbed the tray.

"Not true!" Asim yelled from upstairs in his defense. "Anne told me to stay and help myself!"

"And you had absolutely no shame and ate their share!" her mother replied.

"I don't reject kind offers!"

"How about you deliver this one and accept another offer?" Salma suggested much to her mother's disappointment.

"Nah, be my guest and do the delivery, however, if Anne offers you to stay and help yourself, you can bring it up to me here!"

"ASIM!"

"I'm kidding, mum!"

"Behave yourself!"

"I said I was kidding!"

Salma laughed, making her way out of the kitchen as her mother continued scolding Asim for lacking manners. The street was quiet, cool and dark, except for the street lamps providing some much needed luminescence for navigation.

"Assalamo'Alaikom!" Salma called into the night as she crossed the street. "I know you're out there. Keeping eye on things. Keeping us safe. Whoever you are. Thank you!"

She stepped onto Uncle Dawood's driveway, feeling half crazy, half amused. She imagined a Green Coat watching over the street, witnessing her mad conversation with the thin air and smiling, knowing it was meant for them. Salma looked around.

"Please stay safe," she barely whispered. "Ya'll mean the world to me."

Now sure that she was bordering on crazy, Salma whipped on her feet and walked up the steps. She knocked on Uncle Dawood's door.

She could hear their voices inside but no one opened the door. Balancing the tray in one hand, she reach for the door knob and entered the foyer.

"Uncle Dawood?!" Salma called, announcing her presence. "Anne?"

"It's Salma." She heard Uncle Dawood mutter, then came the sniffs. Salma's brow furrowed. "We're here!" he called from the sitting room. Something was not right about his voice. "Come on in!"

Salma cautiously stepped into the sitting room to see her Uncle pulling away from a crying Anne after kissing her forehead. At first embarrassed that she was intruding upon their private moment, Salma straight away panicked to see moisture around his eyes too.

"What's going on?!" Salma cried.

Uncle Dawood sniffed, wiping his face with his sleeve as he walked to her. Salma quickly rid herself of the tray with pies.

"Uncle Dawood?" she cried. "Is everything alright?"

"It is." He sniffed, then laughed. "It's more than alright actually." Salma got even more confused when he pulled her into a hug. "You want to hear it from Anne or me?" he asked.

Bewildered, Salma glanced between her Uncle and Aunt, unable to make any sense of their raw eyes and smiling faces. Was it a topsy-turvy day today?

"Someone just tell me what's going on before I start cry-laughing for no reason," Salma said.

Uncle Dawood chuckled.

"We're going to have another princess grace the family," he said, his voice choked with emotions.

Salma blinked. It took her a while to realize what the tears and the smiles and their flushed faces and emotionally overwhelmed behavior meant. An inhuman, excited scream left her lips that got mixed with her aunt and uncle's laughter of joy. Salma threw her arms around Uncle Dawood's neck, squeezing him into a hug.

"That's the best news ever!" she screeched.

Uncle Dawood winced a little, pulling his ear away, but he didn't complain. He was too happy to complain about anything. They had waited for years, decades, in fact, to have their own bundle of joy and now it seemed like they might get it. As Salma pulled away, she saw a fresh set of tears shinning on his grinning face. He was radiating happiness. Giving him one last squeeze, Salma hurried towards her aunt. She hugged her, almost too carefully and tenderly.

She heard Uncle Dawood heave a breath of contentment.

"I can't wait for my lil princess to meet you," Salma heard him say.

She suddenly rounded on her uncle.

"How dare you?!" She pointed a finger at him. "It better be a boy or imma nip it in the bud to protect my throne!"

Uncle Dawood and Anne froze with shock. Anne's hand had impulsively come to rest on her stomach. Salma's brain caught up with her words. Did she really just say that?

What the hell Salma?!

"That sounded too dark and cold-hearted," Salma backtracked. "I - I mean, I want it to be a boy." She smiled awkwardly. "Lil Will type of kid – "

The rest of Salma's words were drowned by Uncle Dawood's laugh and the fact that he had playfully headlocked Salma.

"You pesky, lil, jealous kid!"

"Of course, I'm jealous!" Salma mumbled. "I don't want them to take away my Uncle and Anne."

"So petty," Anne shook her head, smiling.

Uncle Dawood chuckled, draping his arm around Salma's shoulder. She rested her head on his chest. She felt her eyes watering up.

"Congratulations!" she said earnestly to the both of them. "I'm honestly so happy for you. Have you told mum and dad?"

"Just called them to come over before you barged in," Uncle Dawood booped her nose. Salma wrinkled it. Just then the door behind them opened.

Salma's father, mother and Asim halted near the foyer. Their faces paling to see the three of them huddled together and in tears.

"What's going on?" Atif Rahman demanded to know, the Green Coat in him was already searching for the cause of their distress.

***

Salma almost jumped out of her car and raced out towards her department building. Last night's celebratory mood had lasted for hours. And then it came to bite her in the form of a very stressful, sleepless night. Uncle Dawood and Anne expecting a kid had made her forget that she had a review to complete. By the time she remembered she had unfinished assignment to attend to, panic mode had kicked and she was losing her marbles. The result? She had pulled an alnighter, finished a poorly written article and was running late for class with a spinning head.

"Was the baby going to do your work?!" she scolded herself. "What were you thinking? You should of --oomph!

Someone blocked her path. She almost rammed into them and fell flat on her backside. No, she actually rammed into them but they were kind enough to spare her the fractured hip by grabbing her arm to steady her.

"Hey, where're we going?" Zayn smiled at her. Salma's eyes zeroed on the coffee he was holding.

"Thank you!" she snatched the cup. "I really, really appreciate this!"

Salma took flight again.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Zayn cried, shooting up his arm. He had only meant to block her path but she slammed right into it, making him quickly wrap it around her to avoid another unsteady fall.

"Ow!" Salma blinked to stay focused. Her painful and spinning head did not appreciate these uncalled for collisions.

"What's going on with you?" Zayn asked, half amused, half concerned. Salma saw Niall walking towards them in her periphery.

"I'm in a hurry Zayn," Salma rushed. Realizing he wanted her to do the hand ritual. She grabbed his hands with both of hers.

"One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine --"

"What was that?! Zayn asked, bewildered, as Salma dropped his hand and shot past an unsuspecting Niall, making him jump out of the way.

"TEN SECONDS HAND HOLDING!" Salma shouted over her shoulder.

"That wasn't ten seconds! You counted way too fast!"

"I'll make it up to you, I'm sorry!" Waving, Salma surprised him by blowing a kiss before turning around and disappearing into the building.

Zayn stilled. Niall laughed.

"Oh dear God! Did she really just do that?" he chuckled, clapping Zayn on the back. "That's progress, mate!"

Turning to him, Niall was surprised to see Zayn's ashen face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned by his pale face.

Zayn said nothing. Everything was right and it had just hit him. It was scary. He's never had things right, without them going horribly wrong not too long after.

***

Salma kept getting texts from Zayn throughout her class and even later. She realized he texted her after every fifteen minutes.

Zayn: Not dorsata

Salma rested her aching head against the desk.

"You've got to be kidding me," she whispered. She had already told him about the other specie last night.

Salma: I already told you last night.

Salma: It's Apis mellifera

As expected, he did not reply. Not for another fifteen minutes. The lecture continued in the background, but Salma was barely paying attention. She was just doing all she could to pretend to be awake. It was not surprising that the rest of the class looked just as zoned out. The professor continued with his lecture, blissfully ignorant of the mental absence of his students. Salma stifled a yawned behind her niqab, her tired eyes glanced at the clock again.

Impossible! She felt like crying. The clock had only moved ten minutes. She rested her heavy head in her hand. Her eyes kept drooping.

"No one knows?" the professor asked. "Miss Rahman? Where's Miss Rahman?"

Salma quickly jerked alert. She raised her hand.

"Here sir," Salma called.

"Do you know the answer?"

Salma blinked.

"I'm afraid I don't know the question, sir," she replied sheepishly.

The class laughed. She saw quite a few head raising off of their desks. For the first time, they were more awake then they had been since the class started.

"Miss Rahman, were you sleeping?" Professor Lawrence asked.

"Almost sir," Salma replied. "I had to pull an alnighter to complete the review so I'm having trouble focusing today, sir."

Her answer got a few 'Me too's' 'I feel you's' and 'Same's'.

"Perhaps it would be wise to start working on assignments when you get them instead of putting them off to the last minute, Miss Rahman."

"I'm trying sir but I find the workload from this course a bit much," Salma replied to a round of agreement from the class. "We've done more assignments for this course than we've done for the entire semester in all the other courses combined."

"That's true!" someone whined.

"I'm starting to think I don't like insects anymore," a student in the front row replied. "At least the one's in the books are proving to be pests for my brains and sleep."

"I feel like a 'worker' in the colony!"

The class laughed and agreed again.

"You are a 'worker' in the colony," Professor Lawrence pointed out. "I'm the Queen. You do as I say."

A round of whines rang through the lecture hall.

"There's got to be drones here too?"

"Those are ones that I fail in this course and caste them out of the colony!" Professor Lawrence joked.

After a few more jokes back and forth, the Professor announced that he would discuss the workload issue after the lecture, but Salma knew nothing would happen. He had promised not to dump too many assignments on them a few months back in another course too, but he still handed out assignments in almost every class.

Her phone beeped with a text. Salma was almost too happy to have received Zayn's text just to do something as the lecture began again and the students resumed their pretense to be awake and listening.

Zayn: Mellifera or Mollifera?

"Dude!" Salma laughed quietly as she typed.

Salma: Mellifera!

Salma: What do you need all this information for?

The reply came fifteen minutes later just when the class finally ended.

Zayn: For my art project

"Art project?" Salma frowned in confusion and but then shrugged it off.

He may have a project that she did not know of, she thought as she typed a reply.

Salma: I see. Good luck.

"Looks like there's a Professor Lawrence in the Digital Arts Department too." She chuckled to herself as she started walking to the next class.

The fifteen minute texts continued. Salma started suspecting something was off when he shifted from bee questions to questions about her culture and language.

Zayn: What is that cultural pukhtoon hat called?

Another text quickly followed the first.

Zayn: It's for another project.

Salma's eyebrows rose to the heavens.

"What're you up to Zayn?" she muttered to herself as she typed the reply.

Salma: Pakol.

Zayn continued typing. Not waiting for fifteen minutes this time around.

Zayn: The project I shared with you earlier. The hovering truck art thing.

Salma recalled the clip he had created.

Salma: Ah, yes! I remember.

Zayn: I'm trying to add Pukhtoon dresses to the individuals standing on the ramp on the side.

Salma pursed her lips.

"Hard worker," she muttered as she typed a reply.

Unlike you lot whining about Professor Lawrence's assignments, her head replied.

"Whatever," Salma muttered to herself.

Salma: That's actually a good idea to complete the picture.

Someone shoved into her and grabbed her hand on the way.

"Hey!" Salma cried as the person almost dragged her down.

"Sorry!" the passerby, a student with a sanitary mask on, cried hastily and raised his hands in surrender. He continued rushing in the opposite direction.

Salma pulled herself together, happy that they were not someone looking to snatch her bag or the phone. She frowned at the piece of wrinkled paper in her limp hand. The note fell off. Salma hurried to pick it up as the wind blew it away. She turned around to run after the student but he had already disappeared into the crowd. Confused, Salma opened the once-folded note.

'Got to show you something. Follow the trail.'

It was Zayn's handwriting.

"Seriously?" Salma chuckled. "You couldn't text me the location?"

She flipped the small paper to see 'On the tree' written on the other side.

Salma walked towards the tree in front of her to see another note pinned on it.

'Third bench from the left'

Salma unpinned the note just as her phone beeped with a text. For the first time, she felt a tad disappointed to see it was Sarah, not Zayn.

Sarah: Free yet?

Salma quickly typed a response.

Salma: Not yet.

She continued typing as she walked towards the third bench from the left of the tree.

Salma: Playing treasure hunt with Zayn

Salma saw the note pinned to the side of the bench and unpinned it.

'The alley behind physics department'

Salma frowned. The alley behind physics department? She looked up in the direction of the physics department. That was far. Not to mention dangerous for her. Her father had asked her to avoid deserted place.

Her phone beeped with a text from Sarah.

Sarah: Treasure hunt? Seriously? How old are you two?

Salma huffed. Stuffing the notes in her pocket, she typed a response.

Salma: Don't ask.

Salma: He's been weird all day.

Salma: Texting me strange questions every fifteen minutes.

Salma: I'm going to the alley behind physics department to meet him

Salma: He says he wants to show me something.

Salma waited for Sarah's reply as she started making her way to the physics department building.

Sarah: Okay. Be careful though

Sarah: Slap him for me

Sarah: And good luck.

Laughing at her stupid request Salma locked her phone, pocketed it and set out on her way.

***

Sarah had just gotten herself a bag of chips when she heard the most irritating voice in the whole wide world. It was the kind of voice that makes you want to slap the first person you see.

"Snob!"

Sarah turned around and was shocked to see Zayn waving her over from one of the benches on the grounds. Sarah frowned, walking towards him, utterly confused.

"Help me out here, will you?" Zayn rushed, his phone at the ready. "Can you tell me something only Bee would know the answer to?"

Sarah's eyes went to and fro between him and his Irish sidekick sitting next to him, feeling her heartbeat picking up pace.

"Why are you here?" she asked Zayn.

Zayn gave her a weird look.

"What do you mean why am I here?"

"Didn't you tell Salma to go to the alley behind physics department?" Sarah asked, feeling the hair on her neck raise, sensing a danger about to hit them in the face.

"What?" Zayn laughed incredulously.

"She said you had to show her something!" Sarah said, her voice rising with panic.

"No! what're talking about?" Zayn chuckled like she was mad. "I just lied, saying I had two parallel art projects running and wanted information on both," Zayn explained.

"Why?!" Sarah cried.

"Because I'm worried," Zayn exclaimed. "I need to ask her something only she'd know so I know she's fine when she replies."

"Crap!"

"What happened?" Niall asked.

"She might not be fine!" Sarah quickly explained, scrolling through her texts with Salma. "Someone pretending to be you just told her to go to the alley behind physics department to show her something!"

"No!" the boys whispered in unison.

"She's headed there!" Sarah held up her phone to show them Salma's texts.

The words had barely left Sarah's lips that Zayn jumped over the table and shot off in the direction of the physics department, almost knocking Sarah out of his way.

Author's Note:

Dun Dun Dunnnnn! Sally boo got trapped in a woo! Zayn better run fast lol.

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Lots of Love

J.