Chapter two (part two)
When the words couldn't come out, the tears did. The mourning was supposed to be something dignified and stoic in her and her mother, but she cried like a child, noisily, with running snot and choking sobs and she wasn't ashamed because losing someone so close to you, especially a father wasn’t something that would pass one time.
“Mama is he really dead? They're joking right? Abba just went into a coma, I know he is not dead... you should stop covering his face, else how would he breathe?” Dalia lamented, traumatised. She couldn't take the news that her father has really passed away.
How were they going to live without him? She couldn’t even imagine life without her abba. “It’s okay, Dalia. Our prayers is what he needs not your tears, okay? May Allah grant him the highest rank in jannah. In sha Allah he's in a better place.” She hugged her daughter firmly while they mourned together.
Dalia cried until there was nothing left inside but a raw emptiness that nibbles at her insides like a hungry rat. Her irises were threaded scarlet and her eyeballs hung heavy in their sockets. Her whole body hung limp like each limb weighed twice as much as it had before and just moving it about was a slow, painful effort. No beauty left in the world as from that day.
“Salamu alaikum,” daddy uttered as he rushed into the room. Dalia’s mother raised her head up and looked at him. She wanted to smile but the pain in her was too much to bear. She couldn't even reply his greetings.
“Innalillahi wa’inna ilaihir rajiun,” he murmured looking at the corpse still lain on the bed. He moved to the bed and opened his friend’s face to see if it was really true. He stared at the face, many memories rushing back to him. Ja’afaar was not only a good person by heart but also soul. He was a good friend. A friend that always listened to his stories, a friend that always killed his worries and replace it with joy. He was a friend daddy would never forget about.
He covered it back as he shook his head. How would he even start to console them? He couldn't even imagine what they were going through at that moment.
“Ya Allah,” he sighed and turned his head to the mother and daughter clinging onto each other. “Amina I don't even know where to begin with,” he started but then sighed. “I can understand the way you feel. And I know you feel like He’s being unkind but Allah always chooses what’s best for us. May his soul enlighten the garden of paradise. Please have patience.”
She didn't even pay attention to what he said, left alone to reply him. She held her daughter so close and stroked her back.
Ja’afaar’s brother came back to the hospital together with some of ja’afaar’s friends. They took him home and on that same day, he was taken to his righteous home.