Page 21 of Releasing the Djinn
***
Ladling some soup into a bowl, she handed it to her father sitting at the end of the dining table before ladling another for her mother. Putting just a small splash of the lamb soup into her bowl, Nadira sat down with a tired sigh. Only the sounds of the TV on the far wall broke up the heavy silence at the table. Watching the show with bored interest, Nadira felt a tap at her arm. Turning, she saw her dad pushing the linen-covered bowl of naan bread her way.
Nodding towards the bowl, he gave her a disapproving look. "Eat, you look terrible."
The blood in her veins stopped. Draining from her heart, leaving her cold and a little shaken, Nadira stared at her father before it all came rushing back through her veins like a tsunami of fire.
Dropping her spoon with a purposeful clatter, she leveled an honest look at the man. A look so hostile, she hoped he could feel the disgust she had for him right now. "Oh, so now you want me to eat?" She asked, not waiting for him to answer. "Have I gotten too skinny for you, are the bags under my eyes too much for you? Well deal with it, because I have," she shot out, enjoying his look of angered shock. "I have dealt with being the only student in any of my classes too poor to buy anything because every second of my life down to the very food I eat is managed by you two," she pointed a finger at him before arcing the blaming digit towards her mother's outraged face. "Oh, but now you want me to eat, " she let out an empty mocking laugh.
"Nadira," her mother snapped, trying to call her daughter back to order.
Nadira ignored the woman, she was just as guilty as he was. Standing up from the table, Nadira gave them both a look of disgust, daring her father to say something. Blood rushed to her father's face as a multitude of emotions swirled around his eyes: guilt, shame, bruised pride, and above all, outrage. But she could see him back down under her gaze holding his mouth shut while her mother didn't even do her the courtesy of looking her way.
Done with them, Nadira walked away and went to her room. She couldn't stand the sight of them any longer.
***
Leaving before her parents woke up, Nadira didn't even cast a glance into the kitchen as she walked past and out the door. If they left a mountain of dishes for her to do, they would be in for a mountain of disappointment when they woke up to find them still there.
Sitting in her car with a thud, Nadira closed her eyes to the pounding pain in her head. She felt like absolute crap. Last night she slept terribly and woke up feeling as if she had been tossed down a jagged hillside. Her whole body felt weak while her head felt heavy and throbbed in constant pain. Keeping her music off and the windows down to feel the cool breeze against her face, Nadira made it through the morning traffic and to her campus parking lot.
Stepping out of the car, Nadira squinted at the overly bright sunlight and locked her door. Resisting the temptation to lean on her car door for a moment to rest, she checked her watch and groaned. She had four minutes to walk across campus and to get to her first class on time. Walking purposely across the parking lot, she kept her eyes focused on the blasted crosswalk light. The stupid thing always held her up. Willing it to hold, she groaned when it changed to walk, not even halfway. Not wanting to wait, she forced herself into a light jog. One car was already stopped at the line while the other lane remained empty. Trailing a few feet behind the small group of students that already made it across, Nadira smiled with self-satisfaction as her foot touched the sidewalk pavement just as the last beep of the crosswalk light went off. She had every intention of stepping forward, so why wasn't she? The world was beginning to spin around her just as an excruciating pain exploded in her head. Nadira felt herself falling and tried to cry out for anyone nearby. She was too close to the curb's edge, she was going to fall into the street! Someone. Anyone, please. She could hear people yell, and the horn of a car screech into her ear as her body tensed for the impact she knew would come. Thankfully, the blackness in her mind crashed into her first.
**
"You fool," the man snarled into the unconscious woman's ear as he held her in his arms.
Sighs of relief and exclamations of worry rushed through the air around him as he hoisted the unconscious girl higher in his arms. Having pulled her away from the oncoming car, the man had caught the sickly-looking girl just at the right moment. The people around the man began to offer him praise while some offered to help, but they all went ignored as he began to walk away. The shocking and heroic scene would soon leave the onlookers' minds and never be recalled again.
But he would remember, he thought, tightening his hold on the foolish girl. He would remember the unfamiliar sense of terror that gripped him as he stopped time and space for just a fraction of a second to get to her. He could never forget it.
