Her mother sat beside her on the couch in the new apartment and said, "Morning, sweetie. Wishing you blessings."
Her daughter glanced at her out of the corner of her eye and said, "Mom, please, I want to go with you."
Her mother laughed and said calmly, "Don't joke like that. May God bless your home and keep you together."
Rabab turned her face to her mother and said, "I'm not joking, Mom! I'm scared and I didn't sleep all night!"
Her mother looked at her suspiciously and said, "What is this talk? Didn't you sign the marriage contract? Didn't he take your father's hand?"
Rabab, scared, "Mom, I wasn't even there for the contract signing. They told me to come in, sign the papers, and I signed, and then he and I left together! Even Dad wasn't there. I don't know what happened, we weren't all there except at the wedding party! And you didn't stay with us for the contract signing!"
Her mother, remembering, "I didn't stay with you because your father refused for me to be there. What do you mean? I don't understand you."
Rabab, in a low voice, "I mean that groom is weird. Why didn't Dad come with you?"
Her mother answered sadly, "He's sick. He was throwing up all night. I made him some warm soup and left him to rest. Forget this talk and tell me, you mean the wedding night didn't happen?"
Rabab, looking around, "I'm telling you, he's a strange man. As soon as we got into the apartment..."
Last Night
Rabab entered the apartment, holding the edges of her wedding dress, stepping inside shyly... He entered indifferently and closed the apartment door, ignoring his bride.
She stood in place, looking around, then looked at his back shyly.
He didn't say anything except: "I'm in the last room. Don't come in. If you want to sleep, go to sleep."
Then he left her and closed the door of the room behind him! She took off her high heels, standing on the cold floor. The house design was somewhat strange, with black walls decorated with two horizontal red lines, gray floors, and furniture combining red and black, with yellow lighting. The apartment was a bit weird, and the wedding happened quickly because Rabab had turned thirty, and the neighbors' talk about her being a spinster was making her and her family depressed. When that young man proposed to her, they agreed immediately, and the procedures were done fast because he was in a hurry, and they didn't object, thinking she'd missed the boat on marriage.
The poor girl sat on the couch, looking at his room door, waiting for him to come out. But he stayed in that room all night, leaving his bride, who was still a virgin.
Present Time
Before her mother could answer her about everything she had just heard, he stood in front of them with an expressionless face, cold, showing neither sadness nor happiness... a very stern look, saying like a robot, addressing her mother: "Pleased you visited."
Her mother looked at him with a smile and said, "Thank you, dear. May God protect you."
He furrowed his brow in annoyance, breathing rapidly, and looking at her mother irritably.
Her mother felt uncomfortable and gathered her purse, saying, "You both look tired from the wedding and didn't get a chance to relax and be together."
Rabab understood these were hints about the rushed wedding and that she should give him some time to get close and for the wedding night to happen.
He said coldly, "Pleased to have you."
He closed the door behind her mother. Rabab got up from the couch, yawning. He stood in front of her like a block of ice, saying with an annoyed look, "How could you tell your mom about our private stuff?"
She raised her head, flustered, then said, "You were spying on us!"
In a firm tone, he said, "Answer me!!"
Rabab, nervously, "Of course I'd tell her! It's her right, like any mom, to check on her daughter. Or did you want me to lie to her and say something that didn't happen?"
He said with a condescending look, "So you're trying to convince me you've never lied? Nobody from your kind ever lies."
Rabab, surprised, "Our kind?"
He, correcting his mistake, "Our kind, I mean, humans."
She kept looking at his cold features, his face extremely pale, as if bloodless. Not to be insulting, but... his face was strange.
She went to move away from him, but he stopped her, saying, "There will be rules for you being in this house. The first is that nobody outside knows about anything that happens here."
Rabab, with anger starting to build inside her, "Nothing's even happening for anyone to know about! Is it normal for the marriage contract to be signed in a closed room, and when the door opens, I don't see anyone I know in there! They were all with you, and my dad wasn't there! Is it normal for the contract signing not to be filmed for the wedding video?? And I suddenly walk in and sign a paper I didn't even get to look at! And what made it worse is that when we came into the apartment for our wedding night, you left me and went and sat in a room by yourself, and you're really mad that I'm complaining to Mom!"
He remained standing in front of her, unaffected by her words, answering in a strange tone, "You surely understood the first rule. What happens in this house stays here... It's for your own good."
She leaned her face towards him, saying angrily, "Don't you dare think that just because I'm 30 and the wedding happened fast that you can treat me like dirt!"
She ran to her room and sat on the bed, crying sadly. While she was crying, she found something on the sheet that terrified her...
She found something on the sheet that terrified her, and she screamed loudly. He opened the bedroom door calmly and walked with steady steps toward the bed.
He said coldly, "What's wrong?"
Rabab, startled, "I thought something was burning. I found this ash on the sheet, and it's moving!"
He didn't flinch but kept looking at her, then said steadily, "I was smoking, and that's from the cigarette. It's naturally moving because there's air."
She put her hand on her heart, looking at the bed and trying to compose herself.
She calmed down a little, then turned to him and said, "Mom brought us the morning meal. Aren't you hungry?"
He replied with the same coldness, "No, thanks."
She passed him as she left the room, saying, "Okay, suit yourself. I'm going to eat. It'll be hunger and boredom otherwise."
She finished eating, then got up to wash her hands. She found the faucet stuck in the bathroom. She hit it with her hand several times, hoping it would dispense some water, but it was stuck.
She opened the door, saying, "What's wrong with the faucet? Why isn't it running water? Can you come take a look at it?"
Seconds passed before he appeared, approaching the door. He entered the bathroom, and she stood behind him, watching what he was doing. He moved the faucet handle right and left, then said seriously, "The faucet is broken."
She clapped her hands and said, "Really important information! Well, I know it's broken, so why did I call you? How were you even using it?"
He said indifferently, "I don't use it, so I wasn't concerned about it."
Rabab, surprised, "What do you mean? You don't wash your hands after eating or your face when you wake up?"
He shrugged his shoulders and said, "My life is a bit different from yours. Anyway, I'll go down and find someone to fix it."
Rabab quickly said, "Can I come with you?"
He looked at her for a moment, hesitant. He could fix the damn faucet in a second... but he didn't want to startle her and wanted to get used to their boring, routine life.
Rabab calmly said, "I'm sorry, but most of the apartment is black, and I get scared, so I don't want to stay alone, even today. I don't know how I'll manage later when you go to work."
He didn't blink once, which caught her attention.
He replied, "Okay, get ready. We'll go down."
She felt overwhelming happiness as she ran towards the bedroom, despite the simplicity of the outing.
He put his hand under the faucet without touching it, and water came out.
He quickly pulled his hand away, looking at the mirror with black eyes; even the whites had turned black.
Rabab finished getting dressed and stood near the apartment door.
They left the apartment together, him walking ahead and her behind him. He approached the elevator and pressed the button, waiting for it.
The elevator door opened in front of them, and he entered, with her behind him.
The door closed after he pressed the down button.
He stared straight ahead like a lifeless body, without blinking. The elevator door opened, and they stepped out together. They walked down the street side-by-side, and Rabab waited for him to hold her hand like his wife, but he didn't. He walked in a straight line with high confidence without looking around, as if he knew the faucet repairman's address by heart.
She wanted to break the silence between them, so she said, "Have him check the shower too, maybe it's broken. Agreed?"
He nodded, meaning yes, and didn't speak to her. So she broke the silence again, asking him, "Who named you? Your dad or your mom? 'Cause honestly, the name Loay is really old-fashioned."
He said coldly, "Lewy, not Loay."
Rabab, due to the mixed voices of people, didn't hear him and said, "Didn't hear you? What are you saying?"
He said with the same coldness, "I'm saying we're almost there, but there's a smell in the air that's bothering me."
She wiggled her nose, sniffing the air, and said, "There's no smell or anything. It's the smell of incense."
He furrowed his brow and said, "It smells weird, not good!"
Rabab smiled, "It smells like the musk from Medina and Mecca. May God grant us a visit there."
She felt a sudden intense heat walking beside him. He sped up, taking steps ahead in annoyance, leaving her looking at him sadly and lost in thought.
They finally reached a small shop on the side of the street. Lewy stood in front of the door and said, "Sa'eeda..."
The worker replied, "Hazeena. What can I do for you, boss?"
Rabab stood behind him, and Lewy continued, saying, "The faucet is broken... We need you to fix it."
The worker put a cigarette in the corner of his mouth and said, "I'll swing by tomorrow, boss, just leave me the address."
Rabab objected, "No, tomorrow won't work. We need to use the faucet. Besides, I couldn't wash my hands, I had to use wipes. Say something, Loay!"
He rolled his eyes, annoyed by her talking, which irritated him. He turned to the worker and said, "I want you today, not tomorrow."
The worker said, "Sorry, boss, it won't work out. You came when I'm in the middle of a job people are waiting for, and..."
Lewy cut him off, annoyed by his empty chatter, and said, "Okay, we get it!"
He grabbed a pen and wrote the home address on the paper with extremely professional handwriting, so precise you'd think it was typed on a computer.
Lewy said with annoyance, "That's my address. Finish your work and come tomorrow."
He walked out of the shop in his black shirt, and Rabab followed him, saying in amazement, "Your handwriting is gorgeous. How many years did you practice?"
He replied boredly, "Four years."
Rabab quietly said, "That's why it's amazing. You'll teach it to me someday, right?"
Lewy boredly, "Maybe..."
Rabab looked at his strong, proportionate body and said, "You know, if you wore a white shirt, it would look great on you?"
He put his hand in his pants pocket and said, "I don't like the color white. White reflects heat... Black absorbs heat and brings it closer to your body, it doesn't push it away. Nothing is more beautiful than the colors black and red."
Rabab chuckled, "I can't imagine you in a red shirt. I think of red and colors like that as just for girls."
Lewy played along with her talk, "Okay, then you wear red."
She smiled shyly, thinking he was promising her a wonderful night between them today as husband and wife.
As soon as they arrived and entered the apartment, Rabab disappeared into her room for half an hour.
She came out wearing a red nightgown that showed her femininity in a seductive way and had the same color on her lips.
She approached him shyly, saying, "I listened to you. Does red look good on me?"
He laughed because she had misunderstood what he meant, but he saw her expression fade, thinking he was making fun of her.
He wanted to correct that mistake, so he moved closer to her, holding her small chin with two fingers, lifting her head towards him, and saying, "You are beautiful... in any color."
She leaned in, standing on her tiptoes, until she wrapped her arms around his neck. And with her lips, she got a soft kiss from his lips, while he stood still, only closing his eyes.
And without any warning, something Rabab had never imagined happened...
...And without any warning, something Rabab had never imagined happened!
When she pressed her lips against his to kiss him, there was a heat emanating from his body that made you feel, at first touch, as if you were standing near a heater.
Despite her surprise at the heat coming from him, she couldn't pull her lips away from his. But he, of his own accord, pulled his head away from her, looking at her out of the corner of his eye because she was short, shorter than him in height.
After she had been standing on the tips of her toes... she stood on her feet again, looking at him confused.
He remained still, as usual, without blinking, then said, "I'm not ready right now. Not ready to turn our marriage into a reality."
She hugged her semi-naked body with her arms, and tears gathered in her eyes as she looked at him, having forgotten the heat of his body. She reproached him with a crying voice, saying, "Then why did you marry me? And what exactly aren't you ready for?"
He didn't answer her. He remained silent, without moving, staring straight ahead. She felt as if she was standing naked in front of a large crowd of passersby. So she said, running to her room, "I'm not waiting for an answer from you. I'm the one who made a mistake, I undervalued myself."
Then she went into her room and slammed the door shut fiercely. She bent over on the bed, crying over her bad luck, crying and crying until her head drooped from so much crying and she fell asleep.
Inside Rabab's Dream
She was wearing a brown skirt and a white shirt, sitting on a chair in the library, holding a baby in her arms.
Everyone sitting in the library was extremely quiet, each one focused on their book in silence, as if their minds were revolving outside the sphere of reality.
Rabab was gently rocking the baby in her arms so he would stay asleep. And at the librarian's desk sat a short, half-bald man, wearing glasses on the tip of his nose, looking at them from behind his glasses. He was watching them, even though they were like statues. And suddenly the baby in her arms began to scream and cry.
The librarian stared at her with a frightening look and said, "Shush! Shush!"
Rabab looked at the baby helplessly, then began to rock him more forcefully in her arms. He didn't stop. Papers tore from the books in the hands of those sitting and remained suspended in the air. And the old wooden clock on the wall with black hands—the hands kept spinning counter-clockwise very fast until they were about to break.
Those sitting stood in a circle around Rabab, their black eyes on the baby.
Rabab, scared for him, "I'll quiet him now. He'll be quiet... he'll be quiet."
HAAAAAAH!
She woke up from her sleep, gasping for breath. Her head hurt, so she wanted to get up and wash her face. She took off the nightgown that hadn't done any good last night and put on blue pajamas.
She came out of her room, looking right and left around her, then headed to the bathroom. She put her hand under the faucet, and water poured over her palm.
She remembered that the faucet was broken last night and that they had gone out together from the house to fix it!
She leaned over the sink, then began to wash her face. As soon as she straightened up and looked in the mirror, she saw him standing behind her and was startled.
Lewy, in his usual serious tone, "Just realized you woke up. I kept working on the faucet after you fell asleep and managed to fix it... So I think there's no need for the repairman."
She looked at him with her wet face, catching her breath, then said, "Good. I needed to wash my face."
She picked up her towel that she'd hung in the bathroom and dried her face calmly. She stood in front of the refrigerator and opened it. She didn't find anything to eat.
She turned towards Lewy and said, "Did you have breakfast?"
He looked at her without blinking, putting his hands behind his back, "No."
She closed the refrigerator and said, "Well, shouldn't the bride's fridge be full of food? I'll call Mom to bring us some stuff."
She put her hand on the house phone because her personal phone needed charging.
Lewy placed his hand over hers and said calmly, "No need to bother your mother. Tell me what you want to eat and what you want to put in the fridge, and I'll get it for you."
She looked at him, and a smile appeared at the corner of her lips. She said, "So, we're going to the hypermarket to get stuff?"
Lewy furrowed his brows, and the word came out from between his half-closed lips, "Hypermarket?"
Rabab laughed and said, "What, you don't know what a hypermarket is?"
Then she added sarcastically, "It's a place everyone goes to buy things for their house, whether it's food or drinks or..."
Lewy cut her off, saying, "Everyone?... It's hard for me to go. I can't be in crowds and I don't like crowds and human chatter."
Apparently, he had dashed her hopes, but he corrected that mistake by saying, "But if there's a place without a lot of people or crowds, we can go there, no problem. Or if you want to go alone to get the stuff."
Rabab angrily, "You'd let your wife go get groceries by herself??... Oh, right, I forgot. I'm only your wife on paper."
He let out a very short laugh. Rabab raised her head, looking at him, and said, "Oh God..."
She didn't finish her sentence as Lewy interrupted her, his brows tightly furrowed, and his voice shaking as he said, "My advice is to go get dressed... so we can get downstairs in time."
Her smile faded as she looked at his sudden change. She decided to change her clothes, getting ready to go down with him.
She finished getting dressed, then came out to find him wearing his usual color clothes... black.
He stood in front of her and said, "Before we go down, I need to tell you something important."
She looked at him, waiting for him to continue, and he did, saying, "You're not allowed to buy incense other than what I choose for you, and you're not allowed to clean the house floor with hot water."
She opened her mouth in shock, saying, "Why not?!"
He replied in a strange tone, "Listen to me... because our life together will be long."
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