A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea(34)
Two days later, Bassem picked up Doaa, her sisters, and Hanaa to go buy Doaa some jewelry in preparation for the engagement celebration party. Traditionally, a man buys a ring, bracelets, earrings, a watch, and a necklace for his betrothed. But Doaa and Hanaa tried to convince Bassem that one piece of jewelry was enough. They knew that his savings were running out and his earnings were small. But he insisted on one of each, asking for the most expensive kind of gold. Doaa chose a necklace, earrings, and double ring and skipped the watch. The label on the ring was Tag Elmalika, or “a queen’s crown.” “That is just how you treat her,” Hanaa said to Bassem, “like your queen.”
For the engagement party Doaa bought a dress of a shiny sky-blue material with a tight bodice and full skirt. It had taken her days to find it, going from shop to shop with her mother.
Now that they had taken their vows together, Bassem and Doaa were allowed to go out alone together holding hands. He took her to cafés and out shopping to spoil her. After living so simply for so long, Doaa enjoyed being indulged. “I love how you dress,” Bassem would tell her, joking that all the men were jealous of him to have such an elegant future wife. He also knew that she liked eating chips and sweets, so he would buy her little bags at kiosks for small picnics in the neighborhood garden. Bassem and Doaa would often go on strolls and visit a playground together where they would head for the swing set, like adolescents, giggling and whispering back and forth. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me, Dodo,” he said, using his new nickname for her. “You can’t know how much you made me suffer.”
The morning of the party, Hanaa escorted Doaa to a hairdresser. Doaa’s long hair went down to her waist, and the stylist spent well over an hour creating an intricate style that wrapped around her head, while a makeup artist transformed her face. Finally, with full makeup and hair, Doaa no longer looked like a downtrodden refugee or a factory girl. She looked and felt like a woman in love who could now look to a future that might not be so bleak.
Doaa was happy that she and Bassem had finally sanctioned their relationship and were now man and wife in the eyes of their religion, but in the taxi on the way home, she could not hold back her sadness at the thought that her older sisters could not be with her on her special day. Alaa, Ayat, and Asma were spread throughout the region: Alaa in Abu Dhabi, Ayat in Lebanon, and Asma in Jordan. As refugees, their Syrian passports were useless without visas. So they were stuck in the countries they had fled to and couldn’t come to celebrate Doaa’s engagement. Doaa wept at the unfairness of it, ruining her makeup.
When she emerged from a taxi at 4:00 p.m., after freshening up at home and fixing her mascara, over one hundred guests, both Syrians and Egyptians, were gathered to cheer for her. Bassem’s friends set off fireworks, and the guests entered Doaa’s aunt’s apartment, where an array of home-cooked dishes, sweets, and bottles of fruit juice covered the tables. Doaa had charged Saja with decorating the space, and she, Nawara, and Doaa’s aunts had built a small podium for the ceremony and bought streamers, balloons, and paper tablecloths. Flowers were everywhere, on tables, the podium, even the curtains, and every foot of the living room was decorated with celebratory color. The girls had cut out the initials D and B and pasted them on the wall for guests to see as they entered.
Doaa was swept in with the crowd and brought to her aunt’s bedroom, to where the women had retreated. Arabic pop music played from a speaker system they had rented from a local hotel, and everyone talked at once as Doaa was pulled into the center of the room for a traditional dance.
Soon, an announcement was made that Bassem was about to enter. In accordance with custom, all the women but Doaa covered their heads. Bassem, clean shaven and dressed in an elegant dark suit, moved toward her. It was the first time he had seen her unveiled. “Is that the same Doaa?” He beamed. “You look amazing, though I think you’re even prettier without makeup!” He pulled out a small box from his pocket and took out the gold earrings he had bought for her and clipped them to her ears. The women joined the men in the living room at the buffet and the party began. After eating, the guests danced into the night to a mix of Arabic pop music. It was a rare joyous occasion to remember for everyone there.
A week after the celebrations, as Doaa was going to bed, she reached under her pillow for her engagement ring. She kept it there for safekeeping and only wore it when she went out. To her horror, she felt nothing. She swept her hands frantically over the sheets and lifted the pillow. Her engagement ring was gone! I don’t have any luck in my life! she thought as she called for her sisters to help her search for it. The family had had guests that evening, friends of the girls’. She couldn’t help but wonder if one of them had stolen it. She called Bassem in tears, worried he would think she was careless. “Don’t worry,” he consoled her. “It’s not important. I’ll buy you a new one.”
A dark thought flashed through Doaa’s mind as he spoke: What if this means we’re never going to have a real wedding? She tried to push the thought from her mind.
Bassem now had a standing invitation to the Al Zamel home. Doaa’s sisters adored him, and to Shokri, he was like a son who supported the family and loved his daughter. He always took Bassem’s side when he and Doaa quarreled, scolding Doaa, “You must treat your future husband well!” Meanwhile, Doaa was struck with emotions that she’d never before experienced. Hours before Bassem arrived to visit, she would agonize over what to wear, and when his text messages chimed on her phone, she would feel a flutter in her heart. She began to have visions of him meeting other women and discovered the irrational sensation of jealousy. “Don’t be silly, Dodo, you are the only woman I have ever and will ever love,” he assured her.