Love from A to Z(87)
Send url. We are on it. Welcome back, General.
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I let myself have only half an hour sending stuff to and communicating with Ayaan and Kavi. Then, for the rest of the day, Auntie Nandy and I took Mom to Katara.
We prayed together for Daadi at the mosque first and then came outside to sit and watch the birds weave in and out of the pigeon towers, with Mom holding me tight and Auntie Nandy holding her tight.
The Doha birds flying into the sky reminded me that I believe there is more out there, more than this small world. That Daadi will be free somewhere, her hands at peace.
ADAM
FRIDAY, MARCH 22
MARVEL: DAD
I WOKE UP WITH TINGLING in my arms again, more than yesterday. And the first thing I did was reach for my phone to call Dad.
He helped me sit up, to check my movements slowly, before lending his shoulder for me to try to stand.
My legs were okay. My steps were okay.
Joy rushed inside, and I let it out by hugging Dad. “Thanks. Thank you, Dad.”
“Do you want to rest again, or are you ready to start the day?” He rubbed my back before letting go, and I was relieved his voice was happy, not stressed.
“I wanted to finish the room for Hanna. But I’m not so sure with my arms.” I kneaded them to get at the feelings of pins and needles coursing throughout. “I just had a bit more to do.”
Dad leaned back against my dresser. “How okay is it if I do it? If you direct me?”
“Completely okay.”
“Then let’s do it. Before Hanna wakes up.”
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Dad rigged the light system, finished attaching the remaining cutouts, and secured the fake moss to parts of the stone chips I’d glued on the floor. Then he hung the mobile of tiny geese flying in a V formation in the far corner of the room.
When he went to wake up Hanna, I closed the door and turned the lights on.
The entire room, except for the floor, was made up of blues, ranging from the lightest white blue near the floor to the darkest, inkiest blues swathing the ceiling. The whole place was also lit by various kinds of lights—from streams of small, flickering lights to strong spotlights—and they highlighted different parts of the room, different things to be examined.
I lay on the beanbag chair Dad had carried down from the living room before he went to get Hanna.
I let myself completely chill, head back, hands behind my head, breathing even.
The world in the room surrounded me with its signs of life, the ones I’d noticed and amassed over time.
There was even a potato in a display box on a pedestal in the corner. A plastic potato, yes, but I’d painted over it with a matte-brown acrylic and rubbed dirt into it.
That had been one night three years ago when I couldn’t sleep and went to get water and saw the potato sticking out of Hanna’s toy box.
A lowly potato was a marvel if you thought about it.
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The door burst open, and Hanna walked in, hands covering her eyes, with Dad following behind.
“ADAM!” she screamed when she opened them.
I laughed and stood up. “Look all you want, then sit back on this throne to really enjoy it. Happy birthday.”
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. This is amazing!” She moved around like a Ping-Pong ball, drawn from one object to another. “A path!”
She stepped on the stones gingerly, bending down to touch the moss here and there, and stopped and straightened up at the potato stand at the end of the path. “A POTATO?”
Her laughter was so worth it.
I went to stand beside her, and she turned and threw her arms around me. “This is the best, Adam. Thank you a million times! Can this be my room?”
“I don’t know about that. It’s kind of like the world. It kinda belongs to everyone.” I turned her to face the potato. “Although, this potato is yours. I stole it from your toy box when you were a simple, young girl.”
“Whaaat?” She peered at it. “Well, I donate it to this museum of the world, then!”
“Thanks. Speaking of potatoes, I’m getting something to eat. You enjoy the room.”
“I’m going to lie on the throne and enjoy all the lights!” She made her way to the beanbag chair and lay down, a sigh rising from her as she took in the ceiling. “Does it say something in Arabic?”
“Yeah. It’s a verse from the Qur’an. About the sky. I copied it from one of the pictures in Dad’s office.”
Do they not look at the sky above them, how we have built it and adorned it, and there are no rifts in it?
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I brought down French fries, Mom’s French fries, for Hanna and Dad, and we puffed up the beanbag chair as much as we could in order to use it as a backrest for the three of us, and then we sat on the floor and leaned on it and ate while I told them about when and how I’d made each item in the room.
“This has been a three-year project?” Dad sounded surprised.
“Well, I didn’t know they were going to end up in the room. I just kept making things.” I pointed at the Canada-geese mobile. “Like that I started making last summer before I left for London.”
“And I have one of them. That’s why there’s only four geese,” Hanna announced proudly. “I got the leader.”