The Henna Wars(21)

What if they hate the idea? What if they reject it?

I delete the text as quickly as I had written it. Instead, I pull up Skype and call Nanu.

She picks up after it rings for a good few minutes, when I’m almost ready to hang up, dejected.

“Nishat?” she asks, her face appearing on screen. She looks tired. There are bags under her eyes and her skin looks blotchy. I realize I must have woken her up; I didn’t even think about the time difference before placing the call.

“Assalam Alaikum,” I say. “Did I wake you? Sorry. I forgot about the time difference.”

She smiles, though it’s a tired sort of smile. I’ve never considered Nanu old before; I mean, yes she’s old. She’s my grandmother. But compared to other grandmothers I’ve seen, with wrinkles all over their faces and walking sticks and everything, I’ve always thought of Nanu as young and healthy. But today, she seems different altogether. Like I’ve caught her in a moment that I’m not really meant to see.

“It’s okay. Is something wrong?”

“No …” I mumble, feeling deflated. I can’t believe I’ve woken Nanu up and made her worry for pretty much nothing. I could have filled her in during the weekend when we can call during regular hours. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just … I’m starting to make my own henna designs, Nanu. I’m going to start my own business.”

Nanu’s whole face changes at that. She leans closer to the camera.

“Really?” she asks.

I nod, some of my previous excited energy coming back to me. I reach for my notebook and hold it up for her to see the design.

“That’s the first one. I’ve been working on it all evening. What … what do you think?”

Nanu’s eyes roam over the page I’m holding out. I can see her eyes moving, taking in all of it. Slowly and steadily.

“It’s beautiful, Jannu.” Her voice is soft. Quiet. Like she can’t quite believe I’m the one to have done this. “It’s your first one? It’s amazing.”

I feel pride swelling up in my chest.

“You really think so?” My voice is barely more than a whisper.

“It’s so much better than any design I did when I was your age.” She laughs. “Maybe next time you’re here I can show you all of my sketches. I have notebooks full of them.” Nanu has been decorating people’s hands with henna since she was my age. She used to put henna on all of her cousins. After she got married, she applied henna on her new nieces and nephews. I can’t even imagine what her sketch books look like. I can’t even imagine how many she must have.

“Yes! Yes! I’d love that!” I say.

“You know, your Ammu used to be quite good at it, too, once upon a time.”

“Really? She never said anything about it.”

Nanu chuckles. “Yes, she wasn’t very patient, Jannu. Not like you. She was great at it, but she couldn’t get all of the precise details right because she would rush. She got bored very easily. After she married your Abbu and moved over there … well, I guess she didn’t really have anyone to practice on for a long time. She lost interest and forgot about it.”

I feel a pang of sadness at that thought. I imagine if Ammu had kept it up; maybe Priti and I would be experts. Maybe it would be a proper family tradition. Maybe we would already have notebooks full of original designs.

I try not to dwell on it too much as I say my goodbyes to Nanu.





9

AT THE LOCKERS THE NEXT MORNING, CHAEWON AND JESS are still discussing their ideas, which makes me all the more nervous about telling them my idea. They’ve already cycled through so much.

“You know, I was thinking …” I start, interrupting their argument about whether or not people will pay good money for Jess to draw chibi art of video game characters (Chaewon says no, but Jess insists yes). “Priti and I were brainstorming, and we came up with the idea of setting up a henna business.”

“A henna business …” Jess repeats, like she’s trying to wrap her head around it.

“You know, like …” I wave my henna-laden hands around in front of their faces.

“You did this?” Chaewon grabs hold of one of my hands and inspects my palm. Her fingers run up and down the deep red vines sprouting leaves and flowers, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Why didn’t you say so?” Jess looks impressed too as she edges closer to Chaewon and peers down at my hands like it’s the first time she’s seen them.

I shrug, pulling my hands away and feeling a blush rise up my cheeks.

“I didn’t know you were such an artist,” Jess says.

“I was just practicing over the summer. You know, for that wedding?”

“People would definitely be into this.” Chaewon begins to nod so fast that she looks a little like a bobblehead. “I mean, people love this stuff and you’re so good.”

“Thanks. Jess?”

Jess gives me a nervous smile that makes my stomach drop.

“Don’t get me wrong, your work is beautiful,” she starts.

“Stunning,” Chaewon adds.

“But … we don’t know how to do henna. What part would we play in this?”

“The business part? Like … pricing, advertisement, all of that good stuff.”