It Wasn't Me!!!

You say that you were unable to find me at the mall this afternoon. I don’t blame you. It’s really not that easy. I have very generic features that can be distinguished only by my perpetual “thick brow” frown and the lines that have formed vertically across my forehead because of it. I dress in very conservative shades of brown, beige, navy, and black… maroon if I’m feeling adventurous. I am almost always wearing jeans and you’ll probably find a dark headscarf wrapped around my long oval face…

Oh, you say you spotted me walking by the toy store. No, that wasn’t me. I wasn’t the lady holding her chubby red-cheeked adolescent son by the arm. He must have been having an autistic fit shaking his head fiercely left and right… and there was his mother trying to calm him down hoping to lure him away from the frivolous eyes of staring spectators… Yes, I could tell that this mother had devoted everything to raising her only son... her only son who had no way of returning her love because he didn't know how...

Nor was I the lady with the embroidered “abaya” in rainbow colors sitting across from the overweight guy with the black curly hair obliviously sipping his large diet coke. Yes, I did see the look of desperation in her eyes as she scrutinized him wondering how she ended up like this… how she lost her capacity to love and live from the moment she began life with him… She was with him and yet alone in a world that no longer knew how to make her smile....

Ah! You mean the young woman with the sweet smile seated next to the fourteen (maybe fifteen) year old girl who sat shriveled in her wheel chair like a dried up rose bud… probably from year of battling with the ruthless symptoms of “muscular dystrophy”. No, that wasn't me either... I agree, they must have been sisters. Yes, I saw how she put her arms around her ailing sister when she began to mumble a few incomprehensible words but was unable to continue from the strain on her vocal chords. She turned away from her sister to look at a couple next to her thinking how she had never been married. She was probably thinking how this was for the best because how else would she have been able to care for this fragile sibling who had become her life...

Oh, no that wasn’t me either… you’re referring to the security lady guard chewing gum at the left entrance of the mall, I presume..?.. the olive skinned lady in her navy blue uniform with the large frame who seemed to be constantly forwarding messages or playing games on her mobile phone. Of course, she would look up from time to time to give passers-by one of her “stern looks” just to make sure they knew she was on duty nonetheless… She no longer questions this daily routine of hers nor the monotony of her job… In fact, she cannot begin to imagine how her life would be otherwise so she just continues to live this way day in day out… Depending on the time of her shift, she would then go home only to recharge herself for the next day...

Yes, I would have to agree with you. None of these women seemed to have it easy in life but c'est la vie, I guess... Anyway, can you see me now? I'm waving at you from over here... Oh yes, finally, you spotted me. I’m the lady sitting cross-legged at the corner café next to the children’s Fun Land sipping my chilled caramel latte... I am drawing a heart with the vapor that has accumulated on the surface of the ice-cold glass… Today, I am wearing a rust-colored paisley printed blouse with baggy blue jeans. I am surrounded by my three healthy children who are waiting for their hot chocolate to cool down. They seem to be arguing about which movie we should watch at the cinema. My phone is ringing. I pick it up. It is a call from a good friend of mine so I start to complain about how the closing of schools because of “swine flu” has messed up my life…


وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنشَأَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالْأَبْصَارَ وَالْأَفْئِدَةَ
قَلِيلًا مَّا تَشْكُرُونَ
(Surah Al-Muminun 23:78)

23:78 (Asad) [O MEN! Pay heed to God’s messages,] for it is He who has
endowed you with hearing, and sight, and minds: [yet] how seldom are
you grateful!