"They've anesthetized her."

I pull my hula hat off my head and sit on the padded bench outside Beela's room.

"Did she talk about me before falling asleep?" I ask Muad'h's wife. She nods with a knowing smile.

"Yes na. Did you expect something else?" I lower my eyes to my hat.

"I just wish she'd talked to me before falling asleep." She shakes her head.

"She said to ask why you didn't return to her room till they anesthetized her. She wanted to talk to you." I sink further into the comfortable chair and watch the ceiling.

"I was talking to her obstetrician, You know Zeenah and her boss were her gynaecologists." She nods again.

"Don't worry too much. Just pray. I told her the same. Just pray." I nod slowly too.

Her words give me an idea of what to do and I get up abruptly. Slightly shocking her. I put my hand out to slow her down.

"I'm going to pray in the mosque upstairs. There's a mosque upstairs." She nods and I walk to the elevator.

Once there, I perform ablution slowly. After washing my hands and arms. Someone comes into the ablution area. I see it's Muad'h.

"Guy. How far?" I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. My friend is here.

"She's going to be fine. Okay? Don't let it bother you too much. Tell your fears about your Allah S.W.T. Your God is bigger than anything and any fear you might have about your wife." I sigh again. Thinking of what the doctors told me.

"Thank you Muad'h. I'm grateful you're here." He shakes his head with a smile on his face.

"What would you do if I wasn't here?" He spreads out his hands. "Nothing." I cup some water from the tap and sprinkle it on him. He yelps and jumps back. He was just about to rinse his left foot.

"Man how far naa. Now my kaftan looks like I was playing with a water gun. Who's the child here now?" I continue washing my head as though I didn't hear him.

"If I push you now, won't they say I'm wicked?" My shoulders shake with laughter.

"I'll just let you be, since you want to be a baby. They won't even know you're the one who's about to be a daddy." He brings my mind back to the fact that Beela is in there.

"Let's pray." He turns off the tap and follows me out of the tap area.

Once I'm done, I continue kneeling, offering prayers for Beela and our children. Muad'h was done a while ago.

Once I look in his direction, he signals at me with his eyes. I stop, and make sure to round up my prayer.

"The surgeon and her obestrician want to see you." I jump out of the mosque, slide my feet into my shoes quickly at the door and rush to the elevator leaving Muad'h behind.

When the elevator glides down, I don't wait for it to open before I jump out in the direction of the waiting room.

"Where are they?" The receptionist on that floor points the way to me and I walk there, praying that nothing happened while I was away.

I see the surgeon and her obestrician walk into an office and I keep walking to enter with them. When they notice me they gesture for me to sit. The obestrician goes to the sink in the corner to wash his hands.

"Mr Hassan. Congratulations. You're a father of three children. Two girls and a boy." My heart stops, then my brain processes the news.

"Thank you Doctors." They notice I'm agitated, so they laugh.

"We just wanted to show you a few things before letting you go and scrub up to see your kids. They're doing fine. Except for the third baby who has slight breathing issues, we've put her on oxygen and a special nutrition diet. She will survive by God's grace." I nod. He turns his computer towards me.

"You see here." He points at a sonographic representation of a uterus.  I nod.

"That is your wife's womb. As much as possible, we tried very hard to sew it back, but a damage had been done to it. While a foetus was flushed out in the past, something less than nice was done to her womb, making it slightly porous. I'm not talking of the last miscarriage." I shift my head to look at the doctor.

"We just want you to know and prepare yourselves for the best and the worst. You might not be able to have children again. So, you must do your very best to keep the ones you have safe and sound." I nod in comprehension. This is a lot to take in.

"She's fine?" I ask with bated breath.

They both nod, making me sigh in relief. Beela was my only fear.

"I'll go see her." Once outside the door, I go on my knees and deeply thank Allah for His Mercies. Only Him and Him alone could have done it.

I pick out my phone once I get up and compose a text to the family group chat. Then I call Maama.

******

"What did they say about Mareeyah today?" Beela asks me once I walk into  her room. She was moved yesterday to a room on the third floor to recuperate better.

"They say she's responding faster than expected to treatment and we can expect to take her home very soon." She nods and smiles. That smile that always makes my heart skip, that robs me of my thinking.

I don't think I ever thanked Baaba for the decision he made. I see her lips moving and realise I missed what she said.

"I said What about Fadil and Fadila?" I smile. Those two had grown stronger and faster in two days than anything and doctors hoped to release them faster than usual.

If all goes well, as we always pray it does.

****

Hi y'all,

I have no excuses 😂😂. I'm so sorry. One minute I was writing, ready to publish, the next I had forgotten.

I just want to say, a big wonderful thank you to you all for being on this beautiful journey with me.

Like, I ask myself, without you all and God, where will I be? But, we're here now. Thankful.

I'm absolutely short of words. Nothing can quantify the joy that finishing this book has given me. The joy of pressing the completed button. 😝😝🌛🌛

I'm also happy, because, book three is about in chapter four or so. I'm working on that book one word after another because I intend to wow you all.

I'm grateful, eternally so, for all these love. God bless you all,

Have an amazing week ahead.

TheOmoope