Chapter 10

Her mother was silent for bit before she hissed. "What have you done again, Amira? I know how rude you are and you must have said something to infuriate him." Amira burst into desolate tears, "mommy what should I do?" "What should you do? What sort of question is that? You should clean your house and cook if you don't want a co wife, that's it! The choice is upto you." Mommy stated. She increased the volume of her wails when her mother uttered the word ‘co wife'. "Wait this girl, Dalia is even around and she isn't doing much in the house, I will send her now to help you clean up the house." Amira instantly nodded as if she was in front of her. "Yes mommy please send someone now. I am heading out in an hour. You should send her before I leave." She didn't even wait to hear what her mother would say again when she ended the call. She sauntered into the bathroom and had her bath before getting ready for the day. She was about to leave her room when she heard the door bell. She smiled and stepped out of the room. She walked down the stairs, passed the living room to the door. Dalia raised her head up when Amira opened the door. "You must be the girl to clean my house right?" She asked. Dalia nodded before she greeted her. "Come let me show you what to do," she said instead of answering her greetings. Dalia gently walked into the house and followed Amira to the living room. She looked around the dirty place but never changed her facial expression. "You're going to clean the living room, the kitchen and the rooms upstairs, after you're done, you cook dinner before my husband comes back from work. The cleaning equipments are in the kitchen. I won't be back early." She started walking away and left Dalia there looking at her in awe. She had to do all of that alone, same day? She heaved a sigh looking at the wall clock. It was already passed 12 noon. She walked towards the kitchen Amira showed her and started the work. She cleaned the living room first, the guest toilet, the dining and kitchen. She sprayed the whole living room and dining with the air fresher she found in the dinning room show glass. She performed ablution and took the mat she found in the living room to pray. She stood there looking around as she wondered where the Qiblah is. She dropped the mat and wore her hijab before she walked out of the house to the gate to ask the gate man. She came back shortly and prayed before she continued her work. She headed upstairs wondering which room to start with. She opened the first door which was muhsin's room. She closed it back when she saw everywhere was already cleaned, include the toilet. She entered the next room which was Amira. She hissed softly and entered. She wondered how a human being would live in such dirty place. She first changed the bedsheet before doing anything. Her eyes caught sight of a picture on the side drawer. She picked it up and stared at them. So he is Amira's husband, she mused to herself. She shrugged her shoulders and dropped the picture before she continued with her work. By the time she was done, it was past 3pm. Amira's room was too dirty to be done in just few minutes. She moved to the show glass she saw when she came into the room earlier. She opened it, beaming, and brought out some of the burning incense that was arranged. She noticed none was touched when she was cleaning the place. There was a pack of artificial charcoal and a burner in the show glass. She picked some of the burning incense and went down stairs to the kitchen. She turned on the gas that luckily she was taught by one of mommy's maids. By the time she was done with the burning incense, the house was nicely fragranced. She sat on the carpet in the living room to rest a bit before Asr prayer. A while later after she had prayed and well rested, she moved to the kitchen to cook. She opened the pantry wondering what to cook because Amira didn't mention anything to her after she had told her to cook. She stood there staring at the varieties of ingredients. She looked at the clock in the kitchen. It was almost 6pm. She knew she didn't know how to cook much fancy dishes but she managed to cook fried and chicken. She was hungry by the time she was done with everything she cooked. She served herself the amount she knew it would satisfy her after she had arranged everything in the dinning room. She settled down on the stool in the kitchen and ate her meal before she prayed maghrib and started cleaning the mess she made in the kitchen. The moment he walked into the living room, everything felt like a dream. From the sight of the spotless living room the aroma of food mixed with the burning incense. He dropped his briefcase on the sofa and moved to the dining room. He opened the warmer, mouth wide open. Amira did all this? She had finally decided to change. He smiled softly as he closed back the warmer. He looked at the kitchen door when he heard the noise coming from there. He smiled gracefully as he walked into the kitchen. "Amira, you did all this..." He paused when he saw the tiny figure in front of the sink. She turned and jerked back in horror. She heaved a sigh of relief. "Sorry," he murmured. "Where's Amira?" He asked, brows furrowed.