A new friend

Haleema saw as Ameerah fell, and ran towards her.

“Ya Allah!” She said in a panicky tone, and sat beside me. I sat straight and tried raised my hand to remove the stone from my knee. She held my hand, and said, “no, don’t remove it now. Come, I’ll take you to the clinic. We’ll use antibiotic first.”

She had an Arabic accent. It was funny and interesting for Ameerah at the same time. She was a short girl, and the way she ran towards her, was quite humorous. Ameerah looked at her with amusement, and nodded. Haleema helped her up, and with an arm around her waist, she tried supporting most of her weight. Considering her height and her lean figure, it was quite an effort for her.

The clinic was just a little toward the right, from the cafeteria.

“Mama,” Haleema called out, as they entered the clinic. The clinic consisted of two very small rooms. The back room had two small, single beds, and the front room consisted of a desk, and some shelves, which consisted of medicine bottles of a variety of colours.

A woman, with almost the same black abaya as Haleema, and a black hijab, came out of the back room, and when she saw Ameerah, she blurted out in the same tone that Haleema had used earlier.

“Ya Allah,” and speeded towards them. Ameerah couldn’t stop herself from laughing, and a slight giggle escaped her mouth. The woman looked at Ameerah, and then at Haleema, and asked her in a concerned tone, “Did she hurt her head?” The seriousness of her tone, made Ameerah laugh more. Haleema joined her in her laugh, as she realized the reason behind her. Her mom looked at both of the girls, as if they had gone crazy. She then looked at Ameerah’s knee, and after cleaning it and removing the stone, at which Ameerah winced slightly, she gave her a tetanus injection. Ameerah looked really pale, and felt a little dizzy.

“You feel okay,” Haleema’s mom asked her, in the same Arabic accent.

“I feel a little dizzy,” replied Ameerah.

Haleema’s mom looked at Haleema, and said something to her in what Aleemah thought was Arabic.

Haleema nodded, and turned towards Ameerah. “Mama wants that I take you to our room, just a little further from here at the back, and you can rest there for a little while. When you feel okay, you can go. A group of students are coming to the clinic. They want to do some research, assignment, on the college clinic or something. You will be very disturbed here.”

Ameerah thought something for a while, but then agreed.

They reached the room, just a little behind the clinic. The black double wooden door, had an old, rusted silver chain through the handles, and an equally old lock through the chain to keep the door locked. Haleema unlocked the door, and they entered into the tiny room. It was dark. Haleema switched on the lights. It was a small but neat room. A grey carpet covered the floor. There was a wooden double bed in one corner of the room. A study table was in the other corner and in the center was a medium sized mirror. There was a small double door cupboard to the left of the entrance. A door was present on the right side, which Ameerah considered to be the bathroom.

“Welcome to my humble abode, this is what they say right?” She laughed.

Ameerah had no idea who “they” were, but she laughed along with her nonetheless.

She sat down on the bed, and Haleema sat on the chair of the study table, facing it towards the bed.

“You can lay down, if you want to,” she said and gestured towards the pillows.

Ameerah raised the pillow against the wall, and sat leaning with it. Haleema had a satisfied look on her face.

“Where are you from?” Ameerah asked.

“I am from Kuwait,” she answered.

“Oh, you have a very cute accent,” Ameerah said smiling.

“oooh you like it? How very nice of you,” she said smiling widely, and after a pause, said, “Thankyou!”

She was like a child, Ameerah thought. She was so cheerful. It made Ameerah feel good.

There was an awkward silence between them, when Haleema spoke up, “you are very beautiful.”

Ameerah looked at her, slightly surprised at her abruptness, and said, “thankyou, you are very pretty yourself,” and gave her a genuine smile.

“I love your hair,” “Your mom is really sweet.” Both blurted out at the same time. It made them both laugh.

“Ya Allah! I am so stupid.” Haleema got up from the chair suddenly. “Do you want anything to drink?”

This made Ameerah laugh more. She really liked this girl. She was adorable.

“How old are you?” Ameerah asked her.

“I am sixteen. I skipped a class, when I was small, I was too smart,” she said proudly. Then, as if remembering something, she asked Ameerah, “how old are you?”

“I am twenty one. It’s my last year here in college.”

“What are you studying?” Haleema asked, getting interested.

“I am studying fashion designing.”

“But you said college?” she asked getting confused.

“Oh yes, I studied college here too. Now I am in the university here, but I have a habit of calling it college.”

“Can you design abayas for me?” Haleema asked getting excited.

“Yes, I can definitely try.”

“Yay!” Haleema said joyfully.

“Okay, I should get going now.” Ameerah got up from the bed.

“Do you feel fine now?” Haleema got up from the chair too.

“Yes, I am perfectly fine. It was only a knee scratch, and some blood. It just made me a little queasy, but I am okay now.”

“Okay, it was really nice meeting you, Ameerah,” Haleema said and pulled her in a hug lightly.

Ameerah was slightly taken aback, but hugged her back.

“Same here. You are really sweet and cheerful. It felt good talking to you. Thank you for everything.”

“No problem. Whenever you want to feel good again, you are welcome here.” She laughed lightly at her own statement.

“Yes, sure,” she said and left.

She then called Zarak, and asked him to pick her up.

As she sat on the bench, waiting for him, she kept thinking about Haleema. She really enjoyed her company. She had lifted her mood, and she felt a lot less depressed now. She decided she would meet her again, and also make the designs for her. What she didn’t know was that this minor decision would turn her tiny world around, and change her entire life completely.