One afternoon, as she reached out to him, she asked, “Were you always a beggar?” He hesitated. Then he said softly, “I wasn’t always like this.” But he never said anything more. And Zainab didn’t press the matter.
Until one day.
She went to the market alone to buy vegetables. Yusha had given her careful directions, and she memorized every step. But halfway there, someone grabbed her arm violently.
“Blind rat!” a voice spat. It was her sister. Aminah. “Are you still alive? Are you still playing at being a beggar’s wife?” Zainab felt tears welling up, but she stood tall.
“I am happy,” she said.
Aminah laughed cruelly. “You don’t even know what he looks like. He’s trash. Just like you.”
And then he whispered something that broke her heart.
“He is not a beggar. Zainab, you have been lied to.”
Zainab stumbled home, confused. She waited until nightfall, and when Yusha returned, she asked her again, but this time firmly. “Tell me the truth. Who are you really?”
And that’s when he knelt in front of her, took her hands, and said, “You should never have known yet. But I can’t lie to you anymore.”
