Page 114 - A Woman Is No Man

should’ve loosened you up.” He looked up from his bowl, and Isra noticed
that his eyes were glassy and bloodshot. She wondered if he was sick.
“She is quite the woman, my mother,” Adam said. “Nothing like any of

the women in your village, I’m sure.”
Isra studied his face. Why were his eyes so red? She had never seen him
like this before.
“No, not Fareeda,” he mumbled to himself. “One of a kind, as her name
suggests. But she earned that right, you know, after all she’s been through.”
He propped both elbows on the kitchen table. “Did you know that her
family relocated to the refugee camps when she was six years old? Probably

not. She doesn’t like to talk about it. But she lived a tough life, my mother.
She married my father and raised us in those camps, rolled up her sleeves
and endured.”
Isra met his eyes and then looked quickly away. Even if she tried to act
like Fareeda, she couldn’t. She wasn’t strong enough.
“Speaking of my mother,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of

his hand, “what have you two been up to lately?”
“Sometimes we visit the neighbors when the chores are done,” Isra said.
“I see, I see.”
She watched him shovel food into his mouth. She didn’t know what to
make of his unusual behavior, but she thought she’d ask if she’d done
something wrong. She swallowed dry spit. “Are you angry with me?”
He took a gulp of water and looked at her. “Why would I be angry with

you?”
“Because I had a daughter. Or maybe because I’m pregnant again. I
don’t know.” She looked down at her fingers. “It feels like you’re avoiding
me. You barely come home anymore.”
“You think I don’t want to come home?” he said, waving his hands.
“But who else is going to put food in your mouth? And buy diapers and

baby formula and medicine? You think living in this country is cheap?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I’m doing the best I can to support this family! What more do you
want from me?”
Isra considered telling him that she wanted his love. That she wanted to
see him and get to know him, wanted to feel like she wasn’t raising a child
on her own. But if he didn’t understand that, then how could she explain it?

She couldn’t. She was a woman, after all. It wasn’t her place to be forward