Page 135 - A Woman Is No Man

gender, she had a bit of hope to move her forward. She wouldn’t be able to
push the baby out if she knew it was a girl.
“We’ll name him Khaled,” Fareeda said, standing up. “After your

father-in-law.”
Isra wished she wouldn’t do that, bring her hopes up for a boy. What if
it was another girl—what would Fareeda do? Isra could still remember the
look on Fareeda’s face the night Nora was born, one hand swept across her
forehead, a pained sigh escaping her. And here Isra was again, with another
child on the way. Soon she would have three children when she still felt like
a child herself. But what choice did she have? Fareeda had insisted she get

pregnant before Nadine. “It’s your duty to bear the first grandson,” she’d
said. Only now Nadine was pregnant, too, and might still bear a son before
Isra.
“Please, Allah,” Isra whispered, a prayer she’d been muttering for
weeks. “Please give me a son this time.”
Nadine squinted her bright blue eyes and laughed. “Don’t worry,

Fareeda,” she said, tracing her fingers across her slim belly. “Inshallah
you’ll have a little Khaled sooner or later.”
Fareeda beamed. “Oh, inshallah.”

Later that evening, Fareeda asked Isra to teach Sarah how to make kofta. A
single ray of light fell through the kitchen window as they gathered the
ingredients on the counter: minced lamb, tomatoes, garlic, parsley.
Sarah sighed. Her eyes were round and her lips sat in a quiet sneer, as
though she had sensed something foul. She sighed again, reaching for the

minced lamb. “How do you do this all day?”
Isra looked up. “Do what?”
“This.” She motioned to the kofta balls. “It would drive me crazy!”
“I’m used to it. And you might as well get used to it too. It will be your
life soon enough.”
Sarah shot her a sidelong glance. “Maybe.”

Isra shrugged. Sarah had matured so much in the past two years. She
was thirteen years old, creeping up on womanhood. Isra wished she could
save her from it.
“Whatever happened to your romantic streak?” Sarah said.
“Nothing happened,” Isra said. “I grew up, that’s all.”