Page 237 - A Woman Is No Man

girl onto the hallway floor. “I’ll show you what you get for disobeying me!”
Sarah said nothing, her cheeks flushed red, her eyes two wells of fury.
Her silence infuriated Fareeda most of all. How dare her daughter disobey

her like this, how dare she defy her, after all Fareeda had done for her, for
all of them? All she had given up, day after day until there was nothing left
of her but a sack of bones. And they still blamed her in the end.
She took off her slipper and slammed it against Sarah’s body, over and
over, her jaw clenching each time the slipper struck her daughter’s skin. It
wasn’t fair! Sarah tried to crawl away, but Fareeda stooped down and seized
her, pushing her into the ground with all her might. The next thing she

knew, her hands were clutched around Sarah’s throat, all ten fingers digging
in as if kneading a chunk of dough.
“STOP!” Isra’s voice cut through Fareeda’s rage. What was she doing?
She let go. The feeling she had now, like the jinn had entered her, would not
shake. She stared at her hands for what seemed like an eternity. Finally she
spoke in a quiet voice. “I’m doing all this for you.” Sarah was shaking her

head, rubbing tears from her eyes. “You think I’m a monster, but I know
things about this life you can’t imagine. I could sit around and play house
with you, making jokes and spinning fairy tales, but it would all be lies. I’m
choosing to teach you about the world instead. To want what you can’t have
in this life is the greatest pain of all.”
Sarah stared at the floor. A moaning sound came from her lips, but she
said nothing. Fareeda swallowed, studying the runner beneath her feet. Her

eyes followed the fabric, its embroidered lines spinning in and out of each
other, again and again. She felt as though her life was bound by the same
pattern. She couldn’t breathe.
“Just go,” Fareeda muttered, closing her eyes. “I don’t want to look at
you right now. Go.”