Page 271 - A Woman Is No Man

Isra

Fall 1997

Isra didn’t know the precise moment the fear overcame her so completely,

but once it did it had hit her with a force so strong she couldn’t eat or sleep
for days. Since Adam had beaten her to a pulp over the girls’ schooling, she
had become increasingly afraid for her daughters and their futures. She
wished she had listened to Sarah and found the courage to go with her. But
she had no time to waste on such thinking now. She had to save her
daughters. They had to leave.
Isra looked at her silver wristwatch—3:29 p.m. She didn’t have much

time. Fareeda was visiting Umm Ahmed, and Nadine was in the shower.
They had to hurry. She gathered her daughters’ birth documents, as well as
all the money from Adam’s drawer, and then went upstairs to take the
money and gold hidden beneath Fareeda’s mattress. She had practiced these
motions in her head for days, and they went more smoothly than she had
anticipated. I should’ve left with Sarah, she thought for the hundredth time

as she secured Layla and Amal in the stroller. She took a deep breath and
opened the front door.

Isra arrived at the bus stop early. She had grown accustomed to her daily
walk to meet Deya and Nora after school, had even come to look forward to
it. But today the blocks felt longer than usual, the pavement wide and
foreign under her feet. She told herself to be brave for her daughters. She
saw the long yellow bus from a distance and eyed it anxiously until it halted
to a complete stop in front of her. Her watch read 3:43 p.m. Two minutes

early. Maybe God is helping me, she thought as the bus opened its double
doors and her daughters emerged.
Step by step, they walked away from the bus stop. When they made it
around the corner, Isra’s legs started to go numb, but she didn’t stop. Be
strong, she told herself. This isn’t for you, it’s for them.