Hina smashed whatever was left of her samosa into mush at the bottom of her plate. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know!” she said, grumbling....
“Look here,” Amani pushed a bit of samosa across her plate and speared it at the end of her fork. “You’re telling me you are walking into Eid ul Fitr day without knowing for sure that your fiancé to-be knows what you look like or not?”
“More importantly...” Gohar stopped to chew and swallow a bite of samosa. “Will your fiancé’s family be there with the ring during the Eid celebration or not?”
Hina smashed whatever was left of her samosa into mush at the bottom of her plate. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know!” she said, grumbling.
“You don’t need to know to participate,” Amani said, suddenly businesslike.
“We’ll be there,” Gohar said. “Don’t worry. We’ll come to visit you. We’ll support you.”
“Ray says...” Hina pushed her plate with the unfinished and completely smashed samosa to the side of the café table, “that he’ll already have gone through my Facebook profile.” She frowned. “If I had been told beforehand, I’d have changed the photos I have up.”
“Maybe that’s why they didn’t tell you,” Gohar said absent-mindedly. “What dress are you wearing on Eid, then?”
“I don’t know,” Hina said. “Ray said the engagement is at Eid ul Adha. This is probably just going to be a trial run.”
“A trial run of what?” Amani sounded annoyed. “When you’re getting engaged, you’re getting engaged. Ray probably just lied to you to put you at ease. You dress up to the max and go into that Eid party and own the room. That’s it. That’s what you will do.”
“That sounds like something you’d do...” Hina sighed.
***************
“Remember what Amani said,” Gohar said, tugging at the hem of Hina’s dress to make sure it sat right. Hina stared into the dressing table mirror and replied, “This doesn’t fit the confident picture Amani told me to be at all.”
“Being nervous is normal,” Gohar said, arranging and rearranging the bangles on her arm. “I’d be more worried if you weren’t nervous.”
“If it’s just an Eid party, if it’s my engagement, if I just- what do you know, hurt myself falling down the stairs and don’t even make it into the living room with all the guests there, I don’t know what will happen,” Hina said, raising a finger to adjust her earrings.
“Hina,” Gohar said patiently.
“But I don’t know-”
“Don’t focus on what you don’t know!” Gohar finally snapped, which for Gohar was just slightly less patient than her version of patiently hearing Hina out. “Amani is already downstairs with your mother. Let’s go there and just have a normal Eid dinner. Let’s go.”
***************
“Is this where you wanted me to drop you off?” Sameer stopped the car next to the driveway. His mother nodded.
“I’ll tell you when to come get me,” she said. She extended a hand and patted Sameer on the cheek. “You look so precious today,” she said.
Sameer grinned sheepishly. “Do you want me to take you inside?” he asked. His mother had already exited the car and closed the door behind her. He rolled the window down to catch her response, “Let me meet your girlfriend in peace.” Sameer smiled self-consciously as the main door of Hina’s house opened and a girl appeared to lead his mother inside. “I wish I knew if she’s really joking or not,” he thought to himself, as he sped the car along the street. Amani, having received his mother, spent another second chasing the car down the street with her gaze before closing the door and returning inside.
***************
“Such a beautiful Eid day,” Ammi said to Hina as she came downstairs with Gohar following closely. “Why don’t you go greet our guests?”
“Of course,” Hina said, without betraying a glimpse of the terror she felt at meeting half a dozen aunties without knowing which one was arranged to be her future mother-in-law.
“You recognise most of them, right?” Gohar said quietly after Hina had finished her round of greetings and had caught an approving look from Abbu as he managed the men’s side of the party.
“I don’t know who I know when I think I’m going to have to be her daughter-in-law someday,” Hina said. She was sitting in a corner with Gohar and Amani. Amani shot Hina’s dress a look, closely inspecting it for the second time.
“That’s not an engagement dress,” Amani said, quietly for once. “That’s just an Eid dress, that’s all.”
“I know that,” Hina said, raising her eyebrows. “The engagement dress Ammi picked out; she took me with her for the sizing.”
Amani and Gohar stared at Hina. “You knew this all along, yet you were going ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’?!” Amani sounded angry.
“I didn’t know which one Ammi would give me to wear until the day of the party,” Hina said, looking grouchy.
“What an amazing way to assess which way the wind blows,” Amani said. “If she had handed you a clown suit, would you have come out into the living room and done clown tricks for us?”
Gohar giggled. Hina frowned, then caught Gohar’s giggles and joined her in giggling in spite of herself.
“Well, you look good smiling, anyway,” said Amani. “Let’s just get on with this party and compare notes afterwards.” She grinned. “It might come in useful for the real thing!” Hina aimed a punch at her, which Gohar quickly stopped with the palm of her hand. “People getting engaged don’t punch other people during parties,” Gohar said quickly, unclenching Hina’s fingers by pulling on each one. Hina could have kept her fingers tightly in a fist had she not held Gohar in high enough esteem to let her pull her fingers apart.
After the party was over and the guests had been seen off one by one, the three friends met in the living room, which was now empty of all signs of life, including the fact that there had been a party there. Amani grinned the broadest of grins. “Guess what?” she said.
“Hmm, let me guess, you met her fiancé’s mother today and you know everything about him,” Gohar said in a bored, almost Amani-ish tone.
“Close, but not quite,” Amani said. “I saw him drop her off for the party today.”
“You did what?” Hina said, halfway through a mouthful of leftover food. Amani leaned over and picked a pastry off the plate. “I saw him,” she said. “And he saw me!”
To be continued...
