Prologue

It was a chilly morning in New Zealand when a black Tesla cruised along a highway that passed through a green grass carpet overlooking the ginormous grey mountains with their tips covered in snow. The Tesla went at a regular speed as it reached a juncture on the highway that lead to two roads. The driver in the Tesla steered the steering wheel to the right thereby taking the car in the direction that seemed to be heading to a forest.

Silence had its way during the whole trip with only one passenger on the driver’s seat. But it lost its battle with the sound of an iPhone ringtone that echoed in the car. The owner received the call from the screen on the dashboard.

“Salaam.” the driver said, in his masculine voice.

“Hey bro! I know that you’d be back at work by tomorrow but I couldn’t help from giving you this news any sooner!” a jolly voice of a young man filled the car.

“As if I won’t be sick of hearing scandals of celebrities and politicians starting from tomorrow? Nah ah! Save that for later!” he said and reached out to disconnect the call.

“W…wait wait wait! It’s not about a scandal. It’s about an overseas task you are about to be given. You need to be flying next week…”

“That’s a better news than I’d expected. Where do I need to go?”

“To….Nigeria.”

With those words, suddenly the brakes of the Tesla were pushed and the car came to a halt. Its owner sat in the driver’s seat, stunned by the news. A sadness began to overcome his square-shaped face as his eyes turned red and his thick eyebrows lowered. His thin lips parted as a painful sigh escaped through them.

“Manager James held a meeting with the journalists and the news photographers today. No photographer was willing to go that far given the options of other locations which were nearby. So I put your name forward before Manager could even bring it up.”

Yet again, the young man on the other side of the call got nothing but silence as a response. He sighed as the impact of the news he gave occurred to him.

“Dude I know that you have mixed emotions on this. But as your best friend, I figured this might help you with your longing. Go and have a look for yourself. You might find her. If you don’t, then at least you could be sure that she die…”

“I’d go!” his voice shook as he gave the sudden response so as to stop his friend from saying those words that would wrench his heart that was already aching.

“Way to go buddy! See you tomorrow then. Bye!” the friend said and the phone clicked.

The man in the car leaned on his seat as he tried to pull himself together. Memories from his past flashed before his eyes no matter how hard he tried to bury them. He had given up on burying them anyway, a long time ago, once he’d realized that it wasn’t possible for him to do so. It wasn’t possible for him to wake up every morning and not remember her face. It wasn’t possible for him to not think about her, when his mind wandered. It wasn’t possible for him to help himself from crying at night, when he thought about how she sacrificed for him. And about how he isn’t even sure where she is and how he can’t check on her without the fear of her being hurt.

The man leaned back on the seat with the click of the phone. He roughly inhaled a breath as though trying to pull himself together. Just then, the old watch he wore on his wrist beeped with an alarm. When he checked the time on the silver watch, it was 8:30 AM. Seeing the time planted a light smile on his face though his eyes still showed the agony in his heart. No matter how hard he tried, he could not forget her. Despite how heartbreaking it is to go over those memories, he would do it again and again. It was only those memories that gave him hope. Hope that in fact he would be able to live them again.

Thus he found himself changing the gears of his car, driving it forward once again. Minutes later, he was driving through a narrow road with tall, lush trees on either side. His heart skipped a beat like always, as he saw a waterfall from in between the trees he was passing by. He slowed down and parked the car on the side of the road when he could clearly see the end of the waterfall gushing into the river. He stared at the scene from the window for a few seconds and then he took his camera on the passenger’s seat as he got of the car.

The soothing sound of the waterfall filled his ears as he walked towards the river. There was not a single soul found in that area except him. Yet he could picture her standing near the river with her hijab and abaya. He could hear her giggles as she spoke with her friends on the first day he saw her. He’d walked and stood near the river, right where he did at that moment.

“I never get tired of rivers. I wonder about the promise of Allah whenever I see them. How beautiful will Jannah be?”

He’d heard the rhetorical question as was minding his own business and taking a picture of the waterfall in front of him. He’d looked at her involuntarily as he was taken aback by the question. When he looked, the girl took a small white flower on her hijab and got on her knees to let it flow in the river. She kept her hand in the crystal clear water even when the flower began to flow with the current.

“Instead of thinking about what’s way too far away, why not think about right now?! The flower that you just sent, imagine it been taken by a handsome guy out there. And getting a secret lover. Just like in the movies! Why don’t you send one with a message? That’d be so romantic!”

The girl laughed lightly at those words and said, “If only love was that simple. I don’t think anyone would see me fit to be their lover. I don’t see that happening. So I’d rather have my heart filled with the love of Allah.”

Her friends sighed in disbelief and criticized her for her ‘pessimism’. They then told her that they would be heading back to their camp. The girl told them that she’d be back in a while. Within a few minutes, it was only the man with the camera and the girl on her knees near the river. The girl was oblivious to the man but the man was looking at her intently. He wondered about what made her say that she wasn’t fit to be someone’s lover. She looked absolutely stunning to him even with her dark complexion and oval face. What kind of racists must have put her down to that point? He wondered, with a hint of rage in his heart. He found himself aiming the camera in his hand at the girl in front of him with his photographer instincts telling him to do so. He saw the capture he was going to get through the lens of the camera and then he clicked. The click startled the girl sitting there.

But the picture of that same place that he captured years later on this day, had no girl in it. It was just the river bank and part of the river. The man looked at the picture and then to the ground below with a sigh of sadness. Just then, he saw a white flower just near his feet. He knelt to the ground, took the flower and placed it gently in the river. He kept his hand in the water even when the flower began to move away from his hand. He didn’t believe in petty things coming together to make a miracle. But his desperation to see his loving wife, made him with for once that her friends’ theory was right. He wished that the flower he just sent, could become a token of his love. People may call him crazy for his sentiments but he still felt her love. It was as though she was always there with him. Perhaps because of the sacrifices she made for him till the last moment where she let go off his hand against her will. He hasn’t seen her in a long time but it was as though she was always in front of him. He isn’t even sure if she is alive but she surely lives in his heart.

The man let out a sigh and then stood up to his feet. He gave a longing look to the direction his flower went. It was already out of his sight. He blinked and turned his back to the river hopelessly. He then walked back to his car, got into it and drove away.