Nadia turned around, her eyes blazing. "Quiet! My brother-in-law doesn’t know anything about it!" She hissed, "Tell Abdul I’ll come on Tuesday." She ran after her sister and Jamal watched disconsolately as they piled into the small car and drove away.
The sun seemed less bright, the sky less blue. Jamal felt a twinge in his chest and regretted immensely having eaten those peanuts in the cinema. They always gave him heartburn. Somewhere in his mind he realized thatpretty girls in burqas who played with men’s emotions and ran them up against their brothers were as difficult to digest.
He couldn’t help the gnawing thought that maybe Nadia was more trouble than she was worth, but an equally urgent feeling insid e him told him that he could not give up the pursuit just yet. The look in her eyes when he’d asked her to come to the movies again, the bright smiles that she’d bestowed on him, the eager way she laughed at his jokes all convinced him that she was as good as his. And she wouldn’t have come out with him if she hadn’t intended to show him how she felt about him.