Elm Creek: A Readymade Family, Volume 1

11

ELEVEN

Hâroon was given a one-week grace period before he had to show up at his first day of work. During that week, he spent all of his waking hours with the twins and hardly glimpsed his wife. She stayed holed up in her bedroom doing who knew what, keeping the door locked. When she did venture out, she made herself some food and then quickly disappeared again. She barely spoke to him, ignored the children, and cut him down with sharp words if he tried to make her spend time with them as a family. By the end of that week, he acknowledged the ugly truth. Lila hadn’t changed at all; she had just made him believe it.

Moses and Serenity Williams were a true blessing. They showed up frequently offering their help with no expectation of return. Serenity took over watching the children so Hâroon could have a reprieve, and Moses engaged him in discussions about their different beliefs that were surprisingly pleasant. Hâroon had witnessed how intense and heated debates could become, and was relieved Moses Williams didn’t seem to be the sort to turn an exchange of differing opinions into an argument.

Serenity, more often than not, made lunch, dinner, ot both for him and the kids before she left, and sometimes the couple brought over a dish from their own house. They didn’t even blink when he told them he and his children couldn’t eat pork products because their religion prohibited its consumption. Instead, they made the effort to accommodate their dietary needs.

He learned the couple had a sixteen-year-old daughter by the name of Charity who was in high school. So far he hadn’t seen a glimpse of her. Though he didn’t ask, he often found himself on the listening end of Moses’ problems with his teenage daughter, most of which centered on boy trouble—or the trouble that came from one specific boy.

“She’s too attached him,” Moses said. “She’s known him since she was five, so she can’t see what I do. I see the way he looks at her and no man has any business looking at a teenage girl like that.”

“How old is he?” Hâroon couldn’t help asking.

“About your age,” Moses replied. “I’ve been uncomfortable about this friendship from the start. He’s been throwing his wealth and status around from a very young age. Men like that don’t look at girls like my daughter with marriage in mind. He’s been acting different since she was fifteen and I’m scared for her, but she won’t listen to anything I say against him.”

“You’re her father and she’s still a minor,” Hâroon pointed out. “Can’t you just put your foot down?”

“If only,” Moses replied. “You have no idea the kind of power this young man holds. No one that young should have that kind of power. He can make me lose my job and then where would we be? He’s been keeping me under his thumb with threats and there’s nothing I can do. The police can’t help me either. There’s no proof, and if there was, he could probably pay his way out of it. My daughter is in danger and she doesn’t even realize it.”

Chills crept over Hâroon’s skin at the story Moses told. It almost seemed too fanciful to be real, like something from a thriller novel, but the very real fear in his friend’s eyes made him acknowledge it as true. However, there was little Hâroon could offer except for a promise to pray for his daughter’s protection.

When the new week rolled in, and his first Monday on the job arrived, Hâroon had to leave the twins in Lila’s care so he could go to work. He hoped she would prove his sense of foreboding wrong. That morning, he knocked on her door to remind her that he wouldn’t be around to watch the twins.

“I’m going to work,” he said when she finally opened the door, staring at him with frustration. “The kids will be up soon.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. “I’m up. You can go.”