Shadow Play by Barbara Ismail Read Free Book Online

feared she would never speak. “It’s nice that you’re doing this,” she said quietly. “I am Kak Hasnah, and that was my son. These are his children,” she made a sweeping gesture towards them. “I still can’t believe it. Poor boy. Too many problems with women,” she unrolled some homemade cigarettes from her sarong , just as Maryam so often did, and she recognized Hasnah as a kindred spirit. Hasnah spread her cigarettes on the porch and each woman took one and lit up.
    â€œAlways with women. I worried that it would catch up with him in the end. I told him so. His father told him too, but you know how young men are. All men, really. They don’t think woman trouble is trouble until it’s too late, and that’s just what happened to my son.”
    â€œIs he your only son?” Maryam asked, grateful that Hasnah was now talking.
    â€œYes, the only one. I have three girls, also, but Ghani was the oldest and the only boy. I’m glad the rest are girls. Less trouble and more sensible.”
    â€œKids,” Rubiah interjected. “They can break your heart.” All three mothers sat silent for a moment, considering the truth of this.
    â€œDid you know about his new, um, that is …?” Maryam was strangely reluctant to come to the point.
    â€œThat he got married again?” Hasnah asked. “Of course, I knew once she showed up here. How could he be so stupid? This girl, this Faouda, showed up right at his house, to his wife. Can you believe it? He came running over here with her after Aisha threw them out, or her out anyway. Late at night, woke us up. ‘Are you kidding?’ I asked him. ‘You married someone in Kuala Krai? A second wife? What in God’s name do you need a second wife for?’
    â€œNaturally, Ghani had nothing to say.” Suddenly, Hasnah seeing the two children listening with interest, turned to the inside of her house and called “Ijan! Come over here and take the kids inside. They could use a nap, right?” she smiled at them. Ijan came to the door and smiled shyly, gathering the children with her to take inside. “My youngest,” explained Hasnah. “Still in school.”
    â€œSuch a pretty girl,” enthused Rubiah. “She looks just like her mother – salin tak tumpah , not even a drop spilled.”
    â€œThanks,” said Hasnah shortly. She tapped the ash over the railing. “Anyway, Ghani couldn’t really explain. ‘I didn’t know she’d come here,’ he tells me. ‘You really married her,’ I said, ‘and you didn’t think she’d show up here?’
    Oh, I was furious, I tell you, and so was my husband. ‘What have you done?’ his father asked him. And Ghani had nothing to say. He needed a place for this girl to stay; it was so late at night.
    â€˜Not here,’ my husband told him. ‘She can sleep by the side of the road for all I care. Why don’t you divorce her right now?’ he asked him. The girl starts sniffling. It was like TV here, shouting and all in the middle of the night. I could have killed Ghani myself right then. Two little kids, you’ve seen my grandchildren, and you marry someone else?”
    Maryam and Rubiah clicked their tongues and commiserated. Men.
    â€œ Ya , well then, he left with this girl. I think he might have gone over to his auntie’s house, my husband’s sister. She lives over there,” she gestured vaguely away from the main road, “with her family and my husband’s mother.
    â€œMaybe Ghani tried to talk his grandmother into keeping her forone night. But let me tell you, this girl was angry when she left here. She thought Ghani would be thrilled to see her, and I guess she thought his family would celebrate when she got up here, but instead, I told her she ought to go right back to where she came from.
    â€œWhat could my son have been thinking? To do that to