Chapter 30
For three days Zain treated Aaliya as though she were made of glass. She spoke only in answer to his questions, ate practically nothing, and had no interest in anything, not books, not computers, and, to Zain's dismay, not sex.
On the fourth day he couldn't stand it anymore and called in the heavy artillery: Zaid's sons. At six in the morning the door to the bedroom opened and both Aaliya and Zain were awakened by two flying bodies screaming, "Aalu! Aalu!"
Zaid stood in the doorway watching them, Aalu hugging the boys, who were filthy, and receiving wet kisses, while zain was trying to keep booted feet out of his face.
"When do rehearsals start?" Zaid asked.
At that question, Zain darted out of bed and quickly ushered his brother from the room. It was after Aaliya had bathed the twins, fed them, and sent them into the back garden to play that she looked at Zain and said, "What rehearsals?"
It was the first time she'd shown interest in anything in days. Zain wanted to tell her, but at the same time he was afraid to tell her what he had in mind. He very well knew that he'd already burned his bridges behind him; he couldn't go back now.
"I've tried to think of what could be done to find out what happened that night in 1928," Zain said. "I think people - myself included - want to protect you, so they do their best to keep their knowledge to themselves. But I've realized that you can't be protected until it's ended and it can't be ended until everything that happened that night is out in the open."
Aaliya sat down at the table across from Zain and his brother and looked from one dark pair of eyes to the other. Speaking of hiding things, speaking of lying, she knew that that's exactly what they were doing. "I want to hear all of it, every word, with nothing kept back."
Zain and Zaid began to talk over the top of each other. "Faraz's bought Jubilee's nightclub and Juhaina already buying the stuff to redecorate it and Dad's going to lead the gangsters and Vajiha taking her vacation time to outfit everyone and Mom's working on the food and you're going to sing with Ornette and H.H.'s going to play his grandfather and-"
It was at the mention of her singing with Ornette that she stopped them and made them explain. Interestingly enough, it was Zaid who did the explaining. She could see in Zain's eyes that he was concerned about her reaction to his idea.
Zaid, who, as far as she could tell, had been told everything there was to tell about what had happened with Doc and Masuma, told her that all the principals were lying. "Jubilee won't tell what he knows; H.H. won't tell what he knows; Masuma is too afraid for you to tell; Doc tells but no one can believe him."
What Zain had come up with was a way to solve the riddle: He and his family and Aalu were going to recreate the night of May the twelfth, 1928. They were going to rebuild and redecorate Jubilee's Place as it had been on the night of the massacre, then reenact the entire evening, machine guns and all.
After his initial explanation, zaid sat back and listened to his brother further rationalize his idea to Aaliya. The brothers had talked well into last night, with Zain explaining about Aaliya's life, how Aaliya had been such a good little girl since her mother died, a dear child who never caused anyone any bother, never asked anyone for help, and, as a consequence, had never been helped. She had done everything she could to gratify her father, even marrying a man she now knew she had never really liked, and she'd gone on to try to satisfy her husband - and become angry at herself, not him - when she couldn't please him.
Now Zain was telling Aaliya that he wanted to recreate what happened on that night so long ago so he could complete his book, but the truth was, Zain was hoping to shock Aaliya into facing what had been done to her. He wanted to shock her into expressing her sorrow, her grief, and, most of all, her rage."
After Zaid was told what had happened to Aaliya's mother, zain said that after each of these horrifying revelations, Aaliya would retreat into herself for a while, then after a few days, she'd act as though nothing had changed. For years the events of Aaliya's life had been an endless list of disasters - a list that was now so long that most people could not have survived it. Yet Aaliya not only survived, she went about her daily life as though nothing had happened to her. Zain had said he felt sure that if his only goal was to find out what transpired that night, Masuma could tell them everything, but Zain had a vision of Aaliya sitting primly in one of the little suits she was so proud of and silently listening to yet another story of unspeakable tragedy, then getting up and saying, "Where shall we go for dinner tonight?" No matter what Masuma told Aaliya, no matter the depth of the evil described, Zain was sure Aaliya would internalize the information, suppress what she felt about it, and continue with her life, apparently unaffected.
Zain's fear was that someday, maybe twenty years from now, she was going to be like those women in the papers who at fifty, after a seemingly normal life, suddenly became suicidal. If they endured, they had to at last confront abominations that had been inflicted upon them during their childhoods, incidents they had forbidden themselves to see when they were happening.
Zain was afraid for Aaliya, afraid of what would happen to her if she didn't release the rage that
Had to be seething within her. Zain feared that, like a volcano, if Aaliya didn't explode now, she would later. The only fact for certain was that eventually Aaliya had to release what she had repressed for so many years.
So zain had planned this reenactment, telling Aaliya that the reason for it was that he wanted to know what had transpired that night, but Zaid well knew that if it were up to Zain, he'd walk away from all of this, content to never again hear the name of Doc or even of Masuma. Long ago Zain had lost the desire to know what had occurred so many years ago; now his only concern was Aaliya and her future well-being. Zain's feeling was that if there were any way in the world to help Aaliya and to give her what she needed, then he was going to do it, no matter what the expense, the time involved, or the people he had to recruit to help him.
It wasn't easy for Zain to put her through this theatrical production. He suspected that, at best, it was going to be an ordeal for her, but he also knew by something he called gut instinct, but Zaid very well knew was nothing more than deep, unselfish love, that this was the only way that Aaliya could ever possibly attain the peace she so desperately needed.
Because Zain saw it as the only way - abhorrent to him as it might be - he was going to say whatever he had to, to get Aaliya to participate. He couldn't very well tell her that he thought the sight of blood and having to hear all the gory truth of what some gangster had done to decimate her family would be good for her, so in essence, Zain was telling her that the night was to be an amusing little diversion that would give his relatives something to do and would entertain everyone.
Zain was lying, as Zaid knew that Aaliya often accused him of, but Zain knew that Aaliya would never take part in this drama if she thought it was just for her. She would do it for Zain, but she'd never do this for herself.
Silently, Zaid listened as his brother threw out a long line of bull about Jubilee having secrets and H.H. knowing more than what he was telling, and how, if Zain could find out answers to his questions, he would fulfill a lifelong goal of writing this book. But Zaid knew exactly what his brother was doing, and he'd never been so proud of him in his life as he was at this moment. With identical eyes that reflected the pride and love he felt, he looked at Zain; Zain saw and, as always, he understood exactly what his twin was thinking. Turning a bit red, Zain looked away, but he smiled, pleased with his brother's unspoken praise.
* * * * *
After Aaliya heard what Zain had to say, she knew that if she hadn't already been sitting she would have had to. "Who are we going to use for an audience?" she asked, eyes wide in astonishment"
"How can we get enough actors to participate? And even if we found them it would take months to rehearse them." The unspoken words that Masuma doesn't have months filled the room.
"We'll use relatives," Zain and Zaid said in unison - something that she was beginning to learn that they often did - and they said the words as one would say, We'll use mannequins.
"Zain," Samantha said, trying to sound reasonable. "We would need over a hundred people and they need 1920s clothes. It's going to cost-"
"Hell, we'll let the Qureshis pay, or Faraz can pay. Faraz can buy some costume studio in L.A. and make a fortune off of it - as he always does. Don't worry about the money."
Looking down at her hands, then back up at them, she grimaced. The mention of Ornette made her feel a little queasy. "What about the band?"
"We'll ask Jubilee for the music."
She gave them a look of disbelief. "Jubilee is a hundred and one years old!"
"And bored out of his mind," Zain answered. "If we can get him away from his termagant daughter, I bet he'd love to help us."
Aaliya wanted to say that the whole idea terrified her. It wasn't just the idea of singing in front of a lot of people that bothered her, although it did, nor was it the idea of trying to act in front of more than a hundred people. What bothered her was the outrage of that night. People had been killed that night; her mother had been murdered since then; her grandmother had spent a lifetime in hiding because of whatever happened on that night. She wasn't sure if she wanted to look into the face of that evil.
Zain saw her hesitation. Reaching across the table, he took her hand. "I think the idea of a show will appeal to Jubilee, and H.H. with that tattoo of his has got to be the biggest ham alive and maybe, if Masuma sees what everyone else is doing, she'll open up."
She looked at him. "And what about Doc?"
Zain took a while before he answered. "Doc is going to watch all of it."
At that Aaliya laughed. "I can see the invitation now: Miss Aaliya ghulam haider and Troupe request the pleasure of your company at Jubilee's Place to recreate the worst night of your life."
Neither Zain nor Zaid looked at each other, but Aaliya could feel them exchanging looks. "Zain," she said softly, "how are you going to get him there?"
"Let me worry about that," Zain said patronizingly.
But Zaid didn't lie to her. Of course, he didn't have the motivation for lying that Zain did, for Zain was sure his life would be over if anything happened to Aaliya. Then, too, Zain knew Aaliya's propensity for sticking her nose into places where it didn't belong.
"We're going to kidnap him," Zaid said.
Aaliya nodded, for it's what she'd thought when Zain had first said Doc was going to watch. "What has been done so far?" she asked, for she could tell that during the last days, while she had been grieving all over again for her mother, Zain had been very, very busy.
This time Zain and Zaid did exchange looks, but it was a look of pride on Zain's part, as though he'd told his brother that Aaliya was the bravest person in the world and here was proof.
As they started talking, right away Aaliya could see things that needed to be done, such as who was going to play Doc and what did Doc look like as a young man, and where were the headquarters for the many meetings that were going to be needed, and where were his parents staying, not, she hoped, in a hotel.
Zaid sat back and drank a cup of coffee while he watched Aaliya and Zain argue over having his relatives move into Zain's town house for the duration. "They are perfectly happy in their various hotels. They have room service, maid service - and I have peace and quiet and privacy."
"All of New York is room service!" Aaliya snapped at him. "And where is your brother staying? Your twin brother and his darling children?"
"Those brats are anything but darling!" Zain half shouted at her. "They've already eaten half my roses this morning and one of them dug a hole in my garden you could drop a car into. If I let them in my house, they'll destroy this place."
"Oh, is that it?" she asked, her mouth in a tight line. "It's your house, your relatives. Not any of it is mine, I guess, not even the upstairs. I should have understood that from the beginning, after all, I'm just your tenant and nothing else. I have no rights."
At that Zain took her in his arms. "Ah, baby, that's not what I meant. Of course you have rights. If you want all of them, cousins, whatever, here, then you can have them."
Looking over Zain's shoulder, Aaliya winked at Zaid. She may have played dirty in the fight, but she'd won, and wasn't that what counted? Zaid raised his cup to her in silent salute.
Anupamaa
