Knights For Mundika
34

“Sister Majid, Sister Maitha, Brother Haya, what is this? Why could Mama Latifa be so unconscious like this?” Mundika is shocked to see the gurney carrying Mama Latifa into the ICU room. A room that is most avoided because of its function is used to treat patients with worrisome conditions and requires incentive supervision as well as strict.

“Mundika...,” Maitha and Haya immediately embraced her sister in search of moral support. How shocked they were when they were busy shopping while chatting in the supermarket, his mother suddenly complained of a very severe pain in the stomach shortly afterwards fainted. They were lucky that supermarket workers were on standby by calling the hospital and delivering them while one of them contacted his older brother who was constantly being named by their mother.

“Is there anything bad that I have not known about Mama Latifa's health condition, Kak?”

“....,” Majid just silenced not budging from his position because of the promise he had already spoken to his mother.

“Jawab Brother! I as his son also deserve to know!” The sudden high tone of Mundika's voice snapped Majid's silence. Never once in his life had he seen his little sister behave the way she is today. Should be the feeling of worry and fear of being left by his mother felt by him, not by Mundika who incidentally son of the second wife Babanya. What makes his beloved sister act as if her world is about to collapse when she sees her mother in critical condition in the ICU?

“Mama..., Mama has been suffering from stage four uterine cancer..,” Majid lips vibrate when saying it. His eyes were glazed trying hard not to spill the liquid floating in his fertilizer. “He asked me to keep this secret to all of you including Baba and Mama Artika.”.

“Allahu Akbar..., only to You we ask forgiveness and surrender,” Mundika's body suffocated when he heard the statement of his brother who was swiftly arrested by Maitha and Haya. Why O God? Why is it that after You have given me the family happiness that I have long desired You are the one who turned it back into sorrow?

Without the four of them knowing, Maryam who was left behind by Mundika was apparently following him and saw firsthand the events experienced by the family of Dalmouk Al Hassimi. He immediately took the initiative to contact Mansoor believing that only the man could calm his future sister-in-law who seemed most shaken by the explanation of her first mother's condition.

***

Mansoor who was contacted by Maryam immediately approached Mundika. It was very sad to see Mundika just sitting alone in front of the ICU room and looked helpless with her back leaning against the hospital wall. The girl's eyes were so empty as if many questions in her mind that could not be said. How could? Where are Majid, Maitha and Haya? After having a mouthwash, apparently his three brothers are currently consulting with a special doctor who has been handling Latifa in his office. Mundika tried to convince them that he was the one waiting for their mother in front of the ICU room while monitoring further developments because he felt that his three brothers had the right to ask the doctor.

The man let out a long breath looking at the sad sight. It was as if there was only her own fiancee who felt pain in her heart. It felt like he hugged Mundika's body tightly and gave strength and memory that he did not alone bear all the emotional turmoil that the man realized had not all been evaporated even though the girl's family had found light point of the complexity of the problem that occurs. But his desire was to hold up given the traditions of their nation that has been rooted in culture.

“I brought shawarma and karak chai for you,” Mansoor presented a brown paper bag package in front of Mundika. “Eat and drink while warm.”

“I heard from Maryam that you canceled your lunch plans because of this event,” Mansoor sat down next to Mundika and took the still warm shawarma to give to Mundika. Based on information he got from Maryam, the first wife of his father Mundika was suffering from end-stage uterine cancer to have to go into the ICU room due to unconsciousness.

“Thank you, but I'm not hungry..,” Mundika received the food Mansoor gave but did not taste to eat it. I don't know why the hunger that he felt so much before suddenly evaporated as the air disappeared somewhere. Her stomach felt full of nothing...

“You till when did you torture yourself?” The man looked towards the idol. “Don't I always say that I don't like your nature and ask you to try to change by looking at things from a different and more positive perspective?”

Mundika was silent as if his hearing was deaf because that was not the sentence he wanted to hear from Mansoor. But he knew that it was useless he did not budge because Mansoor's deep eyes could always make him talk without the man asking.

“Di...,” Mundika swallowed her saliva to give liquid to her dry esophagus in order to make a sound. “In my heart was actually very angry when I found out that Mama Latifa whom I had considered as the one who sacrificed for the happiness of Baba and my Mama, who had always been considered as the one who sacrificed for the happiness of Baba and Mama, until I always felt guilty every time I saw the kindness he bestowed on me and Zayed turned out to be the mastermind of all the complexities and problems that occurred in the Al Hassimi family. All the turmoil was trying to restrain and swallow myself remember the manners that have been taught by my mother to be able to control emotions so as not to hurt anyone and hope Mama Latifa get her own reply because it has been making me feel the inner pressure and emotions that I harbored for a long time to hurt myself,” Mundika still does not want to look into Mansoor's eyes and prefers to direct it forward. “I don't think Mama Latifa has reaped her own karma this time. I thought there would be a sense of satisfaction when knowing this reality.” Mundika's tears slowly fell one by one on the cheeks. “But the opposite happened. It is precisely this sense of pain and unbearable regret why I ever wished that to Mama Latifa, Mansoor.”.

Mundika's cry broke, making Mansoor unable to hold the girl. He is no longer concerned with the rules that have been taught and modeled by his family. Right now the girl needed a hug to share the same pain with her.

“Why? Why should this be the answer for Mansoor? Once I can forgive and accept what happened in their past to make me what I am today. This hurts Mansoor too much...., it hurts too much...., how could Mama Latifa bear it all this time without sharing it with any of us?” Mundika was no less tight to return Mansoor's embrace. His ten fingers gripped tightly at Mansoor's kandoora. “Mama Latifa has tried her hardest to improve herself in order to make up for the mistakes she has made. Yet it did not have to suffer as it was today as if its life was slowly being gnawed to leave this mortal world.”.

“Ssttt, it's okay Mundika, clean everything up until you feel relieved and no more wedge in the heart,” Mansoor rubbed the girl's back.

“I don't want to lose Mama Latifa, Mansoor.., I want Mama Latifa to feel happiness too after everything that happened.”.

***