A Missing Peace (21 page)

I trembled as Caleb's fingers caressed the spot on my back the dress didn't cover.

“Oh my God!”
Ommy
screamed in Arabic sounded behind me. Followed by, “Get your dirty hands off my sister,” in English.

I pulled away from Caleb. He scooted away from me. Abrahem was in front of the couch before I could see him move. He glared at me. “We should have stayed in Iraq. That would have been better than this.”

He grabbed Caleb and threw him into the wall.

“Abrahem!” I screamed.

“Go to your room,” he said.

“I will not! Stop!”

“What the hell do you think you're doing? In my house? Are you crazy? I gave you fair warning.”

Abrahem's fist came up, and I leaped from the couch to grab his arm, but I was too late. It connected with Caleb's face.

“What do you want to do about that? Huh, soldier boy?” Abrahem taunted.

“Stop it! Abrahem!” I screamed.

“I gave him fair warning. I told him my sister doesn't date.” He had Caleb pinned to the wall, but he turned and looked at me. “Mirriam, you should be ashamed of yourself. I can't believe you would let this loser talk you into something so stupid.”

“He didn't talk me into anything.”

“I don't believe it.” Abrahem turned to Caleb. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Umm, I should have talked to you about it. I'm sorry.”

“Do you think I would have let you date my sister?” Abrahem brought his fist up again. “God, white boys are stupid.”

“Stop!” I grabbed his arm.

“He hasn't tried to defend himself or you once. What do you want with this coward?”

“I love her,” Caleb shouted. “Do you really think I'm going to hit her brother?”

Abrahem shook his head. “I'd kick your ass if you did.”

I already knew I would be forbidden to see Caleb again, and I couldn't watch Abrahem pulverize him, so I used the only ammunition I had.

“He's not a bad guy. It was his dad who saved me.”

Abrahem dropped his fist, but didn't loosen the hand pinning Caleb's neck to the wall. “Oh my God,” he said slowly. “I heard something about that. That dumbass that killed himself shot some guy trying to save a girl whose dad got killed. I never thought she was you.” He looked back to Caleb. “Your dad saved your ass tonight.” His eyes darted back to me. “How long exactly have you known we're living among murderers? Were you ever going to say anything?”

I was saved from answering when an annoying high-pitched voice with a Southern twang called, “Abe?”

Abrahem dropped the arm he used to pin Caleb to the wall as a guilty smile spread across his face.

It all made sense. The way Abrahem asked about my afternoon classes the first time I skipped, how she knew I wasn't Muslim, the person at the gas station who asked if I was sick. And why Abrahem couldn't give me a name.

We all said the name simultaneously. It rolled off my tongue in disgust. Shock carried in Caleb's voice, and my brother said it like a little kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Kailee.”

“You have the worse timing,” Abrahem added.

Ommy
stood behind the couch, flapping her arms around like a helicopter. “What's a Kailee?”

We were all speaking at once again. “A whore from hell,” I said.

“A girl,” Abrahem said.

“A manipulator,” Caleb answered.

“Don't talk about her like that,” my brother growled at me.

“It's true.
Zmal
. You're playing with Kailee Hill, and you have the nerve to talk about me, because I'm dating someone?”

“Mirriam, Kailee wasn't on the couch being groped. That was you.”

I threw my arms up. “It was a kiss. She's been with every guy at school. You know that, don't you? They all talk about her.”

“Abe's” smile widened, and he looked at Caleb. “No, just one, and he broke up with her two days later. That
was
how it happened, wasn't it?”

Now Caleb wore the guilty smile. He shook his head. “If that's true, it's news to me.”

Mirriam

I sat at my desk working on my trig final when someone tapped at my bedroom door. “Come in.”

Abrahem opened the door and sat down on my bed. “You'll thank me for this one day.”

“For keeping me from Caleb? No, I won't. For the first time in years, I was almost happy. I hope you have fun playing with your blonde. I wasn't lying last night. Every guy at school has slept with her.
Ommy's
not going to be any happier about you with a white protestant than me. It doesn't matter, though. I'll leave for college soon, and you won't know who I see.”

“She hasn't, Mirriam.”

“What?”

“The only guy Kailee has been with is Caleb Miller. He broke up with her two days later.”

“They all say—”

“Rumors,” he interrupted me. “Rumors, Mirriam. If you don't believe me, why don't you ask him about it? I can tell you from his reaction last night, it is.”

“How can I? I'm not allowed out of my room, remember? How did you get mixed up with the girl that wrote ragheads on our house anyhow?”

“I caught her.”

“What?”

“I caught her. I was pulling into the driveway, and I saw the backs of three people in jeans and black hoodies. I thought they were guys. I never really thought three girls would vandalize a house. That's why I called you freaked out that night. I was afraid you were home alone when they showed up. When you told me you and
Ommy
were safe, I got out of the car to kick their asses. Two ran off and when the third one turned to face me, I realized she was a girl.”

“So you were like ‘Hey, let's hook up'?”

He rolled his eyes. “No. She was crying, and she was obviously drunk. She asked if I was friends with the girl who lived here, and I said ‘sometimes.' She begged me not to tell anyone, said she'd never done anything like this before, but the new girl stole her boyfriend.”

“They broke up in January.”

“I told her I thought she was confused, obviously I was wrong. I drove her car home, because she was drunk. She was talking about killing herself, so I gave her my number and told her if she needed someone to talk to she could call me. She did.”

“Good for you.”

“He used her, Mirriam. He'd do the same to you.”

“No, he won't. I'm not nearly as stupid as Kailee Hill.”

“Let's leave Kailee out of this and be adults. I know the culture here is different, and you're lonely. But I won't have you associating with men like Caleb Miller. I've arranged your marriage.”

I burst into tears. “What? You can't. I won't do it.”

“It's done, Mirriam. It's Rahim. You had a crush on him. Don't tell me you didn't. You used to follow him around. He'll let you go to college and grad school. I had to call in every favor I've ever had to do this. He's in med school at John Hopkins.”

I had lost Caleb and was being sent back to the East coast. I wished I was dead. “I hate you,” I whispered through tears.

“Mirriam, in ten years, you'll realize I did the right thing.”

There was only one question left to ask. “When?”

Caleb

Saturday night was crazy. First Mirriam hated me and never wanted to see me again, with good cause. Then she loved me. Then her brother forbade her from seeing me again and threatened to kill me. I hadn't seen or heard from her all day. I called her cell time after time, but it went to voicemail.

I stayed up after midnight, willing my phone to ring or vibrate with a text. Anything. Eventually, I gave up. I fell asleep with my phone in my hand.

I woke up to tapping on the back door. I grabbed my cane and wobbled through the kitchen to open the door. Mirriam stood outside crying. I locked my arms around her waist and pulled her in. “Mirriam?”

“They're marrying me off.”

Abrahem punched me yesterday. I couldn't say I enjoyed it, but I wasn't really angry about it. He only wanted to take care of Mirriam. But now I wanted to kill him.

“What do you mean?”

“Arranged marriage. Abrahem thinks I'm dating you, because I'm lonely. He's found me someone to marry.”

She let out a sob as she finished her sentence.

“Do you want to marry this guy?”

She looked at me like that was the stupidest question on earth. “What do you think?”

I held her closer to my chest. “When?”

“The day after graduation.”

Wow. Three days from now.
“That's fast.”

“I know. I'm supposed to be happy about it, because he'll let me go to college.”

I could have strangled her brother. How could he marry his sister off to someone who thought it was his right to decide if she went to college?

“Don't marry him.”

“What choice do I have? I'm not eighteen. I have no rights.”

“Do you love me?”

“You know that.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes.”

How in the hell are we going to get out of this one? We've got to get away from here, but I have no idea how.

“Mirriam, I can make sure you don't marry someone else, but I only know of one way to do it. It will be a hard life for a while. I don't know how we'll pay for college. You have to know you want this, because there is no backing out later.”
Assuming we can even get away with it, and I don't know that we can.

“How?”

I nudge the door closed with my foot and led Mirriam to the kitchen where I put on a pot of coffee. It would be a long night.

I cannot believe I'm about to do this.
This was not in the plan. Well, it was but not for ten years minimum. I sighed. “No one can be married to two people.”

A whole minute passed before she showed any reaction. That solid sixty seconds could have been an eternity. Did she not love me? Was she willing to marry someone else?

But then my girl closed her eyes and sighed. The corners of her lips turned up briefly before she pushed the smile away.

“Are you saying what I think you are?”

I looked her in the eyes and nodded.

Mirriam's brows knitted together. A crease formed in her forehead just over her nose and she had that panicked look in her eyes she got after I kissed her the first time. “Don't say that unless you mean it.”

I still couldn't believe we were having this conversation but more than that her answer mattered to me more than I thought. My heart raced. “Mirriam, I've never been so serious about anything in my life.”

“Because of the arranged marriage?”

“I planned to do this after college either way.” I shrugged. “I planned to do it right, not like this. But I've known I'd make you mine for a while, and I'm not going to let someone take you away from me.”

Mirriam closed the space between us and crashed into my couch. I wrapped an arm around her and stroked her hair with my other hand. “Is that a yes?”

“I love you, Caleb, but how are we going to do this? And I don't want to ruin your life just because my brother decided to ruin mine.”

I kissed her forehead. “The only way you'll ruin my life is if you let your brother marry you off, because I will never get over that. Never.”

“Will they let a seventeen-year-old get married here without the family's consent?”

I shook my head. “I think we're going to Mexico.”

Mirriam backed up so she could see my face. “How are we going to get Mexico? And isn't someone going to notice we're gone?”

“I'll get us to Mexico. You don't worry about that. As for how we get away without being noticed, I haven't got that far yet.”

“He took my phone.”

“I'll get a message to you.”

She stepped back from me. “I have to ask you something.” Her voice changed from pure devastation to devastation mixed with suspicion. “What Abrahem said—”

My whole body tensed. How do you tell the girl you love that you screwed up? “About Kailee?”

“Is it true?”

“Part of it.”

“Okay?”

“Mirriam, you know I'm a different person now. I didn't know it was her first time, and we did break up two days later, but that's not why. She got really strange after that, calling me ten times a day, coming over all the time, hanging out at practices. It was too much.” I held out my arms, and she stepped into them again. “I love you, Mirriam. I'd never do anything to hurt you.”

“I know. Besides, I'm meaner than you.”

I chuckled, because replies like that were the reason I loved this girl.

The coffee was done, so I poured two cups and we took them to the couch. “What happens next?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I never planned on getting married until after grad school. If we get married in Mexico, what do we do when we come back? Or we're staying there? Your Spanish is not that good.”

I laughed. She
would
mention that. “We're not staying in Mexico. We'll come back. I doubt we'll even be gone for a week.”

“So what do we do when we come back? Because this is bound to change some plans.”

I gritted my teeth. She was right. “If you marry him, your plans will still change.”

Mirriam sat her cup down on the coffee table in front of the couch and took my hand. “Caleb, I'm not marrying someone else. But if I did, only my life would change. Yours doesn't have to.”

I shook my head, because she was wrong. “Mirriam, my life has already changed.”

A tear rolled down her cheek, and I wiped it away with my finger.

“So are we going to come back and stay here? My family's across the street and I can't even look at them right now.”