The Eid Engagement, and Other Weddings # 15

It was a regular evening for Sameer. He whiled away the time going through social media on his laptop while keeping an eye on his phone for any replies to his text messages. The phone buzzed. It was at the third ring that Sameer noticed that it was not a flurry of text messages arriving all at once. It was a phone call. Who would call him at this hour, he thought. He glanced at the number on the screen. An unknown number. Who was it?

“Hello?” Sameer picked up the phone, ready for scam callers, telemarketers or any combination of the two.

“Hello, is this Sameer?” came a female voice from the other end. Sameer straightened up in his seat.

“Yes, who am I speaking to?” he asked.

“This is Hina,” came the reply.

For a second, Sameer wondered whether he knew anyone named Hina. Before he could think very far, Hina had proceeded to add, “After the engagement I got your cell number from my brother Ray.” At the words “after the engagement”, it hit Sameer that Hina was his fiancé’s name. It took another second for him to register that he was connected to her on a phone call at that very moment. It was the first time they had ever spoken to each other.

Sameer tried to remember his mother ever mentioning that there would be a phone call, and if there was going to be one, why didn’t he get any advance notice. “Yes, Hina,” he said brightly. “It’s so nice to speak with you. How have you been?”

“I’ve been alright,” Hina said. “How are you?”

“I’m very well, thanks for asking,” Sameer said, painfully aware that they were going to run out of pleasantries to exchange very soon. He cast around in his head for a topic of conversation. “This is a nice surprise,” he finally said. “I didn’t think we were going to get to talk.”

“Don’t you want to talk?” Hina asked.

“That’s not what I meant,” Sameer said hurriedly. “I just thought, the way things were going, we might not get the opportunity.” He mentally kicked himself. Way to impress your fiancé on the first phone call, he scolded himself.

“Well, thanks to Ray, who is kindly supervising this phone call, we get the chance to talk,” Hina said, making a case for the official status of the call.

“Oh, he’s there too,” Sameer said. “That’s nice.”

There was an awkward silence.

Hina finally spoke up. “I have something to ask you,” she said.

“Ask away,” Sameer said.

“I want to suggest that we arrange a picnic for our families to get together,” Hina said.

Sameer paused. “So we could meet each other?”

“Exactly,” Hina said. “For that I need an official invitation to a picnic from your mother, otherwise my mother will find some excuse not to do it.”

“Noted,” Sameer said. “I’ll ask my mother about it.” Another awkward pause. “I’m not sure how to go about doing this, but how about we introduce ourselves?”

“Sure,” Hina said. “I’ll go first. I’m the younger sister, I was an English literature major in college, I like watching soapy dramas and I love chocolate. That’s enough about me. What about you?”

“If I go by that format, then,” Sameer said, “I’m an only child, I studied architecture in college, I like watching science fiction movies and I am OK with chocolate. I love mangoes, though.”

“As long as you’re OK with chocolate,” Hina said, and Sameer laughed.

After the call was over, Sameer put his head in his hands over his desk, worrying that he’d made a fool of himself. At the other end of town, Hina tossed her phone onto Ray’s bed and followed the phone onto the bed, bouncing across the bed joyfully. “That was so much easier than I expected! It’s just like talking to a real person,” she said, rolling around on the mattress. “Such a normal conversation. I would have never expected it would be so easy to talk to him!”

“I can see why Ammi wanted to keep you out of the way until the wedding,” Ray said. He had been silent all throughout the phone call, but now he was ready with his opinions. “You talk and talk away at him like it’s nothing. I do wish you’d take a second to choose your words and what kind of impression you’re making.”

“I’m good enough for him, thank you very much,” Hina said, rolling to the edge of the bed where Ray sat.

“He sounded quite awkward and taken aback,” Ray said, “but that’s to be expected for a surprise phone call.”

“Who asked you?” Hina pinched Ray at the nearest point she could, which happened to be his leg. Ray yelped and dropped off the edge of the bed, rubbing his leg.

“Remind me not to chaperone your phone calls again,” he said, picking himself up off the floor.

“Oh, you are going to, because there’s going to be more phone calls,” Hina said.

“Just don’t take on more than you can handle,” Ray said. “I’m happy to supervise, but Ammi would have something different to say about this.”

“Shush, it doesn’t matter,” said Hina. “All I can think of is that now I have a real phone call to share with the girls!”

To be continued...