Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors

Author:John Shors [Shors, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781620540008
Publisher: McPherson & Company
Published: 2012-01-25T06:00:00+00:00

“A girl, Jahanara,” Father whispered blissfully. “A girl whose smile shall make flowers limp with jealousy.”

Her face, so magically small, was tethered in place by dark locks and a chubby chin. “She’s perfect,” I said, shedding tears as I thanked Allah. Father praised the physicians, giving each a thin bar of silver. After they left, he shut the door. Turning to him, I impulsively asked, “Father, might you…could you bring Isa here?”

I waited for his response, wondering how I could ask the Emperor, even if he was my father, to walk down a dark corridor and return with a man who wasn’t my husband. A part of me was humiliated; a part of me rejoiced that he shared our secret.

“You do me honor,” he said, rising from his knees. Once he found the key, he bolted the door to my room. “Will you be fine, child?”

I nodded. “Be careful of the trap.”

“I’m not so foolish as to deprive myself of my granddaughter.”

He quietly opened the closet, grabbed a candle, and disappeared into Mother’s robes. In his absence, I weakly raised my child. I was amazed that this astounding creation came from within me, and that she would, please Allah, grow into a mother herself.

My child let out a whimper. She raised a miniature fist in the air, as if to protest this harsh induction to our world. She’s already strong, I thought, bending down to kiss her fingers. They were impossibly small, and again I found myself in awe of her. Does every mother, I wondered, stumble upon this moment in time and discover that her life, however arduous, has import?

Robes parted and Isa and Father entered the room. A cobweb hung from Father’s jeweled turban, and I smiled at the sight. Father, always tactful, bade us good night.

“Thank you, Father,” I said.

He moved to the door. “Isa, lock this behind me,” he whispered. “Your mother, Jahanara, would be proud. In fact, I know she is.”

Before I could respond, he shut the door. Isa secured the room and hurried to where I lay. His gaze paused on me, then rested on our child. I motioned that he should take her and, dropping to his knees, he lifted her from my chest. Even wrapped in a silk blanket she seemed hardly bigger than his hand. “A miracle,” he said in a voice so quiet I might have imagined it. “I see us in her. Not you or me, but us.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.