Chapter 15

I knew who Aludra was, because Jamilah had shared with me the story of how she ended up with Hassan. I think the other women received a watered down version that only mentioned Aludra as Jamilah’s college roommate. I realized later that meeting Aludra in the hospital was another example of the way fate (or according to Basheera — Allah) was in control of my destiny. Before I knew it, we had invited Aludra to meet us for supper at the hotel at seven that evening. Having her over for dinner would combine letting Aludra and Jamilah catch up on each other’s lives and for me to tell her about my ideas for the clinic. I didn’t hold out much hope of Aludra giving up all this for a risky job in the desert, but I was still going to pitch the idea to her.

We were back at the hotel at two in the afternoon. I was still a little dragged out from the day before so I thought a nap was in order. The women, however, thought more shopping was in order. This time they wanted to visit a more traditional Arab souk (market) and look around. I gave each of them two thousand Kuwaiti dinars (about four hundred dollars) and told them to have fun. I had just gotten comfortable under the sheet, when someone knocked on the connecting door between the rooms. When I told them to come in, Adara opened the door and stepped into my room.

I had the heavy, thick drapes closed to keep out the brutally hot sun, so my room was semi dark. Adara was standing in the doorway backlit by the light from her room. Her dark brown wavy hair sparkled as it lay across her right shoulder and breast. She was wearing one of her baby doll outfits, this one burgundy satin and lace. She was as beautiful as any woman who had ever worn one of them.

“Am I bothering you, Neeko?”

“Not a bit, my Little One, I thought you went shopping with the others,” I said patting the bed beside me.

I pulled the sheet back when she reached the bed. She slipped in to bed next to me and laid her head on my chest.

“My foot is very sore and my leg is tired from all the walking last night and today. I also wanted to be alone with you, Neeko. I want to thank you for taking me to the doctor. My father said that there was nothing that could be done for me and that I would always be lame. Then you come along and it looks like I might have a chance to walk normally soon. Basheera is right. You are a gift from Allah. When I walk normally, Neeko, I will make you proud to say I am your wife and I will be the best wife a man has ever had.”

She gave her little speech so fiercely and with such conviction that it gave me goose bumps. I pulled her tight against me for a moment then pushed her to arms length so I could look at her face.

“Listen to me, Adara, I am proud that you consented to marrying me every minute of every day. I feel honored and very lucky that you chose to be my wife. Your twisted up foot means nothing to me other than I want it fixed so that you can walk normally. But I want that for you, not me. I have what I want. I’ve got you. I think you are the sweetest, smartest, sexiest woman alive.”

My gaze was unwavering as I talked and Adara’s eyes grew bigger and bigger. When I stopped talking, she finally blinked and gave a little shiver.

“When you say those things to me, Neeko, they go from my ear straight to my heart. Before I met you, I dreamed of being married like this, married to a man who loved me just for being me. Like all dreams, I never thought it would come true, I mean, after all, who would want the poor crippled girl? At first I thought you were just being kind, now I know you really love me. I don’t really care how the operation turns out, because you make me the happiest woman in the world.”

There was nothing left to do but cement our love by making love. I stripped us both naked and pulled her on top of me. She didn’t sit up and ride me. Instead we wrapped ourselves around each other, putting as much of our skin in contact as possible. We were moving barely at all, just a steady, slow tantric grinding that kept building until we both exploded. It was the sort of orgasm that you feel in your soul, the pleasure radiating out from your core, until it leaves you blissfully limp. Adara stayed right where she was, snuggled on my chest. I was still deeply buried in her but starting to go soft. Thinking about going soft made me flinch hard enough to disturb the almost sleeping Adara.

“What’s wrong, husband, are you in pain?” she mumbled.

“We didn’t use protection,” I gasped.

The little minx giggled and snuggled up even tighter against me.

“I know and it was marvelous that way. I could feel the cloak of your zakar moving in me. I will start my monthlies tomorrow or the next day, anyway, I can sense the change coming on me. I think you will have to figure out a way for us to make love like this all the time.”

Reassured by her declaration that she was starting soon, I relaxed. Next thing I knew, someone was knocking on my door again. I swished Adara’s fragrant hair out of my face and gently woke her up. She grumbled lazily and rolled off me to the side away from the door. I stood up, put on my boxer-briefs and opened the door. Jamilah smiled at me and said it was time to prepare for our supper meeting with Aludra. I nodded and headed towards the shower.

Dinner was fun and lively, Aludra had a razor sharp wit and a good sense of humor. She was a petite woman about the same height as Fatima, but slimmer. Unlike my wives, she was very outgoing and outspoken. Her western styled clothing contrasted sharply with my wives’ abayas. Her shoulder length black hair was styled to highlight her large almond shaped eyes. I was immediately drawn to her and I could tell she felt the same way. She also shared a lot of lingering looks with Jamilah. The only thing that kept the looks from being smoldering was the presence of the other women at the table. When the meal was finished, the younger women went up to our room and left the three of us alone.

“So, Altair Hassan, Jamilah tells me you are a prince among men and that you treat her much better than your uncle did. I hope that is so,” she said challengingly.

I shrugged and asked her where she went to medical school. She said she went to Duke University, in the United States. I figured it was time to be straight with her.

“That’s a very good school,” I said in English.

Her delicate eyebrows arched up when I spoke. She looked at Jamilah then back at me.

“You are not from Cyprus are you?” She asked.

I decided that I owed Aludra the whole story, so I laid it out for her. I had to smile at her expression of disbelief. Aludra turned to Jamilah, who confirmed everything I had said, and added more of her own.

“Neeko saved us and the farm. He attacked Hassan with his bare hands to protect us, even though Hassan had a gun and had shot him once already. Then he saved Fatima’s life with his medical skills. He married six of us, gave us equal shares in the farm and then gave us very large dowries without attaching strings to the money. He brought us here to shop, we thought, but it was just a ploy so he could have Adara looked at by a specialist. And he is the best lover in the world, how could we not love him?”

Aludra smiled at me in amusement, as I blushed at Jamilah’s high praise. There was something else in her eyes too, wistfulness maybe.

“That all sounds wonderful, Jamilah, I’m gladdened that you have finally found happiness. Maybe I will someday, myself,” Aludra said with a sad little smile.

I studied both Aludra and Jamilah for a minute, then had one of my wilder ideas. I asked Aludra to excuse us for a minute, and leaned over to whisper my notion in Jamilah’s ear. Jamilah pulled back in shock and looked at me to see if I was serious. When she saw I was, she thought for a few seconds, then gave me an affirmative nod. I gave her a smile and squeezed her hand before turning towards Aludra.

Aludra Hakari reflected that her life had been much better than Jamilah’s after the dormitory matron caught them together. She, too, had been sent away by her parents, but instead of a marriage to a desert farmer twenty years her senior, she’d been shipped to the United States to live with her mother’s cousin. Two things kept her from Jamilah’s fate, one was that her parents were lackadaisical Moslems at best. The other was that they were filthy rich and well connected. The event in the dormitory had been embarrassing for her parents, but it wasn’t the humiliation it had been for Jamilah’s folks.

The cousin was a professor of physics at Duke University in North Carolina. She spent fourteen years in the Raleigh -Durham area of North Carolina, all of that time as either a student or employee of Duke University or the Duke Medical Center. She did her residency in Family Practice and stayed affiliated with the Duke Medical Center afterward. When Saddam was kicked out of power, she went back to Baghdad with the aim of helping to rebuild her native country. After a couple of months, the car bombings and insurgent attacks caused her parents to once again send her out of the country, this time to Kuwait. She had been cooling her heels for over two years, waiting for it to be safe enough for her to return.

The sound of Nick’s voice brought her back to the present.

“Aludra, I see a lot of how I used to be in you. I see the vague dissatisfaction you have about your life and the need you have for something you can’t quite define. Maybe the way for you to find happiness is by joining our family and helping us establish a medical clinic out in al Warabi. It will certainly be nothing like you have here, but it would be rewarding in other ways,” he said.

She leaned back in her chair and stared at him in confusion.

“Are you asking me to marry you?” she asked in disbelief

“We are asking you to marry us,” he corrected. “I’m also asking you to be my partner in opening a clinic. Listen, I know this might seem strange to you, but I think there is an attraction between you and me and I know there is one between you and Jamilah. Why don’t we go up to my room and talk about all this. You don’t have to make up your mind tonight.”

Aludra sat stone still for almost a minute, as she waged battle with herself. What Nick was proposing was very much something she wanted. She liked men and women both, but she usually had stretches of preferring one to the other. Here was a chance to stop having to choose one relationship over the other. Here was also an opportunity to practice her considerable medical skills where they would actually do some good. Her impulsive nature, that part of her she tried to smother with the discipline she learned as a doctor, asserted itself. Besides, the two of them sitting across from her had her aroused to a fever pitch just from thinking about it all.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Aludra and I sat in my room’s two chairs, while Jamilah perched on the end of the king-sized bed. Our conversation started awkwardly as we were all moving into uncharted territory. I was not at ease, because for the first time, I was the one attempting to expand our family. Aludra seemed suddenly nervous about the whole thing also, so I started off the conversation speaking about my plans for a clinic to treat the residents in and around the small oasis town of al Warabi. I told her of the equipment I’d already purchased and what else I hoped to buy. Aludra made some valid suggestions about what else we needed and where it was available.

When our conversation about the clinic ran out of steam, Jamilah surprised me by bringing the conversation back to the personal.

“Aludra, you were my first and only love until Allah sent us Nick. I never lost that love for you, and now that I have found you, I don’t want to lose you again. Neeko knew this without me telling him. Putting aside what I want, you deserve a husband as good as him, you deserve to be happy, too.”

Aludra jumped up and rushed to the bed to hug Jamilah. They held each other as they cried with the joy they felt at being reunited after all these years. I sat and watched, my heart swelling with the happiness I felt for them. Jamilah regained her composure first and started kissing away Aludra’s tears and murmuring in her ear. As soon as Aludra quieted down Jamilah called me over to the bed, motioning me to sit on the other side of Aludra. Jamilah none too gently pushed Aludra back onto the bed.