🔵 By Heather LeAnn Horst. Photo by lauragrafie.
She re-adjusts her glucose meter on her hip as it chirps, telling her it’s time to eat. Slowly, she rises to brush the sand from her knees. Prayers work as a forklift for the burdens of injustice that sit on her shoulders. For her daughter’s sake, she must keep going. She raises her hijab to cover her hair and her gaze is lifted to this foreign land by a curious camel wandering in her direction. She’s concerned that it may spit on her, but a man chases after the camel, yells at it in Arabic and stops the camel. She can’t understand what the man is saying to the camel but she notices the repetition of the word, “Maat”. She assumes this is the camel’s name.
As the man leads the camel away, she looks up to the sky with tears still welling in her eyes and spilling onto her cheeks. She takes a deep breath as the tears quickly evaporate on her cheeks, as if God is saying, “Those don’t belong there.” Her meter chirps again. She quickly grabs her; Arabic dictionary that is riddled with sticky notes, glucose tablets, and keys for the Hummer she can only drive on the compound. She grins as she remembers laughing with her daughter at how funny laws can be in Saudi Arabia for Americans. If she runs a stop sign it’s her husband that has to go to traffic school. Her daughters response to this had been, “Dad had better be good to you or you’ll send him to traffic school.”
The look on her father’s face had made them both burst into giggles. A sigh escapes her lips as she turns to walk towards Female Street; where she plans to eat lunch with her husband. The sun reflects off the white skin of her hand that clutches the latest parcel of love she was sent; a letter signed, “I love your daughter”. As she walks, keys can be heard clicking against a key chain that holds a photo of her husband, son and daughter. They are all smiling for a family photo taken five years ago. No one knew how important that photo would become to a mother with a daughter in prison for life.
*The feather of Maat is used in Egyptian Mythology to counter balance the heart with; right, truth and law, during the judgment of sins. (p.119 “Egyptian ideas of the future life by E.A. Wallis Budge.)