it, now!
By the time I woke up from my dazed and troubled thoughts, Janna had already followed the prince to the closet and hadn’t come out. My legs took me there.
The closet was almost as big as the living room, which meant very, very big. Tons of shelves, hundreds of hangers, two dressers, a big wooden chest of drawers in the middle of the room and a large, magical chandelier above it.
And I’d thought my closet was huge.
The prince stood near the chest of drawers, and to his right–but a step behind–stood Janna, her hair covered and her hands folded above her stomach, the same position the prince was taking. I watched with amusement and a frown as they bent, kneeled and touched their heads to the floor–that had two small mats lying on the carpet–then got up and did it all over again. It seemed to me that the prince was taking the lead and Janna was following.
The way they were standing, the humbleness in their poses, the quietness of their voices, and the peaceful hollow that surrounded them, made it easy to understand that they were praying.
I’d never seen how Muslims prayed before–never really thought about it, but to be truthful–it was such a beautiful sight. Organized and neat.
The fact that the two of them threw their problems away and stood together to pray before God was heartwarming. Because this was what religion should be about. Only this. Worshiping. Standing in front of God to pray, to thank, to ask. Religion is a feeling. Faith. Only God should be in your heart, to love him and be loved back by him. There should never be anything other than that. No killing in the name of God, or fighting over who was right and who was wrong, because, after all, religion is peace, love and...worshiping.
We believe that we all worship the same God. Janna’s words found their way to my head, and my fingers found their way to my cross. I held it in my hand and hugged it to my chest, closed my eyes and prayed…just prayed. For God to be with me. And I knew my prayer would be answered just like every other prayer I’d ever prayed.
“We only speak in English in the princess’s presence, Janna. I’d appreciate it if you’d stick to that,” the prince told Janna when she said something to him in Arabic after they finished their prayer, causing me to smile softly.
“Oh, of course,” Janna said. “I’m sorry, Marie.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“I was just asking, why are we praying in the closet?” she asked the prince.
“She’s yet to see any of the other rooms; you know the tradition,” the prince answered with a sigh.
“Oh!” Janna’s eyes were shocked, then they were sad, then ended up with being regretful.
“Uh, what tradition?” I asked.
“The husband is not allowed into any room before his wife,” Janna answered. “It’s a sign of respect.”
Oh!
That’s…nice.
I nodded with another soft smile. I didn’t tell them that it was my first time to see this closet and he has already been in it more than a few times. I didn’t want to upset him…for some reason. But it was really nice of him to respect this little detail of their traditions, even with him knowing that our marriage wasn’t like any other marriage and he didn’t really have to stick to the rules that much with me, or at all. I wasn’t going to judge. Heck, I didn’t know any of it in the first place.
I wasn’t going to judge because I didn’t know…
Was that what the prince had been telling me? ‘Don’t judge without knowledge,’ he had said earlier. Was it true that I didn’t really know anything about Arabs or Muslims and I shouldn’t be judging them to be killers and peace-haters? But…I did know that. I knew enough.
Traps.
Lies.
Games.
Maybe I was learning that a few of them were nice, but I still couldn’t trust them. And all of those thoughts–the stupid thoughts–I’d had about the prince should be forgotten. I wasn’t that dumb. I refused to be.
The prince got up from his praying place and offered Janna his hand; she took it and stood up. “Woah!” she said.
“Are you okay?” the prince asked his sister, tightening his grip on her hand.
“Um…I’m not-” Janna sounded out of breath as if she’d just run a mile. “I–uh, I don’t feel–” She wasn’t able to finish her words before suddenly throwing up all over the floor, her dress, and…the prince.
“Janna!” It wasn’t