In the name of Allah who Knows us better than we know ourselves.
I was bored and feeling a bit down. So I wrote this story to cheer myself up. This is hundred percent fiction. :')
THE WAIT
It was a sultry moonlit night. There was no soothing breeze blowing that night leaving the train passengers soaking in sweat. Even the air conditioners were not working properly. Feeling dehydrated, I went to get a soft drink from the food vendor opposite the station.
“That’s two ringgit, son. You have to be patient,” said the old lady from the vendor. Why? I asked. “Because the train is going to be real late tonight.”
I went back to the station. I looked for an empty seat near the air conditioner and I spotted a nice seat next to a married couple with their only son of about four years of age. I sat there sipping my iced soft drink while reading a book.
I was not sure how long have I been reading the book when I felt somewhat sleepy. I looked at my wristwatch and it was already half past midnight. Geez, where is the train? I thought to myself.
I have been waiting for one and a half hour and there was no sign of the train. Most passengers looked very upset and tired. I noticed the children who were running around the station playing tag earlier were now snoring aloud in their parents’ lap near one corner of the station. Next to them, a group of teenagers who were laughing very loudly while snapping a lot of pictures were now furious and some of them were cursing the train company and its bad management. Not far from the management office, a staff from the train company were sweating and stammering in answering a lot of questions in the language they were not fluent in when two middle-aged foreigners confronted him, demanding an explanation as to why the train was late. Anywhere in the station were faces of people fatigued with this long wait. This included the couple next to me.
“I hate this!” the wife raised her voice. “We have waited for more than two hours already. Where is the train?”
“Hush, love. You are going to wake Adam,” said the man calmly.
“But the train is late!”
“I know, I know . . . but be patient, okay? Everyone else is in the same shoes as we are. Okay, Anis?” The man reached for his wife’s hand and held them tightly in his. His eyes met mine and he smiled. I smiled too. Blushed, I lowered my head and looked at the floor. I was an unmarried man anyway. I always get embarrassed at the sight of married people cuddling (even though they look so sweet).
“The train management is so irresponsible! They could have at least made an announcement telling us that the train would be late, can’t they?” the man’s wife continued her protest. Their son made a sobbing sound and she comforted him. She wiped his sweat and rocked him in her lap until he feel back to sleep. “I’m going to complain about this!” she added in a lower voice, almost whispering to his husband.
“Anis, do you want to hear a story?” the man asked his wife after a few moments’ silence. I put down my book so that I could listen more attentively to the story. The wife nodded.
“Do you remember when we first met?”
“Of course I remember! We always talk about it, don’t we?”
The man nodded. From the man’s description, I understood that they met during their final year’s studying abroad. It was because the woman was late to class one day and she missed the last bus to campus. That was when the man, in his shabby car, stopped by and asked whether she wanted a ride as he was also going to campus.
“I still remember how you stammered when you wanted to ask me to ride on your car!” the woman laughed a little when she pinched her husband’s cheek.
Her husband was red with little embarrassment. “What do you expect? I was single and you were so pretty. It made me nervous, you know!”
“Luckily I was single at time, right? I have just broken up with my ex-boyfriend.”
“I was lucky because you were single, you say?” the man smiled cheekily. “You got it wrong, dear.”
“You mean . . .”
“Yes, I knew you two years earlier but I didn’t dare talk to you because I knew you had a boyfriend.”
“And you waited for two years . . . ?”
“Yes, I did,” the man smiled sweetly. “And the wait was worthwhile.”
The woman blushed. She realized now that her two-hour wait for the train was nothing compared to how painful the two years’ wait her husband had endured to wait for her. She pecked lightly on his husband’s cheek while thanking him. I smiled witnessing the scene. How sweet.
Do you wait patiently? :')
As for me, I learnt another valuable thing from this married couple: Good things come to those who wait patiently. The man waited patiently for the woman and they are now living happily as man and wife. So I guess, there must be something good in store for me for this wait? I do not know. But I strongly hope so.
Because good things surely come to those who wait patiently.
"O Allah! I beseech Thee to grant me patience and to place me with al-Muqarrabeen."
