A Tale of Two Women - A Mini Series, Part VIII

The weekend came and Adam and Deanna went out to dinner followed by an evening of dancing. Deanna loved dancing and was excited to see that Adam seemed to enjoy it as well. When they finished their evening Adam had invited her to go out again the following evening after work to which she gleefully agreed. From this first weekend on Deanna and Adam met every Friday and Saturday night regularly to go out to dinner and dancing. They would speak countless times a day everyday by phone and depending on their schedules would also meeting during the week to visit.

Deanna was so amazed because Adam called her often just to say, "Hi, I was just thinking about you" and then hang up. Deanna’s ex-husband rarely ever called her when they were married and for that matter not nearly as often as Adam did just to let her know he was thinking about her; it was always Deanna extending the calls.

Deanna did not have a cell phone, so on one of her weekends out with Adam he surprised her with a cell phone. She told Adam that she couldn’t afford a cell phone. To her surprise he told her he didn’t expect for her to pay for the phone or the service but rather just wanted her to have this as a gift because he worried about her traveling back and forth for the ‘dates’ because she lived far away. Deanna stood overwhelmed by this generous gift because why would somebody do this? He told her not to make a big deal out of it because truly it was his pleasure; he liked her.

Nearly three weeks into their whirlwind relationship Deanna’s mother had fallen at work and rushed to emergeny room. Deanna received the call from her mom while at work and immediately packed up her things to head over to the hospital. In the meantime Adam made a call to her just to check in and see how her day was going and she shared she was on her way to the emergency room because her mom was in the hospital. Deanna was a little waylaid getting out of work so by time she got to the hospital she found Adam waiting there for her. She certainly wasn’t expecting him to be there as he was busy working and besides they only knew each other for a short while. Nonetheless, he said, "I came as soon as you told me because I didn’t want you to have to be alone and I also wanted to make sure you mom was ok". Awwwwwwww, this guy is something else, thought Deanna. However, this was the first time Deanna’s mother would meet Adam. Too worried for her mother she didn’t care about the ramifications that may go along with him escorting her there. Deanna introduced Adam to her mom and was assured by her mom that everything was fine. After a bit Adam had to return to his work, but before departing told Deanna’s mother it was nice meeting her and hoped she felt better soon. Deanna was able to take her mom home later in the evening after all the results had come back negative. There was no real mention of Adam to Deanna's relief.

This was the best summer Deanna could remember having in a very long time. She was enjoying Adam’s company and had become quite smitten with him as well. Deanna learned Adam had felt the same way about her. During the summer Adam presented Deanna with another gift, a beautifully designed diamond ring. She could not believe someone would be so generous to her due to only knowing her a short while, but he would tell her she was his queen and she deserved to be treated as such.

Deanna had steadfastly continued her researching and studying of Islam and unknown to anyone but a select few sisters from a local Masjid, Deanna performed her Shahada in the cozy setting of one of the sister’s home following the September 11th tragedy. It was not until a few days afterwards that Deanna shared with Adam her decision, to which he was surprised and even a bit taken back for he had no idea she was thinking along these lines. Still recovering from the aftermath of the September 11th tragedy, Adam like most Arab Muslims was extremely nervous for their well-being, so shared his fears with Deanna not to tell anyone because he was afraid for her safety. He had seen other non-Muslim Arabs and non-Muslim Indians being persecuted needlessly because of the country’s fear embedded into them from the Media’s relentlessness of the September 11th tragedies.

When Thanksgiving came along Deanna extended an invitation for Adam to join her family for the Thanksgiving feast. Timidly and even a bit reluctantly Adam accepted her offer to join her and meet her family, for until this time he had not met her entire family. He had shared with Deanna his concerns with meeting her family from past experiences of meeting Americans. He felt they asked too many questions, even unknowingly disrespectful questions that he felt uncomfortable with. Deanna assured him her family was not like that and it was just a matter of sharing a meal together. They drove separate cars because Adam said he needed to go somewhere afterwards, however Deanna knew this was an excuse to leave whenever he felt uncomfortable and respected his request. Both Deanna and Adam were uncomfortable because Deanna was exposing a part of her private life to her family and wondered how they would respond, and Adam felt uncomfortable because he was meeting her family. All in all everything went fine without a hitch or interrogation.

For New Year’s Eve Deanna and Adam brought the New Year in by celebrating at a restaurant/club called Arabian Nights. The had a relatively famous singer in town that shared the entire evening performing famous songs from all over the Arab world, and the energy exuded by the patrons was electrifying. It was a night Deanna would forever remember.

Claudia was still struggling with the grieving loss of her father and being extremely homesick for her old life in Mexico, but she still managed to dredge forward in her daily activities of life.

Her son was now in kindergarten and becoming more independent, thus leaving Claudia feeling a little empty. Yet the majority of time she and her son were together because of Clint’s work schedule. They did manage to get some camping trips in during the summer, and spending the usual seasonal holidays with the family.

Claudia’s mother did travel to the states to spend time with her children, for three of the four of her children lived in the states. Claudia and her brother lived in California, and their sister lived with her family in Texas. The latest addition and perhaps reason to move forward in life was the birth of her little sister’s first child, Monssey. From the moment she came into the world she looked like a doll who had the most beautifully large set brown eyes with porcelain looking skin. Claudia’s mother stayed with Lorena for a few months, like she did with Claudia, to help her adjust to motherhood. Things seemed to be getting back to normal on Claudia’s home front with the exception of the deep dark secret she was still harboring.