Chapter 15: The Final Candle
The night was so heavy it felt as if time had stopped. Mr. Diyari was sitting on the chair near the ICU. Rina talked to him a little and said: "Mr. Diyari, look, I know your mother's condition is very bad. I know it is very hard, you have a very bad feeling. Look, Mr. Diyari, don't worry about your mother, God has planned better. If you worry, what is the benefit? You will destroy your body and soul. Mr. Diyari, you must be a strong man, you must not give up. Mr. Diyari, I don't like people who give up. Look, never give up. You must be the winner in life, not life winning over you. Mr. Diyari, I thank you and your mother, I really don't know how to pay back your kindness. You were very good to me, I don't know what to do for you."
Diyari said: "No, Rina, don't say that."
Rina said: "I know you are tired, put your head on my shoulder, close your eyes for a bit. Inshallah when you wake up, your mother's eyes will be open."
Diyari closed his eyes. Rina was very scared that something would happen, her heart was beating very fast. She wished that God would take Diyari's mother to Himself to be one of the angels of heaven. Suddenly, the sound of the machines changed—a long, steady sound, the sound of the heart stopping. The doctors ran to her and did everything they could. Rina was very scared and shocked. The doctors, with sad and tight faces, said to Rina and her mother: "We are sorry for your loss, we lost her."
Rina started crying and woke up Mr. Diyari. Rina said with crying: "Mr. Diyari, please be calm, I am with you and I am behind you."
Mr. Diyari said: "What? Is my mother alive? How is she?"
Rina said: "No... unfortunately, God took her to Himself."
Diyari said: "WHAT???? Rina, I cannot live without my mother!"
Mr. Diyari started screaming inside the hospital. He shook the hospital with his screams: "NOOO! My mother is not dead, it's a lie! She said she won't leave me, this is not real, no, no!"
Diyari was screaming and hitting himself on the ground in a way that everyone present cried with him. Rina held Diyari tightly and said: "No, Mr. Diyari, didn't I tell you we won't give up? What are you doing? Please be calm."
Diyari was crying like a crazy person for his mother. Rina's mother and Rina cried a lot. They were very sad for Mr. Diyari and his mother. Diyari in Rina's arms said: "No, why did my mother go? She was my everything." Rina felt those screams like a dagger, as if she was being stabbed.
In the morning, they took the body to the cemetery. It was like the sky was sad for Diyari's situation; the sky was misty. They dug the grave. Diyari wouldn't let them put his mother in the grave, he tried hard to stop them. Rina calmed him down. Diyari was crying on his mother's grave like a crazy person, like a child without a mother. He was digging the soil with his fingernails. He cried a lot and told his mother: "Mother, wake up, I won't leave you here, you will be cold."
Rina was holding back her tears so Diyari wouldn't be more sad. Rina said: "Get up Mr. Diyari, let's go to the car."
Diyari said: "No, I am not coming back."
Rina and her mother cried a lot. Rina's mother said: "Diyari and Rina my daughter, be calm. Diyari my son, your mother needs your prayers, you must pray for her, don't just stay here being sad."
With a lot of effort, they took Diyari back home. When they reached home, the house smelled like darkness and loneliness. Diyari went to his mother's room and cried a lot. He was smelling her clothes. He thought: "How strange, 2 or 3 days ago my mother was at a picnic under the trees. Why is this world so strange?"
Diyari went on a hunger strike for three days, only crying in a dark room alone. He didn't want anyone to be with him. Rina's mother went to him and made soup. "Diyari my son, come eat, your mother will be sad to see you like this."
Diyari said: "Auntie, who will make food for me? I want the food from my mother's hands. I want her to come back, I don't want anything else."
Rina went to Diyari and held his hand. "Diyari dear, look, who will be with me? Who will support me? How can I find information about that photo if you don't eat? If you don't eat, I won't eat either."
This was like an electric shock to Diyari. For Rina's sake, he ate two or three bites, but he was still drowning in tears.
Late at night, when Rina and her mother stayed with him, Diyari thanked them for being with him in the hard days. Diyari said with a quiet voice: "Rina, do you know what my mother said before she died? She said people are like shadows, they are with us in the light but they leave us in the dark. Only a mother becomes a candle to light the way for her child."
Diyari looked into Rina's green eyes and said: "Rina, I am in that darkness now, my candle is out."
Rina looked at her father's photo and said: "Mr. Diyari, I will be a candle for you. That photo says a big storm is behind us."
The death of Diyari's mother was not the end, it was the beginning of the love and feelings of Rina and Diyari.
Written by: Dlin_myth