Sweet Revenge

it could be to love. She tucked away a box that held a wide double bracelet of hammered gold, a gift from Rahman. He wanted to be an engineer—for the glory of Allah. Was it odd, or was it fate, that he shared the goal of her childhood? Adrianne took the box out again, then slipped the bracelet onto her arm. On the lapel of her suit she fastened the jeweled panther. “Philip has business. He’s already stayed away too long.” And so had she if she had time to regret. She closed the top of the case. It would have given her great pleasure to throw it and its contents of long, concealing skirts and high-necked blouses out of the planeand into the sea. “When you’re allowed to come to America, you will stay with me.”
    “To see the place you told me of—Radio City?”
    Adrianne had to laugh even as she cloaked herself in the
abaaya
. “That and more.”
    “Bloomerdale’s.”
    “Bloomingdale’s.” Adrianne covered her hair with the scarf.
    “It’s truly bigger than the suq?”
    It hadn’t taken much time to know where Yasmin’s heart lay. “All the clothes you can imagine in one place, under one roof. Counters and counters of perfumes and creams.”
    “And I can have whatever I like if I have the plastic card.”
    With a shake of her head Adrianne picked up her veil. “The salesforce is going to love you.” It would happen one day. She needed to believe it.
    “I want very much to come and see these places like the subway and the Trump Tower.”
    “The Trumps will be delighted to see you too.”
    “It’s good to have it to think about while you are gone. But you’ll come back to Jaquir.”
    She could have lied. She’d learned to smoothly enough. Turning, she looked at her sister sitting among the mounded cushions on a chaise. “No, Yasmin, I won’t come back to Jacquir.”
    “Your husband will not permit it?”
    “Philip would, if it was what I wanted.”
    Yasmin pushed away from the cushions. “You don’t wish to see me again.”
    Weary, Adrianne sat, drawing Yasmin down beside her. “When I came to Jaquir, I didn’t know you, or Rahman; Fahid was still a little boy in my memories. I didn’t think it would matter that I could stay only a short time. Now it breaks my heart to leave you.”
    “Then why don’t you stay? I’ve heard America is an evil place, with godless men and women without honor.” She conveniently forgot Bloomingdale’s and Radio City. “Better that you stay here, where my father is wise and generous.”
    May he always be with you, Adrianne thought. “America is no more evil and perhaps no more good than other places.The people there are like people everywhere, some good, some bad. But it’s my home, as Jaquir is yours. My heart’s there, Yasmin, but I leave a little piece of it here with you.” She took off a ring, a simple aquamarine, square cut and set in thin gold. “This belonged to my mother’s mother. Now it’s a gift to you, so you’ll remember me.”
    Yasmin turned the stone so that it caught the light. Her experienced eye told her it had little real value. But she found it pretty and was woman enough to be sentimental. On impulse she pulled off the thick gold hoops in her ears. “So you’ll remember me. You will write?”
    “Yes.” The letters might be seized, but she thought she could count on her grandmother to get them through. To please them both, Adrianne took out her pearl studs and replaced them with the hoops. “One day I’ll show you all the places I’ll write to you about.”
    Yasmin accepted the embrace. She was still a child and “one days” were only as far away as her imagination. “You were right about the dress,” she said. “It made me look special.”
    Adrianne kissed her again. She wondered if Yasmin’s life would always be as simple as the right dress. Chances were she wouldn’t see her sister again until Yasmin was a grown woman with daughters of her own. “I’ll remember how you looked in it. Come, I must say good-bye to Jiddah.”
    She didn’t want to cry. She didn’t want to feel this wrenching sense of loss. But as she knelt at her grandmother’s feet, the tears came. This was a part of her childhood that had been returned to her briefly, and after today would be gone forever.
    “A new bride should shed no tears.”
    “I shall miss you, Grandmother, but I shall never forget you.”
    Jiddah curled her fingers into Adrianne’s palms as she kissed her cheeks. She knew her son as well as she knew