Chapter 18 12: Her Mental Health

He had already gotten the royal guards he would take to the house waiting for them, and when he went out, they were standing in front of his chamber and he motioned for them to get into the car. The guards stood still, "You can t drive us, Your Highness." Na im chuckled and spoke, "Get in, please. Since I chose you to do this for me that means I trust you and you can think of me as a soldier, not a prince if you feel like you re committing a sin by doing that." Reluctantly, they all got into the car and they drove silently to Damboa road. They rushed and opened the gate after he had handed them the key before he drove inside and Bilkisu got out with her bagpack in hand. She kept looking around at the mansion she was now in. Even though she was used to luxury in the palace, she was certain this house was beautiful enough as well. She waited as he spoke to the two guards and explained everything to them before he walked up to her and asked her to follow him. They stood in the living room while he showed her everything and when they went to the kitchen, he saw that the shopping he had asked Jafar and Faruk to do was already there in the kitchen. They were on their way to Maryam s room when he turned to her, "There are a few things about her that I'd like you to keep in mind." She nodded her head that was bowed slightly and hummed, "You can t touch her unless she s aware that you re going to do that, lest she ll panic and might even lose her consciousness. She hardly speaks, but that doesn't mean she s deaf, it only means that she doesn t like to speak. So, all you have to do is get her be comfortable with you and she might be able to speak often. Also, when speaking to her, speak slowly because she needs sometime to access words before she understands them..." Na im had to pause because he had never realized that he had known this much about Maryam until now. At this rate, he could write a brief article about her. All Bilkisu did was nod her head as she answered respectfully and he was about to turn the doorknob when he turned to her. "Don t ever mention that I m a prince or shehuri to her, okay? Even though I doubt if she knows the palace uniform for maids, but start wearing your normal clothes from now on, I've asked the guards to do that as well." "Yes, Your Highness." Na im cringed softly. But he knew there was no way he could stop them from calling him 'Your Highness because what would they refer to him as? They would rather be killed than call him by his name to his face. "I'll call for you after I explain everything to her, so be on standby." He said and closed the door behind him. The room was engulfed with darkness that he wondered if she had moved since Nafisa left. He had ordered food for her and was sure it had been delivered since he had seen it untouched in the kitchen. He turned the light on and from the bed, she groaned and lifted herself up. When she saw that it was him, Maryam shifted behind on the bed but when he managed to look into her eyes, he saw what Nafisa had told him before. Her eyes looked calm and assured of her safety than her body cared to admit and he walked to the bed without a second thought. He sat at the edge and patted the space a bit close to him, "Come and sit here." He ordered, and even though it took her minutes to do what he had asked her to, she did. "Have you prayed today?" He couldn t help but ask, because seeing her curled on this bed made him think if she had moved from the bed. She nodded her head yet when his eyes cut into a slit at her choice of response, Maryam gulped down a lump in her throat. "Yes, I prayed 5 times." She lifted her hand involuntarily and showed him her five fingers. The small gesture made him smile, but he had suppress it as fast as it crossed his lips. "Why did you not eat the lunch I sent for you?" He wanted to start asking her with the simplest things as Nafisa suggested, so that when she got accustomed to answering those questions, she might open up to him with the bigger issues. "I wasn t hungry." He saw tears glistening her eyes but she was fast enough to stifle them back and he couldn t help the empathy he felt for her. Maybe she was afraid, or she had even been looking around to see if he was coming back and when she was certain that he wouldn't and it had already turned dark, she curled herself on her bed. "Were you afraid?" Na im couldn t help himself but ask, and Maryam took some minutes before she was able to reply. She contemplated on whether to say yes to him or not, but it seemed like no matter how much she thought she wasn't sharing her worries with Intisar, she was. Because it turned out that she had missed talking to someone, she had missed admitting to her fears and worries. "I was scared. It was getting dark and I didn t know how to turn on the light like you do." She used her thumb to clear the lone tear that rolled down her cheeks. "When I went to the living room, I could hear my footsteps and I got scared that there might be a ghost in the house. I was hungry but the kitchen seem far away, so I run back into my room." This was the longest she had ever spoken to him. Normal words of her expressing herself and even though each word came out of her mouth with such difficulty that was palpable and she had her eyes clenched shut as if she felt suffocated by her own words, Na im was amazed at the sincerity of her words. And he felt himself being weighed down by guiltiness. "Open your eyes," he ordered, but in a soft voice that seemed to be be the exact one he had spoken to that doctor with and Maryam didn t know when she did what he had asked of her. She found out that he was staring at her face, "I m not going to harm you," he warned and she watched his hand outstretching towards her that she went still until he held her shoulder and brought her head to his laps. Na im didn't know why he was doing that, but he thought she needed some comfort, and even though he might not touch her the way an actual comfort meant, seeing that she had done the same to him meant that this was a physical touch approved by her body system. He rested her head on his laps and she sighed before she closed her eyes, relaxing a bit. "You don't have to answer, just listen to me, okay?" She nodded and he wondered if there was a body language more loved by her than a head nod. "I'm sorry that I stayed out long to leave you all alone. But I brought someone with me, she s going to be your maid and will do everything you want." She tried to jerk up at that but he gently pulled her back. She had her eyes opened now and while she turned to look up at his face, Na im nearly got lost in her eyes. "Her name is Bilkisu and she s going to treat you nicely so you have to be free with her and trust her, okay?" She nodded again, even though he could see the her guards were back at the mention of a total stranger. "She's not going to harm you, okay?" She nodded again. Na im turned to the door, totally forgetting that Maryam s head still rested on his laps as he called out to Bilkisu, whom walked into the room in a few seconds and she had her head bowed down. It was only when she walked in that he remembered what was going on but there was no way to change it, she had already seen it, but he knew that she would never say a word about it to anyone. "She s here, I've told you her name, right?" He gently asked and she nodded before she sat upright. The way they acted, one would think they had never fought, that there was no way he would ve had a gun pointed at her head just yesterday night. "Bilkisu," she repeated the name he had told her but to her surprise, the girl turned to look at her and slightly bowed her head, "Yes, Your Highness. My name is Bilkisu and I'm here to serve you." She turned to Na im with a discombobulated expression and he chuckled softly, "You see? I told you she s a nice lady, isn t she? She ll be staying with you in this house." He stood up before she even had time to assimilate what he had said, "Let s go to the living room, you have to eat and I'll show you something." They walked towards the door while Bilkisu moved aside to give them way to pass and when Maryam was about to walk by her side, she moved closer to him as though she had thorns she was afraid of getting inflicted with. Na im chuckled softly and when she looked up at him due to the sound, he said, "Come here, I told you she wouldn't hurt you. She's your friend." As he held her wrist and for the first time, Maryam didn t panic when he touched her. He went to the TV while she stood beside him, "Listen, whenever you want to watch something, here it is and I'll show you how to turn it on and off. You can get to watch everything you want, you know what a TV means and what it does, right?" She was staring between him and the TV set before she slowly nodded her eyes. "Good, come closer and see." For all the minutes he had spent showing her how to go about it and a few appliances in the house, Maryam had her eyes fixed solely on him and occasionally on the objects he was speaking about. She knew that she should panic or even ask him about Intisar, but she didn t know how the words were going to roll down from her lips. She didn t have the courage to ask that, or was it that her brain was afraid of the answer he would give her? Maybe he didn t even know she was Intisar s sister and if she dared spoke about her, he might try to harm her. So, just for today, Maryam decided to gulp everything down and she only focused on being an obedient girl.