Read Online A Pair of Jeans and other stories by Qaisra Shahraz - Free Book Online

make her way to her room and quickly get changed.
    Just as Miriam reached the gate of her semi-detached house, she heard a car pull up behind her. Nervously, she swept round to see who it was. On spotting the colour of the car and the person behind the wheel, her step faltered – colour ebbing from her face. On the pretence of opening the gate, she turned round and tried to collect her wits about her. Too late! They were already here. Her heart was now rocking madly against her chest and the clothes burned her. She wanted to quickly rush inside her home and peel them off. She clutched at her jacket front, covering her waist.
    She braced her shoulders. She could not scurry inside. That was not the way things were done, no matter what the circumstances. Calmly let go of the gate and turned round to greet the two people who had by now stepped out of the car and were surveying her. She didn’t realise that she had let go of her jacket too. It fell wide open, revealing the short vest underneath. Their eyes fell straight to the inch of flesh at her waist. The woman was her future mother-in-law, a slightly frail woman dressed in shalwar and kameez with a chador around her shoulders. The elderly man, behind the wheel earlier, was the woman’s husband. He seemed to tower behind his wife.
    Miriam found herself unable to look either of them in the eye. A watery, hesitant smile played around her mouth. She did not know what to do, or how to act. Her cheeks burnt in embarrassment; poise now very much lost. And yet these were the very people she wanted to impress. All she was aware of was the surreptitious glances they darted at her. In fact not at her as Miriam, but at the figure, the appearance she presented clad in a pair of Levis and a skimpy leather jacket to top it off. This was not the Miriam they knew, but a stranger; a western version of Miriam. She immediately sensed their awkwardness. They too were caught off guard and did not know what to do with themselves – in particular with their eyes. The father-in-law was bent on avoiding eye contact with her, by studiously looking above her head.
    He pushed the gate open and in two strides had crossed the driveway and was now solidly knocking on the front door. Miriam stepped aside to let the woman pass, silently walking behind her husband. Miriam followed them in a semi-daze. As she closed the gate behind her she remembered with mortification that while the woman had accepted her mumbled greeting, by her reply ‘
Walaikum Assalam
’, the father-in-law had ignored it. That was not like him at all.
    Miriam’s mother, Fatima, opened the door to her expected guests, beaming in pleasure and warmth as she beheld them. She had not expected Miriam to come with them, however. When she saw her daughter hovering behind the two guests, Fatima received a shock. Never before in her life had Miriam glimpsed such a dramatic change in her mother’s face. Normally she wouldn’t have batted an eyelid if her daughter had turned up at her door at 11 o’clock at night, as long as she knew where she was and with whom and at what time she was returning home. Today, however, she was viewing her daughter’s arrival and appearance through a different set of lenses. In fact, through the lenses of Miriam’s future in-laws – the view just didn’t look very good.
    In one glance, she took in her daughter’s appearance. The jeans which wouldn’t have normally aroused her interest, today stood out brazenly on Miriam’s body, tightly moulded against her full legs. Fatima couldn’t quite make herself understand why she felt ashamed of her daughter’s clothing and why she was suddenly angry with her, for being seen like this. Her eyes gaped at Miriam’s midriff showing through. Heat was now rushing through Fatima’s cheeks. An inch of her daughter’s flesh was visible! Her mind reeling and the urge to usher her out of sight strong, Fatima communicated her displeasure and desperately signalled with