Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal Page 0,2
throwing myself in his arms, hugging him and kissing his cheeks like crazy. The happiness I felt for him was beyond words, I couldn’t even begin to explain.
“That is the best news–EVER!” I told him; my mouth almost hurt from too much smiling.
“I knew you’d be happy for me.”
“Of course I am!” I replied. “Wow! I can’t believe you met the girl of your dreams on that trip. Is she one of the staff?”
“Uh, no. She’s, uh...she’s a princess.”
“Oooh! So you fell in love and suddenly I’m not your princess anymore but your fiancée is, huh?” I pouted playfully.
“No, you’ll always be my little princess, Sweetie. But, uh, she’s a real princess, you know, royal one, the daughter of the king.”
I frowned. For a moment I thought Joseph had somehow gone to the United Kingdom at some point in the past few months, but immediately remembered that they had a queen and not a king. Then suddenly realization hit me.
“What?”
It couldn’t be.
“Marie, she’s a very sweet girl, so nice and tender. You’ll fall in love with her in seconds.”
“An Arab?”
“If you’d just meet her and get to know h-”
“An Arab, Joseph? Are you frigging kidding me? You’re marrying an Arab?”
“Marie, listen to me.” He took both of my hands in his. “Love knows no boundaries; it hits you when it feels right, and being with her just feels right.”
My bottom lip was trapped between my teeth and my frown deepened as I looked down and away from his face, trying to let his words sink in, but it was just so hard to take.
I shook my head in a failed attempt to shake my disapproving thoughts away. It was his life after all, not mine, but his safety and happiness meant too much for me not to care about their presence in said life, and I wasn’t sure if a weak Arabian woman could do that for him.
“She makes you happy?” I whispered the question.
“Very.”
I nodded my head and offered him a small smile.
“Tell me she’s Catholic at least,” I pleaded, looking into his eyes, eyes that failed to hide the truth from me when they were lowered to look away from mine.
“You’ve got to be kidding me, Joseph!” I said a bit loudly.
“She–She’s not Christian, Marie.”
What on earth?
“Excuse me? What do you mean she’s not Christian?”
That’s just not right.
He kept staring at the floor.
“Oh, my God! She can’t be what I think she is, can she?” I asked in shock. I shouted another ‘Oh, my God’ when he kept his head lowered and avoided eye contact.
I was mad. Really, really mad.
“A Muslim, Joseph? Seriously? A terrorist?”
“She’s not a terrorist. Don’t speak of her that way, you don’t even know her,” he snapped.
“Wow! Really? Because as far as I know Muslims do nothing but kill others–and each other as well!”
“How did you even come to believe that, huh?”
“Are you really asking me that? I’ve heard about it all of my life!” I defended.
“Are you being serious right now, Marie? Heard about it? Can you even hear yourself? You’ve never met one, not a single one. Yet you’re so okay with judging them, even accusing them of being things they are not.”
“How wonderful! They’ve brainwashed you!”
“Stop it!” he yelled, shocking me with the unfamiliar tone in his voice that he’d never spoken to me with. “I’m sick of your shallow thoughts. You’ve always believed that without any clue if it was true or not, and absolutely nothing to put your hands on in those thoughts.”
“I can go on for years with proof that Muslims and Arabs are nothing but anima-”
“Watch your mouth, Marie, I won’t be taking any of this, not anymore.’’
“For her?”
“Not only for her, for the months I spent there and saw nothing from them but pure kindness and generosity. It’s only fair to speak about them based on the facts I witnessed with my own eyes, not just gossip I’ve heard.”
I think it was the very first time I knew what it meant to be shocked into silence, because the words wouldn’t form on my tongue no matter how much I wanted to let them out and free. I kept opening my mouth and closing it, not able to utter one word.
I didn’t know if his words were true or not. I was well-educated and a smart person; I had an open mind. I refused to think that I was racist or anything like that, because I really wasn’t, but when it came to Arabs and Islam, I