Sana knelt besides Tina’s head, her left hand reaching out to caress Tina’s hair. But then, she suddenly withdrew her hand and brought it to join her right palm as if in prayer. She prayed not for Tina, but for herself. Give me the strength to bid her goodbye.
She slowly lifted the sheet of white that covered Tina’s face.
The face. What was once an epitome of beauty and arrogance, now lie shriveled and shrunken. The high arched brows and the smear of kohl around those beautiful eyes, the pout on her luscious painted lips, the well powdered nose, and high cheeks bones had all merged into one.
Just as her soul would merge with her maker. Finally.
The face. It looked so calm and at peace. Those arched eyebrows no longer questioned her presence. The pouted lips no longer spewed venom. Those kohl rimmed eyes no longer dug into hers. That powdered nose that always seemed an inch too high in pride looked subdued. Finally.
The face. What a contrast they had been to her own. A birth deformity had eaten into Sana’s features. One could never tell where her eye ended and her nose began. One could never tell if she smiled or cried. It looked like her features had merged into one. She had always been an object of hushed ridicule.
She had envied Tina from the time their differences had started making sense to her. She had spent hours cursing her maker and more hours wishing Tina would be punished. Punished for being so beautiful. Punished for not knowing her pain. Punished for being everything that she wasn’t.
The face.It had been mangled beyond recognition. Tina had driven her car into a truck. Sana’s prayers seemed to have been answered. Now, they looked like sisters. She smiled and pulled the sheet back on to Tina’s face.
Tina’s death had put them on level ground. Finally.
