Halima steps out of the Peugeot 206 and slips the key into her bag. She switches off her phone's mobile data as she exits the Google maps app. She looks up at the hotel, Fauchon L'hotel Paris. With a deep breath, Halima prays.

Allahumma innee as'aluka min nuhoorihim wa a'udhubika min shuroorihim.

That being done, Halima enters the hotel and checks in. She's given her room key. She takes the elevator as their bellhop follows her with her luggage. Once in front of the room, she opens it and the only word that comes out of her mouth is wow.

The room is painted powder white, the wall behind the large queen sized bed in a dark shade of gray. By Halima's left, ash drapes which have been pushed to the sides reveal two windows that take up almost the whole walls with powder white frames and a thick transparent glass adorning them.

In between the two windows sits a wall fluorescent lamp encased in powder white body. The floor is in a shady gray that's a tad bit lighter than the shade of the wall behind the bed.

The wood holding up the bed is covered in gray silk shiny material that is tucked underneath the bed in the space in between the bed hoister and the smooth gray floor. The bed is covered in white bed covers with four fluffy pillows encased in white pillowcases leaning against the jet black head board. A white duvet with rose colored center covers most of the white bed cover. Two pillows with different shades of purple, blue and gold arranged in an array of arrows lean against the white pillows. In front of the bed is a small ash coffee table with newspapers on it.

By Halima's right is a large ash wardrobe with double doors. An ash oak door stands a little bit away from the wardrobe and it leads to a bathroom with alabaster theme. The hotel sure know their colors because the mixture of the colors is beautiful.

As Halima looks through the windows, a beautiful indoor pool looks right back at her. She crinkles her nose in disgust as she watches people randomly jump in the pool. Don't they think of allergies, the germs in the water and whatnot? Aren't they disgusted? What if one of the random people swimming farts in the pool? Or worse even urinates in it? Ew!

She arranges her luggage in the wardrobe and takes a bath. Afterall, she'll be in this hotel for at least three months. She needs to be ready as tomorrow, she's starting her brushing up classes. Giddily, she gets dressed in mauve pajamas and wears a violet beanie.

Halima looks through the three small books sitting on the bedside drawer. One contains the menu of the various foods available for room service. The foods all have various weird names. One catches her eyes, Carne Asad - a Latin American cuisine, the menu says. Marking it, she checks the drinks session and sees another that catches her eyes - Stracciatella. Without wasting time, she orders the food by their various numbers on the menu. She can't pronounce the names to save her life.

The food arrives in less than ten minutes. She takes a look at the food, the almighty Carne Asada is just a grilled sliced beef steak. But damn is it looking tantalizing. Then the Stracciatella is a mouth watering ice cream.

Shrugging, she rolls the sleeves of her pajamas up. She's here to enjoy and learn new things and one of the things she needs to learn is the taste of different foods. She starts with the Carne Asada. Resisting the urge to moan she closes her eyes to savor the taste. So freaking delicious. As she finishes, she pushes the plates away and goes for the Stracciatella.

It's even better than she imagined, way better than her chocolate chip sundaes. She can't even start to compare. Enjoying the freezing goodness melt its way down her throat she drags her laptop and decides to enjoy the morning by watching one of the various movies ranging from Korean movies, American movies, Chinese movies, Japanese movies to animations even.

She decides to video call her mum before watching any movie. Turning on her mobile data, she goes straight to Skype to video call her mum. She discards the now empty rubber cup that once held the Stracciatella then washes her mouth in the bathroom. As usual, Hajjo is online so she rings her up. Almost immediately, Hajjo picks.

"Mamana nah!" Halima says making Hajjo laugh.

"Toh! So it's no more Mummy it's now Mamana? I'm not shocked." Hajjo laughs and they both gist for some time. After about fifteen minutes, they decide to bid each other goodbye.

Just as they say their final goodbyes, Halima feels a bitter sour bile rise upto her throat. She rushes, missing her laptop by a chance. She goes into the toilet and throw her guts up in the sink.

"Leema baby! Halima! Innalillahi what happened to you?! Hasbunallahu wa ni'imal wakeel! Halima say something! Are you okay? We can book the next flight and come there right now." Hajjo frets before shouting her husband's name from where she is.

After Halima has finished puking her guts out, she washes her mouth and walks out using the beanie that flew of her head to clean her face. Just as she opens her mouth to convince her mother she's just road sick, she heavs again, before rushing to the bathroom. This time she heaves and heaves but nothing comes except a sticky gob of saliva which she uses her hand to force out of her throat.

After cleaning up, a second time, she rushes to the room and forces her scattered hair into the beanie before forcing a smile on her face.

"Kar ki kuskura. You're going to get dressed right now and go see a doctor otherwise I'm booking the next flight to Paris right this minute." Hajjo narrows her eyes at a pale looking Halima and the latter groans before bidding her mother goodbye. Hajjo makes her promise to call her once she is with the doctor do she can hear every single word in their conversation.

Dressed in a Hermes grape A-line gown, a black Calvin Klein belt holds the gown on her belly.  Black Dunhill glasses protect her eyes against the blazing hot Paris June sun which is about to make an appearance. A rose Dior bag, grape cotton crinkled veil with Hermes slippers complete her look. She sprays one of her newest perfumes, Avon black dress before picking up her car key and checking out for the morning.

One would ask why she's all dolled up when she's just going to meet a doctor. But Halima is the type of woman that enjoys the feeling of looking beautiful, and moreover, she's here to enjoy. And enjoying includes dressing up for her.

Using her phone's GPS, she drives to the nearest clinic which is about a thirty minute drive from the hotel. Arriving there, she watches the bustling of activities, people going in and out. She marches into the hospital and the smell of antiseptics, sanitizer and disinfectant hit her nostrils. She covers her nose with the back of her hand and walks slowly to the reception.

The woman who's clearly a nurse, Miss Samantha, her tag says, smiles warmly at Halima before putting her book down. Halima glances at her tummy which is bulging out a bit and smiles suddenly feeling happy for the lady.

"I'm five months along. Getting married next month." The lady smiles as she rubs her slightly swollen tummy.

"Congratulations. I wish you a safe delivery." Halima smiles and the woman mutters a thank you.

"So are you here to see a patient or a doctor?" Miss Samantha asks putting on a formal business face.

"No, I'm here to see a doctor."

"What type?"

"A general consultant."

"Okay do you have an appointment or you want to book one?"

"I don't have an appointment and unfortunately, it's kind of an emergency. Can you book me an appointment for today?"

"Well, let's see. Have a seat, I'll see what I can do." Halima nods gratefully and sits down. Her phone rings as she takes her seat and she groans, already knowing who the caller is. Fortunately for her, it's not Hajjo as she expected. Rather, it's Afnan.

"Hello Adda Halima? Ammi just twitched her fingers. She literally moved her fingers. I was telling her about what you told us about Ya Sa'eed and she twitched." Afnan cries. She has never been a loud lady but now she's shouting. Tears gather in Halima's eyes.

"Put me on hands-free please." Afnan says okay and does as asked.

"Ammi, you know I love you and will always. Please wake up soon. I'm sick and tired of seeing you sitting looking awfully sick and pale with wires connected to you. I'm tired. Please wake up soon, for your Halima. Please." Halima starts crying and Miss Samantha gestures for her to come. She bids Afnan goodbye with a promise to Skype her later before wiping off her tears and walking over to Miss Samantha's table.

"You're lucky Mademoiselle, Doctor Jaan is around today. He just finished attending to his last patient for the day." Halima smiles and Miss Samantha hands her over to some nurses who check her vitals. One of them lead her to the said Doctor Jaan's office. She enters and without mincing words Doctor Jaan starts questioning her.

"What's wrong with you?"

"That's why I'm here. I don't know what's wrong with me. I threw up twice, actually once. I only heaved the second time."

"Do you have any allergies?" Halima says no.

"Would you prefer to be tested by the hospital or by yourself?"

"Whichever is more convenient."

"Okay ask for directions to the laboratory then give them this paper." Halima nods, collects the paper and walks out. She finds the laboratory using the signs and takes the tests. Within five minutes, the results are out so she takes them to the doctor.

Doctor Jaan smiles

"Mrs Halima congratulations, you're five weeks pregnant. I wish you the safest delivery." Halima looks at the man gaping. Surely she knows something is wrong with her, but didn't think it'd be this. Despite knowing that she will not understand anything written in the paper, she claws at it and looks at it for even a little confirmation of what the doctor said. Surely this must be a mistake, maybe her blood and urine sample were mixed up with someone else's.

"Congratulations Ma'am." Doctor Jaan repeats again and Halima slips off her chair unconsciously.