Short Story: The Waiting Period by Abha Iyengar

Abha Iyengar shares a poignant tale of two sisters caught in the web of societal expectations with just each other to save them.

Rehana watched the goat being cut in the courtyard. It was a slow process and the cries of the dying animal rent the air. There was blood. It fell to the ground and turned the grey-stoned courtyard red. It flowed towards the little, uneven hole on the side of the courtyard. She watched, horrified, and then turned her face away and put her hands over her ears. Each year the goat was cut she knew, for Eid, but this was the first time it was being cut at home. Her elder sister, Shabana, standing next to her, turned her face into her lap. 

“You don’t need to watch,” she said.