Fluffernutter Ch. 01: The Gift

"Would you like me to sing you a lullaby? My mother told me when I was fussy and would not sleep, she would sing to me..." She paused. "It worked every time," she added.

"Um," Savannah said, "okay?" She didn't know how to feel about Sameera singing her a lullaby, but talking about God definitely wasn't helping. Maybe this would.

"Okay," Sameera said.

And, softly at first, uncertain at the start, Sameera began to sing.

It was weird. They weren't any recognizable words, nor rhyme, nor rhythm, it seemed, and the tone wavered weirdly away from any scale Savannah had grown up knowing, but, in a way, in a weird, alien, way, it ... held together, maybe?

Savannah's eyebrows pursed as she tried to follow the 'words'? and the 'rhythm'? and the 'rhyme'?

And before she knew it, she was asleep.

Sameera kept singing for a little while longer to Savannah, even though she heard her even, untroubled breaths. Sameera was at peace, but she was also scared. She knew that she did not trust, and she wished she could kneel, and pray, and submit herself, completely, to Al-lah right now, but this, too, was her own desire. She was thinking of what she wanted and not what Al-lah willed in this very moment, so she prayed that she would do this now, and always.

Also, she needed to pee. Badly.

Savannah slept on Sameera, pressing against the orange juice in her bladder something fierce.

Sameera sighed, closed her eyes, and slept.