Princess: Stepping Out of the Shadows, стр. 62
‘A thrill? Really?’
Dr Meena looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes. ‘Princess, I am so glad to be alive during this time. I like a whirlwind and one is coming.’
‘Well, there is a lot on his young shoulders,’ I said, thinking about the various things Kareem had told me, conversations I dared not share with anyone. I grimaced. ‘I believe that everyone is turning with hope, and with doubt, to this young man. I hope he can survive the enormous scrutiny he will undergo. I hope he is able to withstand the immense responsibility.’
Dr Meena laughed again. ‘His shoulders are very broad, Princess. He can succeed when no one else would be able to pull it off. However, not everyone is a strong supporter. One of my brightest students is wary, although I assured her that we need this man – we need this strong personality – otherwise Saudi Arabia will continue to stew in the past. It will truly be left behind in the world.’
Dr Meena took a sip of her juice before continuing. ‘After my watchful student read that our Crown Prince now owns the most expensive home in the world – the French chateau he purchased for over $300 million – and then quickly followed that purchase by another extravagant acquisition – $450 million for a Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus Christ – my student wrote me a note that said, “This man desires everything, envies everything, and wishes to seize everything.”’
I winced. I have personally observed the lavish lifestyles of most of my royal cousins but could understand how the back-to-back purchases of the chateau and the painting would provide the opposition to our Crown Prince with significant information to attack him personally. But few in the world realize that most royals in oil-rich countries have so much ready cash that such purchases are not considered to be worthy of a discussion.
‘Yes, I had just as soon those purchases were kept confidential, but there is nothing to be done.’ I grimaced. ‘Please do destroy that student’s note. I do not wish to visit you in prison!’
‘Oh, I kept it. But there is no name on the note and the prince is not named. But do not worry, it is in the safest place that no policeman would look.’
‘Dare I ask where?’
‘No, it is best not to enquire,’ she said with a big smile.
The evening ended far too soon, but Dr Meena had early appointments with her patients so I did not protest, although she and I agreed to meet the following week to review the information we might find on the many imprisoned young Saudis who are languishing in prison for speaking their minds. She and I decided I would provide funds to help the families of the imprisoned to meet their financial needs and also to pay for the services of lawyers to plead their cases. It would be good to help those men, in whatever capacity we might find to do so.
After Dr Meena departed, I felt much more relaxed. For the first time, I fully understood and truly believed that our prince was undertaking the most enormous challenge of any leader of any nation in the world. He was soon to be king of the most unique land – a nation which was desperately in need of sweeping changes that only he could make.
It is against a dark background of an ancient desert kingdom that he must shine a light of change. I knew on that night that his was truly a struggle to remake a nation, and all the results he would reap would be with us for centuries to come.
I was grateful to Dr Meena for bringing me a degree of hope, for I now believed that the best was being done for my country.
That evening I said a prayer of thankfulness that I was born a Saudi woman and that I was still with the living in the year 2018 to witness the exciting human advancement that I knew was coming to my beloved kingdom.
The stage is now set for years of excitement.
It is my hope and prayer that before I go, I live to witness, feel and celebrate the thrill of this excitement.
Chapter Ten
Once Upon a Time
WITHIN A FEW weeks I was overwhelmed with more excitement than I desired. Unfortunately, this excitement had nothing to do with the advancement and changes Dr Meena and I were enthusiastically expecting to come to Saudi women. This excitement was to do with twins who were coming into the world nearly two months early.
Kareem had nearly caused me to have a heart attack when he bounded into my private quarters in the early hours of the morning loudly exclaiming, ‘Sultana! Get up! Sultana! Abdullah wants us at the hospital. Zain is unwell – she has gone into early labour.’
‘What?’ I asked, quickly pushing the bedcovers off my chest and raising myself to a sitting position.
‘Get up! Get up now! There is a crisis, sweetheart. Zain and the babies are in danger.’
With those alarming words, I was instantly awake. I, too, sprang into action and was out of bed and standing upright in a split second, my hand at my throat, staring at my husband, who was visibly alarmed, an emotion rarely displayed by Kareem.
‘I will go and arrange the car. Meet me at the back, at the circular drive.’ Kareem was unquestionably worried.
That’s when I began to nervously wonder what he had not told me.
‘Yes, all right, I will meet you there.’ Then I haltingly asked, ‘Kareem, is everyone still alive?’
‘Hurry!’ he said as he ran out of the