Aaliyah to the World

26 | Dinner Dash

•Bilal

"How are you my child?"

"I'm fine Mama."

"Wai Aaliyah has been missing for weeks now, almost a month. Do you have any idea about her whereabouts?"

"No ma. I haven't seen her since Nadiya's wedding. What is being done to find her?"

She nodded, still in thought.

"Raliya said she has gotten a private investigator to handle the case. His name is Detective Esse Martins. She introduced me to him some days ago when I went to her house."

"Mama are you sure he can do his work properly?"

"I trust that he won't disappoint us. He has been in the business for more than a decade. Surely he'll find her Insha Allah."

"I hope so."

A message notification siezes my attention and I open it to see what it is.

Daffy💯[23/03/20 12:30]: Let's meet at Foodhut tomorrow. I have something important to tell you.

Hamza can be funny sometimes. I won't be surprised if he just felt like going there to eat. One time he texted me saying he had a life threatning problem to discuss with me and you wouldn't believe it. It was all because he missed eating at Foodhut.

"Bilaaaaal!" My mum hit my shoulder.

"Na'am mama."

"I've been talking to you for the past ten minutes and you've refused to answer me."

"I'm listening now." I tuck the phone in my pocket and wrapped my hands together on my lap.

"How won't you listen when you're using your phone." She mutters underneath her breath, "I was telling you we'll have to go and see Ruqayyah's parents soon."

"Ok. We can visit them whenever you're ready."

"Alright. Two weeks from now is fine with me."

She dismisses me with a wave and Immediately, I rise up to go and pray so that I can dress up early for my date with Ruqayyah that was in an hour.

I knew I had to pick her up early so we could return early to avoid displeasing her parents.

After my twenty minutes bath, I knew I was clean and could finally put on my clothes. I don't know why girls take so long. For real, What are you washing? A boat?

I quickly put on my Kaftan knowing that Ruqayyah hated truancy. I'm actually proud to say she was the first to tame the beasty truant in me.

I find my favourite perfume inside my vanity mirror where I usually keep some of them to save because they're Ruqayyah's favourite fragrances of mine.

The keys were downstairs so I rush downstairs to get them and head out. Once on the road, I message Ruqayyah to let her know I was on the way.

She replies when I'm at the gate of her house.

If it was me...

The whole world will shake.

I call her and she comes out almost immediately looking as beautiful as ever with her billion dollar smile.

I drive out as fast as I can out of the house and now we're on the road. It'll take at least twenty minutes to get there so I put on the radio to serenade us with music as we both enjoy a comfortable silence.

Soon we're at the parking lot of chopstix.

"Stay there." I command and she smiles ever so brightly.