Coming Home (English Version)

52. Can't

Dubai, 1993

The group of girls left the carpeted playroom running excitedly with high pitched screams, but the nanny immediately noticed Layla's lack of interest in going to the pool. The little five-year-old remained seated on the floor with her legs crossed and brushing her doll's hair with a pink plastic brush.

The nanny walked up to Layla and bent down to talk to her. "Layla, do you want to go to the pool?"

Without looking back at the nanny, Layla shook her head and continued to brush the doll's hair.

"Are you sure?" The nanny insisted.

Layla nodded in the same manner.

The nanny's heart ached for the little orphan. In the few weeks Layla had been at the palace after her parents' passing, she spoke only a few words and only if absolutely necessary.

"Okay, I'll go find another nanny to stay here with you while I take the other girls to the pool, alright?" She explained.

Layla nodded again, not seemingly concerned with whether there was a nanny with her or not. So she continued her task of untangling the doll's hair as the nanny left the room. After a couple of minutes she heard the boys yelling and Hamdan came running into the room while holding a toy gun and he swiftly hid behind a couch. The rest of the boys run past the door with toy guns as well. Layla's sight was fixed on the couch Hamdan was hiding behind and once there was silence again, the boy's head slowly rose to make sure he had lost his brothers. He suddenly jumped to stand up and it was until that moment that he noticed Layla sitting on the carpet with a doll on her hand and a brush on the other. The toy gun slowly slid down from his hand onto the carpet and he walked around the couch to kneel down before Layla. The girl stared at him with those intriguing eyes of hers. There was another boy at school with eyes like hers, but not as big, bright and beautiful.

"You're not going to the pool?" Asked Hamdan.

Without removing her eyes from his, Layla shook his head.

Before Layla's arrival, he never imagined parents could die and leave their kids alone. Grandparents died, that he knew because baba Rashid had passed a couple of years back, but that was different because his children were grown ups when that happened, but Hamdan could not stop thinking that parents with little children should not die. After Layla's arrival he always prayed to Almighty Allah to keep his parents safe.

Layla still seemed distant and not really interested to play with the rest, but he had already figured out the type of things that would cheer her up.

"Do you want cookies?" He offered.

Layla's lips curved up in a smile and she nodded.

"Follow me," Hamdan instructed as he rose to his feet.

The little girl quickly stood up and followed him closely, as the palace still seemed like a maze to her and she had not dared yet to wander through it by herself out of fear of getting lost. When they arrived at the stainless steel doors of the kitchen, Hamdan turned to her and asked her to wait there for him. Layla stood very still in her lavender dress, holding her doll by the arm until Hamdan returned again.

"Come on," he took her hand. "I still have to hide from the others."

The girl was a bit confused as he had returned with no cookies but still ran with him, making a major effort trying to keep up with the running pace of a ten-year-old boy. They kept running out into the gardens with the sole of their feet slapping the warm grass until he took her to a hidden park bench surrounded by a tall bush.