Because, Its Halal - muslim Romance #Wattys 2015#YourStoryIndia

Chapter 62 - Ash-Shafi, The Healer

"Allah will never leave you empty. He will replace everything you have lost. If he asks you to put something down, its because he wants you to pick up something better"

One Year Later -

"What do you wanna eat?" I ask Mahira.
"Vanilla" She says while playing with Marwah.

I had got the kids out for a little ice cream trip. Well, recently I had been spending more time with the kids...it was a distraction from the past...but it was never successfull.

Everywhere I went I remembered him. Every place I looked I saw him. Everytime someone touched it felt like him.

The last one year was not easy, not just for me but for everyone.

Things had changed.
People had changed.
Faith was challenged.
Hope was destroyed.
And hearts were broken.

Yet, everybody still smiled because life goes on!

"One Vanilla and two chocolate" I pay the cashier and collect the bill.

I collect the ice cream and get back to the table.

"What are we gonna do next?" I asked enthusiastically to the kids, while they licked their fingers and hands.

"The lake! The lake" Mahira screams and Safa and Marwah join her.

They had just turned a year older and they mostly immitated Mahira so everything she said or did was also done by them.

As soon as they said the lake my heart felt heavy, like somebody had just put a heavy iron box on my chest.

"No! Not the lake" I said firmly.
"Please!" Safa says in a cute way.
"No" I repeat with a heavy heart and their smile suddenly turns upside down.
"Finish your Ice cream quickly, We'll just go back home" I say losing all interest in everything around.

Everyday I'd have a moment like this. I'd suddenly remember everything, that horrible accident and how terribly it just changed my life in an instant and I'd become depressed and zone out, not wanna talk to anybody, just go to my room and cry but then I'd wake the next day and pretend like it never happened.

It was a routine.

But now I wanted to change it.

"Put on your seatbelt" I say to Mahira and drive back home.

"Just look after them, I'll come back in sometime" I say to my mum.
"Where are you going? Gazala had called" She says removing Marwah's shoes.
"What did she say?" I ask steping outside.
"She just wanted to know when you are coming back" She said then then removed Safa's shoes.
"I'm just going later tonight, I'll let her know" I say and walk away.

Everybody had changed.

People had started to walk on egg shells around me, thought about what they had to say a million times in their minds before saying it out loud in front of me.

It was not easy for anyone.
It was not easy for my parents to see my cry everytime they came to check on my while I pretended to sleep.
It was not easy for Gazala aunty to just forget that she had a son.
It was not easy for Arzoo, that her brother who loves her so much just wasn't there anymore.
It was not easy for Yusuf to lose a dear friend and also watch his sister lose her happiness.
But most of all it was not easy for me to sleep every night and not wake up next to him, walk in our room and not have the smell of his perfume, open our wardrobe and not have his clothes in it.

It was the small little things that reminded me of him, not the big ones.

It had been a year but I still thought of him every night and prayed to Allah SWT before sleeping to make his journey in the grave easy.