See It Through Her Eyes *On Hold*

Chapter 4

This is for a lovely girl, I wish her the best in all that she does & would like to thank her for being apart of almost every story I've written <3 Lots of love sister :)x

~OOO~

"Beep, beep" the alarm rang as Aziza opened her eyes slightly. Just enough to glace at the clock and realize she had already missed the first six periods of school.

Aadil was asleep on the bed with drool on the bed sheet near he's mouth, Hawa was sitting on the floor, biting a pillow and playing with her older brother's toy car.

It was 11:15 am, the sun was shinning through the curtains as a draft blew through the open window, a note on the table was in Aziza's reach. She scratched her head and sat up. She said the morning prayer, rubbed her eyes and picked up the note.

It read "Salaams hon, sorry I haven't spoken properly to you in a while but when I got home you were passed out on the bed and so was Hawa. Aadil was playing monster I think. We have to talk though, Aadil and Hawa are going to be staying at aunt Hafsa's house for the weekend, so you can relax and have some fun with your friends, I'll be working as usual so don't bother staying up. Oh don't forget, NO BOYS! I have to talk to you about something else but for now, study and work hard. Lots of love, papa."

Aziza smiled as she put down the note, at least her dad tried to be part of the family and allows her free time occasionally. She couldn't help but wonder what he wanted to tell so badly though.

Aziza's head ached as she tried to remember what went down last night, everything seemed so blurring in her mind , maybe she was just hungry but something had to of happened, if only she knew what that something was.

She picked Hawa up and started to tickle her. "How are you my little lovely?" she said to Hawa in a baby voice. Hawa looked at her, dazed and confused but still smiled. She patted Aziza's nose twice. Aziza knew that she must be hungry so she gave her a bottle of milk, Aziza's own stomach groaned. She too was starving but decided to make Hawa and Aadil's bags for the weekend.

Aziza picked up Aadil's bag, it was pretty much empty accept for a small paper at the bottom of the bag. She opened it up and began to cry. It was a drawing of their mum, Faridah and Aadil holding hands. On the back of the drawing it was written "i lav u ummi" .

~OOO~

"I can't believe you left me in that piece of hell for a whole day! I was so lonely," Nick said as he gave the ice-cream man some cash.

"I can't believe you talked me into leaving the house and hanging out with you for a whole day," Aziza replied as she licked her chocolate malt ice-cream cone.

"Ah, your such a goody-two shoes, nothing's gonna happen. Hawa and Aadil are at your aunty's house and you said it yourself, your dad comes home late. What's the worst that can happen? We're just hanging out and teaching you how to have a good time." he replied. "Now chillax and have fun."

Aziza gave him a weird look and grinned, "chillax? Nick, no one in this day and age says chillax anymore, not even my dad!"

Nick ignored the remark and continued talking.

"You know what we should do? We should go to the photo booth and take pictures to remember this awesome day!" Aziza said as she nudged Nick.

"Thats the spirit!" he said as he put a little ice cream on Aziza's nose and began to run. Aziza ran after him, laughing as the both landed on the grass. With creamy noses they began to talk but that was quickly over when Nick ran to an empty swing. Aziza sat on the swing beside Nick and their conversation continued where they left off.

They spoke about everything, from sports to food, countries to cars. No topic left uncovered, unfortunately, they began talking about Aziza's past life and she couldn't change the topic.

She sat there hearing Nick tell her about he's own life for almost an hour, now it was her turn to speak but no words could leave her mouth.

Aziza knew that if she started talking about her family, she'd start to cry. Not that it matters, Nick had seen her cry a bunch of times recently. Once more wouldn't make a massive difference.

"Tell me about your family. Well your mother, you hardly talk of her. I don't even know her name," he said softly as a cool breeze blew, making the hairs on the back of he's neck stand in chills.

Aziza took a deep breath. She had a feeling things were about to get tense. "You don't know anything about my mum? Nothing at all?"

"Nope" he replied solemnly.

"Faridah, her name was Faridah. She also covered her hair like me but she covered her face as well. She grew up in Arabia even though she had Pakistani blood. She moved to America when she married my dad, he was Arab as well but pure blood Arab. He moved to America to study law. Then he worked for the government. Anyway, my mum, Faridah, being Pakistani in America meant that a lot of people had the wrong idea of her after 9/11, the though she was a terrorist. When Hawa was a few years old, some man came to the house. They were looking for my father, they suspected he was part of the Al-Qaeda. He wasn't though, the US Government fired him a few months before the whole thing happened. They said they didn't want non Americans working for the Government. Anyway, they thought my mother was covering up for my father and they took her away. To Guantanamo Bay without a trial. We haven't heard from her in a while, several years actually. They don't allow her to call, we can't either. They are cruel to her, only once have we received a letter from her. It was actually four letters, more like diary entries. I read them sometimes when I miss her." Aziza said.

Nick just stared at her, he watched as her cheeks stained, as to line flew down her face. It finally dawned on him, the names people call her, the insulting, all of it, because the stupid American government took her mother away because they suspected that she was part of the Al Qaeda. Without evidence to add to that.

"After they took her away, we had to sell the apartment so we could have enough money. My dad went through a mourning stage in he's life. Now he works himself to death. We moved into the alley houses, they were cheaper to afford," she sighed.

Aziza's tears streamed down her face.

"C'mon, I'll walk you home," Nick said as he put he's arm around her and walked her home. "Do you want some coke?"

"No, I don't drink coke, it's an Israeli campagne," she sniffled.

"Fine, M&M's?"

"Why not?" she gave him a smile as Nick walked her home.

"Can I ask you something?" he said.

"Shoot."

"Okay, can I see your mothers letters?"

~OOO~

"Have you ever looked at them in the light?" said Nick, who was laying on the floor looking at Faridah's letters. Nick read them over and over but they didn't make sense to him.

"Not really," Aziza replied. "Do you want something to drink? Eat?"

"No, I'm good. Well you should look at them in the light. They are kind of thick to be just paper, don't you think?" he asked as he turned the papers over.

Aziza sat down next to him, "what are you trying to say? My mum was hiding other letters?"

"Precisely." Nick said as he sat up. He's eyes seemed to sparkle as he moved he's hand across the edges of the page.

Aziza grabbed the letter and slowly rubbed her fingers at the edge, trying her best not to tear the age old paper. "Nick, I think you right...There's more to this letter that holds the eye."

She slowly pulled the paper apart. Revealing the new letters. She sat there  stunned. Nick decided not to say anything, just seemed like the time to be silent...