Zahra

1: Zayn and Zara

In the name of Allah, the most gracious the most merciful.

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. All the praise and thanks be to Allah, the lord of the worlds. The most gracious the most merciful. Master of the day of judgement. You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help. Guide us to the straight way. The way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not of those who earned Your anger, nor of those who went astray. (Q: 1 V: 1-7)

The airport was unbearably hot, thanks to the unreasonably high tempeartures during the summer in Egypt. I squirmed uncomfortably as I felt beads of sweat roll down my neck under my hijab, just our luck, the waiting room we were in just had to be the one with a broken AC.

I fanned myself with my hands in a bid to stay cool, if we stayed here for another hour I was going to go back home, it wasn't like I was exactly thrilled to relocate to another country anyway. Well, I wasn't actually going to go back, not like I actually could but hey, a girl can only dream.

"I'm about to become burnt toast here", Zayd; my twin brother grumbled beside me, he wiped his face with a napkin and I scolded myself mentally for forgetting to take one, "how much longer do we have to wait?"

"I think we'll called in about twenty minutes", mom replied him, she sat by his right side making him between me and her, "they're probably experiencing some kind of delay", she handed me a towel and I smiled gratefully and took it, quickly wiping the sheen of sweat that had settled on my forehead, if there was one thing I hated more than sushi, it was sweating.

I sighed and leaned back on my chair, there was a mild tension in the air and everyone in the room had different kind of emotions on their faces. One middle aged woman was yelling in Arabic on the phone, a younger man beside her stared listlessly out of the window, to my right a baby was crying and his mother was trying to calm him down and there was a toddler who kept scampering about, a child leash was attached to her wrist and the other end to her mother's wrist.

Just then a voice spoke through the speakers telling us our flight was departing in twenty minutes, about damn time, I thought, and it's just as mom said. Zayd stared at mom in surprise and I knew he was thinking the same thing, "are you psychic or something mom?", he asked her.

Mom chuckled and shook her head, "just a lucky guess", she said and adjusted her hijab, "get ready, make sure you don't forget anything here"

I nodded and fumbled through my purse looking for my compact mirror, my face was probably a mess from all the sweat, I should apply some moisturizer.

Suddenly the toddler that was walking around ran past and her arm bumped into me, my purse fell from my hands and the contents spilled onto the floor, cursing silently I bent down to retrieve them, the necklace round my neck dangled and the silver half heart pendant caught my eye. It was a parting gift from my best friend Nadia, my mood deflated at the thought of not seeing her again, I sighed and shook the thoughts away, taking a deep breath as I stood back up. After making sure I didn't miss anything I sat back down, the girl was sitting in her mother's lap now and the woman smiled apologetically at me. I nodded at her in acknowledgement, silently thanking God I had no younger siblings, it wasn't that I hated kids, I loved them, babies especially. I just couldn't stand them sometimes.

I applied my moisturizer on my face and put it back in my purse, while zipping it close the pendant on my necklace glinted and caught my eye, I gripped it tightly as I thought of Nadia again, our last conversation some hours ago replaying in my head.

Nadia had come over to my place in the morning to see me off to the airport, she stared at me wordlessly as I struggled with my suitcase from where she sat on my bed, my room was now vacant except for the furniture, everything else had been packed and the emptiness of it felt weird.