The Imperials

Problems

"Not all the time dear, you know it's not good for you."

"Wow, that'd be great." I answered politely, taking a seat on the dining chair and staring at her with my hands folded. Well, the only thing to do right now was to keep Gramma company, and myself distracted away from the nerve twitching noises of the zoo-like snores that was keeping this house uplifted.

"Really?"

"Sure," I replied. This 'sure' definitely didn't mean I was forever staying with her. It was just a polite 'sure' as in just to show off my manners at the table. You see, grandmas are always going to be a grandma; old fashioned. She definitely didn't have all the gaming gadgets installed in her house, thus, I wasn't prepared to live with her permanently either. 

Gramma produced a box of chocolate cookies from her cupboards and handed it to me. "Here, made some cookies especially for my favourite grandson."

I smiled, surveying the soft cookies with square chocolate chips decorated on it. "Jazakallah."

Smiling, she entered the kitchen again, brewing the morning coffee in the coffee maker and instantaneously dumping all the pancake ingredients on a large bowl. 

I slowly crunched on the melting chocolate cookies, daydreaming about how Musa was surely going to kill me in less than few hours with his maps of master plans for the day. This was probably my only few minutes of peace at length. 

"Assalamu Alaikum, grandson." Gramps called cheerfully, taking an opposite seat towards me on the dining table. "You're an early person, huh?" 

Okay, too early. Maybe, my peace was killed even before that.

"Nope," I answered monotonously, cringing at the memory of Musa's feet in my mouth this morning. I stared unconsciously at the depth of the chocolate chip hanging on my cookie. "I guess when you taste Musa's feet first thing in the morning and listen to dad's fireworks, you end up being an early person."

"Fireworks, meaning dad's snores?" Gramps questioned with a laugh.

"Yup," I nodded emotionlessly. 

Gramps laughed. "You could've just slept with me then."

"I didn't want to disturb you." I lied. To be honest, it would be ten times worse than sleeping with dad. I would be brutally squashed between Gramma and Gramps with their arms all over me, and with no sense of privacy at all. Basically, a type of tied imprisonment if you ask me. Not to mention, Gramps was the one of sent down his gurgling snores down to Musa. 

"What are you thinking?" 

"Uh, nothing." I replied quickly with a sheepish smile. There was no need for Gramps to comprehend my thoughts about him. Yup, definitely no need!

"Okay," Gramps nodded, taking a chocolate cookie from the box and surveying it. "Where's Halima?" 

I shrugged ignorantly. "Don't know. Home with Uncle Hurairah perhaps--"

"She never comes to see us. I mean... it wouldn't hurt her if she came."

"Yeah..." I trailed off, not know how to console Gramps. I didn't care about girls, and they didn't care about me. It was how the world worked to maintain peace at all times.

"Does she hate us Harun?"

"I don't know--"

"Maybe she thinks we don't treat her equally like the rest of our grandkids. Yes, maybe that's the reason." Gramps beamed, his face turning anxiously melancholic again. "God, how did I end up being the worst Grampa ever?"