YASMIN'S ORDEAL

CHAPTER ONE

*CHAPTER ONE*

It's in mid August and the morning sky was clearer than grumpy. The Sufyan Makama household were busy with preparation of welcoming home the second son of the family; Khalifah, who's returning after a four-year degree program in computer engineering from Brazil.

He has almost landed and the whole family have left for the airport.

Yasmin after setting the dining table and tidying up, perfumed the house before heading to the kitchen to clean up.

It's only natural that she's so excited to see him. It's been four long years and during that time she could count the times she'd talked to him on one hand. She doesn't even have a phone. She only speaks with him through Basma's phone, his immediate younger sister.

She could only imagine how much he's changed. Will he be taller? Of course he would. He'd definitely change a lot. Perhaps he'll even forget her. The last time they'd talked was about three years ago. Maybe he won't even care.

Well why would he? What am I to him? Just a friend. And he must have gotten a lot of new friends over there.

How will life be like overseas?

She wished she could know or perhaps experience it.

It must be lovely but lonely.

The happy voices and laughter of the family members roared through her reverie and she shot her eyes to the direction of the door.

They're back!

But she knew better than to run off to them so she stayed behind and completed her chores.

She could still hear them chatting merrily from within an hour plus later and she's scared to even pass through them to her room. She so wanted to catch a glimpse of Ya Khalifah but she wouldn't take chances so she just seized the opportunity and got the novel Shahida gave her a day ago and went to the backyard to read.

Welcome home Ya Khalifah.

* * *

Khalifah stretched on his bed as he woke up from sleep, batting his eyes open.

It's still dark and he wondered what time it was.

He sat up and looked around for his phone which he found lying on the other side of the bed.

3:30! Whoa!

He expected to sleep longer than that.

Nevertheless he went to the ensuite for a warm quick shower. After repeating his pajamas, he climbed on his bed to go through his newsfeed.

He replied some messages, viewed some stories and whatnots waiting to feel sleepy again which wasn't quite oncoming.

The first call to prayer met him watching a movie on Netflix and he went in to make wudu' which honestly wasn't his habit to pray nafil, especially not at dawn.

But he's idle and some extra reward is always welcome.

After praying and saying some adhkars he continued with his movie.

At six a.m. he's prayed subh and was ready to go jogging which was per routine plus he wanted to seize that opportunity to look around the area he's been away from for years.

He still wasn't sleepy but maybe he would after exercising a little.

Everywhere was still quiet and he wondered if the family members even wake up for subh.

Maybe everyone prays in their rooms.

It felt good coming back home but that only means more responsibilities.