Drifting Away

A new found happiness

   Something or someone was really singing a terribly sounding muffled noise and it was irritating my sleep. I hissed and turned around opening my eyes to bright lights shining from the window I forgot to draw the drapes over the previous night.
    The ringing started again and oh I realized it was my cell phone.
  I grabbed the cell and swiped the ringer.
"Hello?" I said, groggily.
  " Noor! "
  "Asma! Oh my Allah ! It's been so long " I said smiling and sitting up.
  "Yes Noor, I miss you too. How's mum and Affan?" She said sounding happy.
"They're all fine . We thank Allah. We've moved Asma and the house is really amazing."
"Oh! I'm happy for us all then."
"Alhamdulillah Asma we are happy now. We got to visit the sites and-"
" Noor! It's a baby girl"
"What?! Who?"
"My baby Noor. She came yesterday and she looks just like you!"
Does she mean she has a baby and I'm an aunt now?! She does. She does!!
"Oh Asma I'll tell mum right away! Oh Allah "
"Okay Noor. Talk to you soon-"
Before she could complete her sentence, I switched off the caller and jumped out of bed running into mum's room.
"Mum!! Wake up! Asma is a mother now!" I said screaming.
"Oh Allah! Alhamdulillah! We'll go see her as soon as we get a ticket to Oklahoma."
"Yes mum please!"
Mum then decided to embrace me in a bear hug.
"Erm you're choking me mum."I said coughing lightly.
  "Oh sorry. I'm just so happy and Noor you forgot your Salam yet again!"
"Mum!" I said running out of her room.
I entered my room, arranged my bed and got into the bathroom to take a shower.
After twenty minutes of scrubbing and washing, I finally put on my robe and came out.
I checked the time and it was 7:30am after I was done dressing up. On getting downstairs, I met mum by the cooker preparing lemon marinaded rice with olives on chicken.
"Hey..salam mum" I quickly corrected remembering mum's recent warnings on me not doing my salam.
"Noor my dear! I thought you went back to bed because I presumed you were tired after yesterday's site seeing" mum stated as I grabbed a stool and sat down.
"No mum. I simply just took a nice refreshing shower" I said lamely playing with the artificial fruits bowl on the table.
"Oh Masha Allah then. There's the chicken help me out with it will you?"
"Sure mum" I said coming off the stool.
I washed my hands, tied on my apron and began the chicken process.
"Oh honey, that reminds me." She said all of a sudden. "It was Imran that came here yesterday because I bet you were too groggy to notice. He lives downtown Chicago and is done with his business. He came over to visit his mum so when he heard we moved here, he decided to come welcome us right away" she said smiling widely.
"Oh Masha Allah."
"Is that all you have to say? He kept asking about you and that's all you have to say? Oh Noor! You have to pull down your guard sometimes" she said scoffing loudly.
"Okay mum but that's really nice to know Masha Allah" I said nodding my head in distaste. Oh mum can be so persisting sometimes. This isn't the first time she has spoken to me about Imran and it always ends up like this for us.
I guess she got the message that I wasn't ready to talk about this and so she brushed off the topic. She went on telling me how she wants to make a garden behind the house so she can grow all the essential plants we need. Complaining that things can get a little bit costly here, she suggested we try our best to manage.
Oh my Allah. I never knew there'll be a time when we had to manage.
Before we lost dad, life was starting to get a little comfortable for us. I got my account credited frequently and I even got a beautiful Audi. Now that he's gone, we had to settle some financial issues regarding our move. Oh not to forget grandma is suffering some asthma crises and she has to be stabilized. Things aren't pretty now but Alhamdulillah we live.
I finished preparing the chicken and I got it into the oven as mum finished with her rice. I have school tomorrow and so I have to get my stuff ready. I excused myself from the kitchen and headed upstairs to get them ready.
Emptying the box that was labeled "books and stuff",I dragged out my time table and carefully placed the required books for my lectures the next day. I also didn't forget to place a sticky note reminding me to look for a part time job tomorrow.
Closing the bag, I pushed the box to the side and grabbed my cell heading downstairs.
I spent my day helping mum arrange the study and fix the light switches as well. Knowing that it might cost us some bucks, mum suggested we fixed the switches ourselves and Alhamdulillah it came on perfectly.
Affan was busy with his video games as we worked and worked having intervals of salah.
Sighing with relief , mum and I both glanced at the clock which read 7:00pm. We both decided we'd take a shower and come down for dinner.
Aunt zakiyya, imran's mum had rung mum and asked her if we could go over for dinner but mum had declined kindly stating that we had a lot of unpacking to do.
I felt kind of bad because I wanted to see Imran. Astagfirullah.
I tiredly dragged myself upstairs, took a shower and made sure to pray my Isha salah before heading back downstairs.
Immediately I finished my salah, my body had other plans for me as I fell onto the bed and into deep slumber.
I was instantly awoken by a very terrible dream and I was sweating profusely.
I quickly grabbed my prayer mat and knelt on it to pray to my Allah.
Oh please ya Allah. Do not allow these bad dreams yet again devour me. Make them stop ya Allah.
I used to have bad dreams after my dad passed away and he used to call my mother, Affan and I to come to him.
Oh ya Allah please don't make them come back to me.
I prayed...