Palestwinians.

Cake and Catastrophe

“Cake, cake, cake!” 

“He’s not going to shut up now.” Deana said, crossing her arms smartly.  

“Deana! Don’t be rude.” I said, giving her a pointed look. 

“She’s right though. He’s going to be yelling it across the house all day now and we’re all going to have to put up with it,” Nadia said, eyeing his jumping body. 

“Let’s go to Abir’s house,” Rida said, as if that would solve their problems. 

“Um no. You guys aren’t going anywhere,” I said, finally getting up from my bed.

They huffed and were about to leave before I called them back. I crushed them both in a hug and thanked them for their birthday wishes. They just rolled their eyes and smiled like typical teenagers and walked out of my room.

“Cake, cake, cake!” 

“Goodluck,” Deana said. I grabbed Adam, perching him on my hip.

“Seriously guys where is your love?” I said, shaking my head.

****

“Min, I want cake nooww.” 

I love my little brother to death, but now I was beginning to agree with Rida’s plan of getting out of here. 

“Adam come over here.” He reluctantly obliged, walking over to sit on my lap.

“You have to be patient. Do you know what patient means?” He shook his head a blank look on his face. His long hair was falling over his forehead and into his eyes and he looked so adorable in a white polo shirt. I reminded myself I had to be stern or my point wouldn’t get across. 

“Patience means that you can’t get everything straight away.”

“But I feel like cake now!” he persisted. 

“Good comes to those who wait.” The blank look was still on his face so I thought of how I could elaborate.

“Imagine if you went and ate an old cake that was in the fridge right now. It wouldn’t taste that good and it might not even be chocolate flavour, your favourite. If you had just waited a bit more, mum might have gone to the shops and bought you a fresh chocolate cake, that would have tasted even yummier.” I searched his face and I knew from the way in which his eyes sparkled and his facial expression, he understood me.

“So I wait now and mummy will bring a good cake later?” he asked, to make sure. 

“Yes, good boy,” I said proudly. I kissed him on the cheek and then he bounded off into Noah’s room. He absolutely loved Noah and was extremely attached to him, even more than my mother. God knows why… I thought. However, Noah’s been extremely busy lately and Adam was upset that he couldn’t spend as much time as he usually did with him. For that reason he was always in Noah’s room when he was home. 

I had walked the girls to school earlier and since I was now officially on uni break I was at home babysitting Adam whilst my parents were at work. His play group had been cancelled so it worked out well. 

I prayed duhr then sat down on the couch with a cold cup of orange juice in my hand. I picked up my mobile, which had been left on the table since last night. Scrolling through I had 50 messages and 10 missed calls.

Wow. I sure feel loved. I opened up the first batch of messages from Zach sent at exactly 12:00am. They were a repetition of messages ranging from “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” to “you’re an old fart.” He was never one for cheesy comments and I appreciated that since I wasn’t exactly cheesy myself.