Somewhere Over the Rainbow

XII

| CHAPTER - XII |

DON'T PLAY PRETEND

The next morning, it is an understatement that Mrs. Rodrigues is astonished by the sight she finds in her garden. The Rodrigues siblings are asleep. What's more surprising is: they're sleeping together. Rosanna, Romeo and Xavier have occupied the sofa-cum-bed. On the other hand, Francesco, Fahad and Jésus have taken the liberty to pull up beach chairs and sleeping bags.

They're all strategically placed to face the television screen, which has the word Are you still watching Netflix? written in bold across it.

"Mama," a voice echoes from inside the house calls. "Mama!" The honey filled voice gets closer. "I don't know where any of them are! I'll call them right –" Nawaz's eyes catches the scene and she has to take a moment to register that the scene before her is real.

She's cradling her baby on her arm, Ahaan's head turned away, his chin resting on her shoulder. "Mama . . how did this happen?" She almost laughs in disbelief. How in the world did this ever come to be? Holding Ahaan in one arm, Nawaz fishes out her phone from the back of her light blue pajama pants and steadies the phone to take a picture of the rare right.

Nawaz walks over to Fahad and crouches. "Should we wake Papa up?" Nawaz coos, holding her son over Fahad's face. She sets her boy down, one arm loosely around him. Nawaz brushes his beard and combs a hand through his hair.  Fahad stirs a little, going to lay on his back instead.

Ahaan begins  to giggle, hitting his fists playfully on his father's stomach. He then moves up and scratches his beard, before going to play with his father's lips and nose. "Papa," the kid brokenly says, patting his father's cheeks. Fahad's eyes shoot open and it makes Ahaan burst into a fit of giggles, running away from his parents and to his grandmother.

Fahad looks up, lifting his head of the beach chair for just a second, before his eyes land on his wife. In his sleepy state, Fahad lifts his hand lets it fall onto the nook of her shoulder, right on her collar bone. His fingers curl to grasp the white t-shirt Nawaz is wearing. He groans and then lets go, closing his eyes once more.

Nawaz smiles, genuinely, admiring how wonderful her husband looks. For a moment she wonders how lucky she is to have scored such a man to be her husband. Nawaz in that moment forgets the pain. So, she leans forward, her lips pink and parted, to cherish a moment of peace.

With a light pressure, Nawaz presses her lips against Fahad's. It's not even a kiss – just a brush of the lips that has her yearning because she hears Francesco loudly groan and complain, "I want to throw up and I haven't even had breakfast yet."

Nawaz abruptly pull aways, eyes diverting and arms wrapping around her torso. Looking up, she catches her child examining the step from the sliding window into the backyard, seemingly wondering if he should take the step or not. Nawaz quickly springs upon the chance to escape and walks over to her, telling him to, "Aaram se, Aahan. Hum ghirna nahi chyate hai." (Be careful, Ahaan. We don't want to fall.)

Romeo is the next one to get up. He yawns incredibly loudly, managing to wake up the rest and then proceeds to go to his room. To be fair, Jésus woke up when Nawaz came but he tried to catch a few moments more of sleep. Rosanna gets up, only yawning once before climbing out, muttering something about taking a shower and making coffee. The most uncomfortable in their impromptious sleep is Xavier. He is still dressed in the suit he was sporting for his dinner with Eli. He too gets up, grabs his blazer and goes off for a shower.