SOLITUDE (on hold)

CHAPTER 7: Hard Drive

Ahlam dedicated two days solely to rest and recalibrate herself. She paraded the garden frequently when most of the households where either at work or running errands for themselves, then receded to her room when they came back.

She knew that she couldn't sit down idle doing nothing—she needs to constantly learn and keep her mind at work and what better way other than to develop new codes for the Dankaka firm.

On the third day of her rest, Maryam organised a sisterly retreat for Ahlam and Zinnira. It involved a lot of cleansing, spa and Japanese massage. Afterwards, they went to a charity event which Maryam was part of— at Fifth Chukker. It was a new scenery for Ahlam, she never enjoyed nor understood polo — just people running on a horse with sticks in their hand. But, with the help of Maryam who learnt about it through her ex and was now obsessed with the game, Ahlam became acquainted with it after few rounds. She was already differentiating who was who and what the scoring process was. It was a nice change for her after all the mental stress she went through for the past weeks. Some of her glow came back and she became ecstatic.

On the final day of her rest, after subhi —the morning prayer. Ahlam went for a walk down the street. She never enjoyed walking as a part of an exercise. Mentally, she felt walking was meant for the less privileged who owned no car— but today she did enjoyed it in clearing her head. She spent almost 45minutes before she sighted Omar Jr from a far.

His beauty can't be overemphasised. He wore grey joggers and white armless Jersey. There was a band wrapped around his arm in which he tucked his IPod in. He was very sweaty and was panting heavily when he stopped few paces from where she stood.

He brought out a flask and gulped the water to the very end, then stared at hers using his eyes to plead for more. Initially, she wanted to ignore him, why should she help someone who was nothing but mean to her for the past twenty-five years of knowing him? But then, she wasn't that malicious, she couldn't bring her heart to do that.

Calmly, she gave him the bottle in which he collected happily. There was a spark of gratitude that shone from the crescent of his eyes. After he drank up, he handed it back to her. She stood there and fiddled with the bottle, not knowing whether to leave or to stay. Few seconds passed by with a deafening silence to both of them.

She made a right turn and left him there, after few steps he cleared his throat and spoke which led her to a halt.

"I noticed you quited," he said with utmost sarcasm. She averted her body towards his direction and fixed her gaze on his face. His mouth curved into a smile as he continued talking.

"Daddy's girl couldn't handle the heat right? I noticed your car always in the driveway. So all that gara gara that you normally pull off is for show abi? You finally realised that you have always been in our shadow and now you can't handle the big dogs — Dankaka. "

He broke into a laugh and wagged his finger towards her. If words and looks could kill she would have been dead by now. Jumada made sure he tormented her with that, but, she had already built a shield for herself. Nothing gets to her now, these were only words and would never mean anything nor would it deprive her of getting to Jannah. She wrapped her arms around her body as she listened.

"Wai Jumada fah! You just embarrassed yourself and our family. I am sure our ancestors would be turning in their grave by the shame. To make matters worst, Grandpa refused to punish your act— as per favourite." He winked at her.

She vouched never to engage with Omar Jr and Jumada. They have an unending drama and she'd have sworn they were siblings with their actions. Their similarities was just too much. She rested her hands on her hips and let out a harsh breath.