Professor Khan ✔️(completed)

41. w a p i s - return

"I know. Don't worry about him. He'll be home, today or tomorrow. You just be comfortable here, okay?" She nodded and patted him on his face. "Now, where is that wife of yours?"

He turned around and she was standing next to Ayla, with a tender and a proud smile playing at her lips. He held his hand out and she put hers into his. Her big eyes behind those glasses, they were glassy. The pin in her nose sparkling in a one escaped ray of sun. She was so damn beautiful and in love.

"This is my wife, Rabail Noor." There was so much love, pride, and compassion when he said that sentence. The warmth still lingering the air as he wounded an arm around her waist.

"Mashallah." Mrs. Wahab took a wad of cash from her handbag and whirled around his wife's head. "Such an apt name for a beautiful girl. Rabail Noor."

They all burst out in a fit of laughter. Like mother, like son.

"Go give this to one of the workers while I become the favorite person of your wife." She handed him the bundle of cash.

"Don't scare her away. I'm not sure if your son painted a nice picture of you."

"Dafa ho badtameez."
"Go away, you brat!"

She slapped him on his arm lightly as they walked to the sitting area.

"Ayla," She was still there in awe and wonder. Just to make sure he was still there. "Kabir?"

Her smile faltered a bit. Her eyes looked away hesitantly. 

"He is not home. He is a bit angry. He'll come around."

and he wanted to say Father, but the words wouldn't leave his lips. As if they were glued to the walls of his throat.

"Father is at work. I think."  She understood the swimming question in his dark eyes. "Lala."

His sister's mahogany eyes held of confliction of some sort. A dilemma maybe. A hidden rumination.

"People will say things. You will heart a lot." He furrowed his eyes as he heard Ayla's wavering words. "They will say things about me, about what I did, and about what happened. But before you believe anything you'll have to ask me, okay?" He nodded, but he was perplexed. "Promise me?"

He promised her. But he felt something in his gut. Something was not right.

Did I come back too late?

/////

His hand was on the handle of his Door, the other one holding his wife's. They had dinner together. He hardly could eat at the dining table where every nook and corner was touched by his mother's hand. Her essence was everywhere.

His eyes falling on the door with each moment, but Kabir wasn't anywhere. He didn't seem like he was coming home. Ayla walked with Mrs. Wahab to her home for a while after they calmed Rabail about Zach's return. Giving him the privacy to roam and find pieces of his childhood and then here he was where his whole life was still intact with his mother's memories.

"Mama spend the last of her life in your room. Ever since you left. She kept everything as it was so I did clean it, but left everything of hers there."

"Do you want me to go? I can stay with Ayla. I understand, Asfi."

"No," He kissed her temple, as the hair fell behind her shoulder in a loose ponytail. "I don't think so I can do this without you."

"Let me know anytime you need space. There are no walls and hesitation between us so anything you need, love."

Her reassurance only made him turn the knob. Ayla had left the light on. His toes curled in the grey carpet. The same Navy blue curtains were still hung on the windows. The Real Madrid jersey hung above his headboard. His own high school jersey hung in front of the curtain on a hanger. The wall next to the door was decorated with his soccer trophies. His notebooks still on the study desk with his bag.