Pervade and Faint

Chapter 3

             

The next morning, I woke up when I heard someone knocking at my door. It was mom. I wondered why she had knocked, because she entered after just two shakes of a lamb. But I didn't mind because I wasn't up to anything suspicious.

"How was your day?" she asked and perched herself at the very verge of my bed. I moved aside to produce some space for her on my single bed.
"It was fine. I actually made a friend. He also lives in this street", I told. Mom nodded, raising her eyebrows in fascination.
"I even went to his house and we had dinner", I added, trying not to keep anything hidden. By the way, I couldn't have kept anything clandestine from mom. After all, she was my mother. And mothers are more aware of their children than they are of themselves. They can smell suspiciousness from miles away.
"First day?" asked mom as she raised one eyebrow, astonished. She usually did that when she was perplexed or astounded. I developed that habit from her, except I only knew how to raise my left eyebrow individually, while she had control on both. So that was one leaf I took from her book. It was simply the pass of maternal habit via heredity.
"Yeah, he said that his mother was a friend of auntie Shame", I informed. Mom told me that her mother was really sick and she was really worried about her. She was suffering from an execrable and persistent cancer.
"A mother is indeed a great blessing", advised my mother and closed her eyes gently. There was a moment of silence between us. Mom stood up and went straight into my closet. I had placed some of my clothes in the closet, the previous day.
"Wear this today", she suggested and placed a dress of mines on my bed. I wondered why she wanted me to put myself in such an ostentatious dress on a normal day. It wasn't actually much ostentatious, but I just wasn't familiar of wearing dress shirts on normal days. Looking at the crispy shirt itself made me cringe in irritation.
"My sisters are coming over", mom announced
"And get ready. Take a shower", she added. "Here?" I inquired, referring to our house. Mom pointed towards the wall. It took me a second to comprehend what she had meant. Yes sir! I said to myself and abruptly went downstairs for a shower. I washed my face about six times with soap. For the first time in my life, I actually wanted to wear a dress shirt. I didn't want to cast to a bad image of myself and arrive in a t-shirt. I was about to see Sophia. And there was an eccentric, as well as electric, up-swell in my bloodstream, for some inexplicable reason.
Mom and dad were waiting for me downstairs. I applied some gel and perfume. I didn't really have a deep penchant for perfume, because it smelt much like chemicals rather than scents. But I didn't have much of a problem with body spray. Body sprays were mostly devoid of alcohol, due to which I preferred them more often. Dad was wearing the same dark blue suit and mom was wearing purple (her favorite color). Mom liked dark colors, claiming that they attract her eyes more than the insipid light colors. Mom had always been a fan of vigorous and incandescent items.

When we entered uncle Qurashi's house, we were jubilantly welcomed by mom's sisters. Mom had three sisters, out of which she was the eldest. However, all of them looked young and similar. Everyone sat in the living room. Their husbands also came with them. Irrespective to the genders, everyone was in the same room, producing an in-equivalent air of gender. Sophia was still nowhere to be seen. Even though I didn't really know what her physical appearance was like, I had an image of her in my mind, self made.

I sat in the living room with everyone. Contrary to everyone else, I had been on a silent mode. I really didn't know what to do or say. So I excused myself to the bathroom, even though I really didn't have to use it. I wondered how long I would have to stay like that. I definitely had to prohibit my tedious habit of not talking to people, especially with the female gender. I always found myself different and diffident in front of women.

When I walked out of the room, I took a deep breath as if I was released from prison. The air felt much better. Not used. That's when I realized what the ostensible reason of the fresh air was. A girl, probably in late sixteen or so, had been sitting on a chair in the kitchen with a book in her left hand and a pen in her right, which she brought near her lips. I wondered whether she was another one of mom's sisters. Perhaps a daughter of one of her sister's, I thought. Her hair was dark brown, akin to the color of her eyes, which were sparkling in the sunlight. The rays of the sun were falling on her book. Her eyes were focused on the book and she perused scrupulously. I was completely transfixed. Not just because the book which she had been reading was the one that I had picked up yesterday, but for another reason. I didn't have to spend much time to realize why I had been transfixed and bamboozled. She was gorgeous, and that was the reason. I knew spontaneously that she was Sophia. According to the image I had in my mind of her, she was the diametrical opposite.