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Katrina Khan's morning started with her grandmother's voice drumming against her ears.
Karrina should have been annoyed or concerned, but she just casually threw off her blanket and let out a lazy yawn. Growing up in her family had made her desensitized to such things. In fact, this was a very typical morning in the Khan household - like the sun indicated the beginning of a day across the globe, her Dadi's tantrums did it for them.
They would be worried if Zahira Khan did not raise her voice the first thing after waking up - because the only way that would happen would be if the woman finally decided to take her last breath.
As Katrina brushed her teeth, eyes still droopy, she learned the reason behind her grandmother's cries this particular morning (not that she needed any) as her mother's tone added to the chorus. Apparently, her mother, Khadija Islam, had tried to murder her grandmother. Again.
Just a typical morning in the Khan household.
"You know my heart can't take spices, you know it! You keep adding it to the food in dozens anyway!" Zahira's voice was now quavering.
"My balance of spices is perfect," Khadija's voice was calm like it always was. "I add it according to how I, my husband, and children, like it. It is not my fault your old age has ruined your taste buds."
Zahira let out a loud, dramatic gasp.
Her Dadi had never approved of her mother since she did not belong to their village. Zahira had a girl fixed for her father, Arif Khan, since he was a teenager - a girl of their village. But once he reached of age, he declined her wish and married Khadija who he had his heart set on forever - a girl who grew up in the city and was from a different social class.
It was a betrayal the old woman was yet to forgive.
So now, every chance she got, Zahira gathered her best friends from the neighborhood and sat in their rooms backbiting about Khadija, and all their daughter-in-laws. But of course, they did it in the name of praying for the welfare of the society.
Khadija, despite being calm and respectful at all times, wasn't a woman who turned down a fight. She let her mother-in-law scream and speak ill, but also secretly added too much salt to the food every time Zahira's friends came over, knowing full well it wasn't good for the old lady's heart.
"Arif, your wife is trying to poison your only mother!" Zahira has been complaining for years.
"If I did want her to die I would have fed her rat poison years ago," Khadija argued, feigning innocence.
Katrina rolled her eyes as she stepped out of her room. Her mother and grandmother were standing a couple feet away from her, staring furiously at each other. Now Katrina assessed her options. One, she could step up to them and try to calmly diffuse the situation. Two, she could sneak out of her room like a coward. On a different morning, she would have chosen the first option, but this morning she already had too much on her own plate.
