"Thunk"
I startled awake from a deep sleep. 'what the —?' I try to focus my sleep-leaden eyes around my bedroom.
"THUNK".
It's coming from the window. What on earth is going on? If this is my brother trying to wake me up, I will kill him! I think furiously, jumping out of the bed to stalk towards the curtained window.
"Thunk"
This time, the wrought iron grill actually vibrated. I jerk open my curtains to see my next door neighbor (AKA Devil spawn) perched upon the adjacent wall expertly bouncing a tennis ball against my window.
MY WINDOW.
AT ASS 'O CLOCK IN THE MORNING!
I open the glass slider, regretfully letting out precious air conditioned air in the process. He paused in Mid-throw, eyes wide. "Auntie, Do you mind?"
I see red. Seriously, I think my vision just turned a different color.
I swear if this kid weren't ten (or five, who can know the difference?) I would gladly push him off the wall he was perched on. Auntie, my ass! I'm not THAT ancient!
"YES. I do mind. I was asleep just now, and your thudding woke me up. Bounce it against something else.", I growl at him.
He throws the ball straight at me.
If it weren't for the grill, it would have knocked the frown straight off my face. Literally.
As it were, it bounced back into his little claws.
"WHY YOU LITTLE TWERP!" I scream.
He grins evilly. His is dead. D-E-A-D.
"Whoops!" he says, before expertly bouncing it off my grill twice. I reluctantly admit that he is good at this.
On the third bounce though, I am ready. The Devil Spawn seems to cackle in slow motion as he sends his ball hitting one more time....
...Except, I catch it! It took some serious maneuvering my arm through the iron slats.
I stare in disbelief at the little green tennis ball clutched in my hand .
I smile hugely at Spawn (let's keep it short).
"Sucker", I say; before slamming the window shut. I carefully perch the ball on my dressing table, like a weird trophy. It looks extremely out of place among my nail color bottles, and colorful jewelry boxes.
I do a face plant on my comfy bed, and go right back to dreamland.
At least until I am shaken awake by mother.
"MINA, YOU TOOK HIS BALL? SERIOUSLY? he is just a kid!" Ammi (Mom) sounds upset.
"Relax Ma, he has plenty of balls!." I smirk at the stunningly apt double entendre. I try to bury my head back in my pillows. "Five more minutes please!"
"NO! it has been one week since you graduated mina, ONE WEEK! I gave you time to rest, laze around. But No more, you have to start learning about house-work! Ya Allah! (By God) when I was your age, I could..."
I tune it out. Really, there's just so many times you can hear your mom's tales of precocious domestic talents. She was a regular Zubaida Aapa (Pakistani Martha Stewart) in her teenage years.
"....and you know I got married off at 19, and I had to manage the entire workload...."
'Yep. Let's zone out.' the Evil Mina Voice (EMV) whispers. 'Amen to that sister' I raise a pretend glass to her.
"....I had you kids before I hit 23. The Doctor said I could have ten kids if i wished to...."
Wait, what?
"...And then the mid-wife took one look at my uterus.."
*gag*. Okay. Definitely time to zone out.
"....BUT the POINT IS, you should be ready for marriage by now, I should have forced you to do more responsible house-work before now. But NO! your Dad just wanted his daughter to be get the best education, so I never disturbed you during your bachelors. But this is getting ridiculous! You still act like you are in school. When will you step up and own this house, this responsibility..."
Oh God! Not that again!
"...You know I love kids Mina, I want to play with yours! your Dad just wants you to be open minded about marriage. Your aunt sent that Rishta (proposal) from her neighbor, that accountant guy, he was decent, and respectable..."
I snap awake. "Ma, he was like 37!!"
"SO WHAT? He has his own house in DHA, he is well settled, grounded, and both his parents are dead!"
"Pretty sure that's not a plus point Ma!"
"...and he was an only child; so NO IN-LAWS!"
I glare at her. "No. No. No. Just NO! please let me decide this for myself!"
She fumes silently.
I hate doing this. Arguing with her over marriage proposals. I am in no hurry to walk down the aisle, or in my culture, sign the Nikah-Naama. I think that the right person will come into my life at the right time, and I have no intention of kissing a frog just for the heck of...well...kissing a frog!
Dad chooses this untimely moment to pop his head inside my room.
"Salman is asking for his ball. Mina, did you....?"
So the Spawn has a name.
"Of course she did!" Ma barely breathes before launching into a speech. "because that's what she does! goes around grabbing kids' balls!"
Like, seriously? there're SO MANY things wrong with the statement.
Dad looks like he is about to burst out laughing. He grins at me, "How did you catch it?"
I grin back, "Lucky catch, I had just stuck my hand out of the railing..."
"That's my girl!" He winks. Mom just stalks out of my room in a huff. I gently throw the ball to my dad. He catches it with exaggerated flair. He loves cricket. If he wasn't a smarty pants engineer, he would have been out on a cricket pitch, trying to make Pakistan proud.
"Love you Dad."
"Love you too Baby Girl."
Just as he is about to safely depart, he turns back and smiles widely, "Oh, and Mina?"
"Yep?"
He mimes drinking. It looks more like a tequila shot action, but I know better.
Tea. Sigh. The bane of my measly existence.
"Coming right up Dad."
.................................
Author's note:
Hey There! Thanks for taking the time out to read my work! just starting out. Total Wattpad newbie here, do let me know what you think! Vote and Comment. :D
P.S: The girl in the photo (Emily Rudd) is what Mina looks like. In my head.