Love So Far

Little Sisters

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Fariha

I couldn't enjoy the last day in London, because I was too busy worried about Zafar. Something about him seemed...off.

"Mamma?" Beside me, in the plane, Saad looked up from his colouring book, the one that the airline had provided for him in the kids' package. 

"What is it, Saad?" I asked him, wearily. Zaid had fallen asleep just ten minutes ago, and I wanted to get some sleep as well, because I had been unable to sleep properly last night. The thought of travelling always kept me up, for some reason. 

"Can we go and stay a Nano's when we get home? I don't want to go back to that house right now." He said. "It's too hot, and the lights go off too much."

"Saad, don't say that." I was surprised at his thinking. "It's your home, whether you like it or not, and that's where we're going." I always worried about this sort of thinking from Saad, because even if we visit my parents' house just for a few hours, he starts comparing their home to ours. "And, Saad, I don't want a word about this from you when we get home. Am I clear?" 

He nodded, and resumed colouring. 

Omar was asleep on the three seats by the window, across the aisle from me, with Zoya asleep on the three seats behind me, having barely recovered from her cold. Ahad was in the emergency exit seat in front of Omar's row.

It hadn't been easy to say goodbye to my Bhai, Bhabi and Hania, but we had to go back home eventually. Even Omar and Saad were especially missing their Mamu, while Omar also missed his honorary 'little sister'. But we had the excitement of Iman to look forward to, at least, In Sha Allah. 

But still, I had a nagging feeling  that Zafar was under a great deal of stress, possibly related to Taimoor Bhai. I reassured myself that I was going back, and I will support him through whatever issues that he and my in-laws were dealing with. I'm sure that whatever it was, it wasn't easy. 

My own brother lived abroad, but I could never imagine him neglecting our parents, or even me. Despite Ammi and Papa's protests, Bhai always sent them a fair amount of money to make sure that they were always comfortable. He ensured, even from London, that a lady come weekly to massage Ammi's legs and shoulders, because our mother often suffered from pain there. Bhai even kept in touch with me regularly, to check up on me. In our family, it wasn't the case that once a girl gets married, her family drops all contact with her. 

And then there was Zafar's brother, who completely neglected his own parents and younger siblings. He never once thought that he was not only taking away everything that his parents had earned, but he was also depriving his younger siblings of a brighter future. Zafar's education, Dua and Mahnoor's education, the weddings...everything. I knew how stressed out Ammi Jaan and Baba Jaan already were over Dua and Mahnoor's marriage. 

Ya Allah, help my family.

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Zafar

Fariha and the boys were arriving early in the morning at around two thirty. A few hours after Fariha had informed me about that they'd boarded the flight from Heathrow, I was alerted to a noise outside in the veranda, as I watched TV. I got up and headed out and saw Ammi and Mahnoor looking panicked.

"What's going on?" I asked, frowning.

"Dua's not home yet!" Mahnoor looked at me with tear-filled eyes. She'd had a fever, so she hadn't gone to university, so Dua had left by herself. Usually, a van picked her and her fellow classmates from the area, as well as dropped them off back home.