ON HOLD The perks of being a Hafizah

When things get a little awkward...

بسم الله.....

Amatullah POV

Spots of conversations blotted across the airport gateway; of happiness, excitement and with the greatest sense of exhilaration.

And I, along with Yahya and Zahra were not an exception:

"Did you tell your mom to bring ding dongs?" Zahra stared out of my face in hope.

"I think I did I'm not sure you..."

Yahya cut me off:

"Yeah yeah and did you ask for those cola sweets. I was told you can get like 100 in one of those boxes" Yahya beamed at me.

What do you think? Is stood laughing at both of their gleaming faces upon which lay this great sense of well....greed?

I wasn't sure okay, to call it greed would be a crime I mean; not all people who like cola sweets and those Ding Dongs are greedy right?

Or not....

I stood watching both of them listing all these delicious treats like as if all were to come before their eyes at any moment.

And they were kinda right.

Upon the gate stood a smartly dressed security attendant in crisp orange uniform and a flat hat embedded with colourful (most of which were green) emblems and badges that I could almost swear were all of the Pakistani flag.

And upon the side panel of the blazer (that was far too long for him I can assure you that) were another line of badges....and another line upon the second panel....

He marched (and I mean marched) across the gate entrance and pushed the doors open.

And silence fell upon the airport and there upon came small whispers.

Louder and louder they got...out of sheer excitement and joy.

But it wasn't until the last person to exit the gate that my beloved, my lovely...my most precious mother came through.

And it was revelation of happiness; Allah hu Akbar.

I screamed (in my mind of course) as loud as my brain could handle and even more....

My heart leaped from one intense emotion to another unable to come to terms that in fact, my mother was back, healthy and well.

She pushed the trolley tirelessly along the platform but it felt that in less than a moment, Yahya snagged the trolley out my mothers grasp and pushed it along side her.

My mother looked at Yahya in compassion and patted his heavily built shoulder to which he hugged my mother from the side (if that makes sense)

I stood quite hysterical as to that little intimate moment between Yahya and my ummi and after seconds didn't hesitate to crash into my mothers arms.

"Muuum" I spoke into her chest.

And tears joined this mini intimate moment; the feeling is in fact indescribable....I...just......

We all walked out of the airport speechlessly.

In the distance walked Abu Bakr towards us and almost in complete surprise he ran towards us.

"Assalamualaykum!" She shouted smiling and laughing.

He ran into ummi and exchange their own intimate moment.

"I'm sorry Amatullah, I didn't come you know" he looked at me totally in distress and took me into his large, and ever so cuddly arms.

I dug my head into his chest taking in the soft scent of musk that ever so slightly emanated from his chest.

I closed my eyes so slightly and kissed his cheek.

"It's okay, don't worry" I smiled at him and so warmingly her smiled back.

He kissed me upon my forehead and pulled my cheeks.

"You little cutie" he remarked and we set off towards Zahra's mothers car which Yahya, so illegally was driving.

"Ummi come with me in sha Allah and Yahya you can drive the bags" Yahya looked confused towards Abu Bakr.

"Hang on..." He looked down at the trolly and looked across at Abu Bakr.

"Am I going alone?" Yahya finally remarked.

"No of course not" Abu Bakr smiled.

"You are taking the bags brother, if you crash it will be okay" he smiled at Yahya mischievously.

"You really think my driving is that bad?" Yahya directed towards Abu Bakr.

"No of course not, that's why you are going alone" Abu Bakr remarked.

"Oh you silly, Rahim make Zahra and Amatullah go with him" ummi spoke up.

"I'm only kidding brother" Abu Bakr began laughing hysterically

"You stupid man" I proudly punched Abu Bakr into the arm and walked along with Yahya.

"Jizakallahkhayrun Abu Bakr" Yahya said a little embarrassed.

"Call me Rahim, you know" he touched Yahya's arm.

"He only lets those he loves call him Rahim" he wiggled my eyebrows at Abu Bakr and Yahya.

"Yeah of course! For the sake of Allah" he smiled at Yahya.

"Na'am (yes)" Yahya said looking down at the floor.

We parted out ways; Yahya, Zara and I towards one direction and Abu Bakr and Ummi in the other.

As we reached the car, Yahya took it upon himself to heave the bags into the boot but it wasn't long untill I caught him up.

"Hey hey wait" I ran across towards Yahya and opened the front pocket of one of the suitcases in hope of finding a packet of sweets.

"Hey you! Sabr women" he grabbed my shoulder and pushed me across and took hold of my hips and directed me into the passenger seat.

"Sit okay?" He said whispering.

I turned around in complete and utter surprise to be greeted by his beard at first and then his utterly distraught eyes sunken in sheer embarrassment.

"Oh my..I thought..Zahra I...ur" second upon second both of us got redder and redder and redder.

This was certainly a very awkward situation.

And It certainly couldn't get any more awkward.

He moved his arms back behind his body and looked down at the ground.

"I'm sorry, Astagfirullah" his voice croaked out as I began to try and take off the invisible weight that settled on my hips where once sat Yahya's hands only a minute ago.

Yahya turned around, in total embarrassment and clumsily attended to the bags that he was attempting to out into the boot.

Awks.