Birds With Broken Wings

14* Crime Scenes and Love Stories

Hey Wattfam! Happy New Month!!

Nouman Hussain

"A'udhu billahi minash-shaitan ar-rajim, (I seek refugee in Allah from Satan),"

"A'udhu billahi minash-shaitan ar-rajim, (I seek refugee in Allah from Satan),"

That was what Nazeera kept whispering to herself as she entered the apartment. She had texted me that she was bored at home so she ended up going to school and now, she was just coming back when it was almost 8pm.

I was sitting at the kitchen Island and cleaning my camera's lens when she entered and she did not do as if she saw me. She just walked into the apartment as if in a trance while muttering that supplication over and over again, to herself as she walked straight to her room, then subsequently to the bathroom and I could tell that she was performing ablution from how the water was running.

She soon came out again, now wearing a long Kimar and I watched as she spread out the prayer mat she had set up in the corridor that leads to the balcony and she started to pray all the while still completely ignoring my existence.

She started praying and I shook my head while wondering if she had acted like that because she didn't pray on time before I went back to cleaning my cameras.

Such a drama queen.

I finished cleaning, picked up my phone, and was attending to some emails when it just dawned on me that Nazeera had still not said a word since she entered.

And it was almost like 40 minutes since she entered.

I looked back in the direction of the prayer mat and lo and behold, my sister was still praying. I wasn't even sure what I concluded on but I was pretty sure that even if she had missed all the 5 prayers, which I knew she didn't even miss, she shouldn't be praying for almost an hour.

So I just decided to keep an eye on her and right in front of my eyes, she prayed another five rakahs and my mouth dropped open.

When she's not praying Tarawih for goodness sake?

She finally settled on the prayer mat and I assumed she was done with whatever type of prayer she was praying until she started making duas while murmuring things to herself.

That was normal.

What wasn't normal was the desperation I could feel in how she was praying.

The urgency, a you-must-answer-me-now-now stance to how she was praying as if she wanted whatever she was praying for to be answered immediately.

I shook my head and I looked away from her because, for all I knew, she could be praying that those her boys should end up miraculously coming to Nigeria.

Or better still, she could be praying that whoever died in the series this morning should wake up.

Because with Nazeera, anything was possible.

"Oh my, I'm so exhausted," I finally heard her voice and footsteps as she started walking towards me.

"Oppa, you won't believe what happened to me in school today!" She whispered in a small, almost scared voice as she took her seat adjacent and I looked up at that only to see her looking like someone that just saw something horrific.

I wasn't even sure if I was supposed to be worried because Nazeera was...

She was extremely unpredictable.