A Life I Always Wanted

CHAPTER 1

"When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us."

And it took a lot of years for me to see that open door. My life has always been about my Family and it was not because I am a family person but it was something that is every child's nightmare "Parents getting divorced". I never enjoyed my school life because of all this, and high school was the worst part through this. In these years I never realised that there was a certain someone who was there by my side always and it took me 12 long years to realise that I didn't want him to leave my side ever. At times when I used to think that my life was over, his smile was the only thing that gave me hope. Even the thought of him leaving was a nightmare for me. But sometimes life has different things planned for you...

I am MAISHA ALI and this is my life story.....

MAISHA'S POV

We were having dinner and Mom was sitting on my left side and Dad was on my right side, Mom had come over for a day to see if I was doing okay, at this point of my life I literally didn't care about them anymore because I was fed up of all this, they were apparently not living together but didn't take divorce either as they didn't want me to "suffer" because of their incompatibility. Like I didn't suffer at all.

"Pass me the salad Maish."

Dad said breaking the silence of the room. I passed it to him and started to tell them about my plans after my college was over so that they didn't act like they never met.

"So, I am planning to go to LA after my college is over, the college is offering me an internship at a multinational company which would help me improve my CV later on. What are your thoughts on this?"

There was a complete silence in the room for about 5 minutes as if I had said something which shouldn't have been said.

"Honey shifting to LA is a very big decision, I agree that there are a lot of opportunities there but Toronto isn't bad either."

Dad was surprised with my plans, I could tell that he didn't expect this coming at all.

"I disagree with whatever he is saying, I rather believe in the fact that taking big decisions in your life help you to know yourself better. LA is a wonderful place and you have everything that takes to be a successful woman. And after all for how long are you going to stay in Canada you need to explore the other world."

MOM as always disagreed with what Dad had to say.

Charlotte Wilson, my MOM who is a Canadian and Roman Catholic married Eesa Ali, my DAD who is a Canadian-Muslim (but also was a Roman Catholic before). According to my dad who was not a Muslim when he was in high school fell in love with mom. (Back then dad had a very stylish name "Harry Morrison") and every girl had a crush on him, but dad only loved mom. Their love story was just like a fairy tale. As Mom and Dad finished their college they decided to work for a year and then tell their parents about them. During his job dad got to know about ISLAM more and more and he started to feel that he should be a Muslim. One cold winter day, after late hours of work mom thought to give dad a call as he didn't call her all day long, as she picked her phone she saw a message from dad saying he wanted to meet her at their usual meeting place asap. Mom left the office to see if everything was okay or not. As she reached the place she saw dad sitting on the bench worried, mom asked dad what was the reason he called her to reach there asap. Dad sighed and told her that he had taken a big decision in his life and is afraid that his parents are not going to accept it at all. Mom was surprised, as she never expected him to take big decisions on his own without even talking to her. She tried to calm him down and started to talk to him about that Big Decision. Dad told her that he had accepted ISLAM and was going to live the rest of his life like a MUSLIM. Mom was taken aback by these words and started to cry, she could think of just one thing, their soon to be perfect marriage falling apart. Dad convinced mom that he would never force her to accept ISLAM in any way but he still wanted to marry her thinking that she would get inspired from him and accept ISLAM sooner or later, cause at that point of his life she was the only person he cared for. And Mom was thinking only about one thing, their parents, they were Roman Catholics and they would never accept something like this. It took mom two weeks to decide what she wanted to do, and in that period dad was thrown out of his family. On 22nd December 1997 Mom and Dad ran away from Edmonton, Alberta to Toronto, Ontario. They had just one thing in mind, to have a beautiful family and live happily at this new place. After one year on 18th December 1998 they had me. Mom wanted to name me as Abigail but dad on the other hand had made up his mind to name me as Maisha, according to him it had a beautiful meaning "To be prosperous". So on the very first day of my birth they had a fight. As years passed by mom did not find ISLAM inviting at all and wanted me to be more like her and Dad wanted me to be more like him. So they started to have small arguments one day and the other over me and these small arguments turned into big fights after I was in school. Honestly I spent most of my time with mom because dad used to stay at the office for long hours and I understand it cause he was doing all of it for us to live a happy life. But in these years I became more like mom and less like dad, I had no one to guide me towards ISLAM and when dad used to tell me not to wear small skirts, or tank tops mom used to get angry on him. She used to tell him that he cannot force his thinking on me. And me being me I liked the freedom that was given to me. As my school was over and I started my high school Mom decided that she did not want to live like that anymore and wanted to get back to her old life, she thought that I was old enough to take care of myself and think on my own for the good, so she left the house and shifted to New York. She used to visit me after every month and also fight with dad every month who wanted her to come back. But she was enjoying her life like that and wanted a divorce from dad. Dad did not agree on that as he was worried for me and told mom she could live like she wanted but they will not take a divorce for my sake. And since then its going like that.

"I don't think that you should leave Canada, its full of opportunities, And regarding exploring the other world that you can do when you get married."

Dad started to reply to mom in a very calm manner.

"Yeah, like you promised me to keep me happy always, and look what it turned out to be."

Mom started to repeat all of it again, like they never even talked about it.

"Let me make something clear to you, you are not happy because you didn't want to be happy, if you would have listened to me we could have been a happy family today."

Dad with his all time calm behavior told mom something that would trigger her.

"You are trying to say that its all my fault that we are in this condition right now, Oh My God!!! EESA you were my biggest mistake."

Mom started to shout. And Dad couldn't keep calm.

"CHARLOTTE mind your language."

"No, I wont, for how long are you going to shush me out."

Mom kept shouting,I was pissed by all this, I just wanted some peace in my life now, which I believe could never come.

"SHUT UP!!!! both of you, what do you think you guys are doing?"

I shouted at them, I couldn't keep cool anymore.

"You know, I think you guys should just take a divorce and settle it for once and for all."

Dad interrupted me.

"Maisha, its none of your concern right now, we will take care of it ourselves, just go to your room."

I wanted to vent out all my feelings once and for all.

"None of my concern, huh! Really Dad, my whole childhood was spoilt because of you guys, I never enjoyed my school life, And you are saying that you guys will take care of it, Like this. You know, dad I never said something to you guys cause I thought you people will learn from your mistakes and care for me one day or the other. But I was wrong DAD, you people don't care about me at all, guess I was dreaming of something impossible."

"Oh Honey! I love you don't say that."

"MOM just let it be, you left me when I needed you the most. You know what, you guys carry on, I am not needed here anymore. And yes thank you for spoiling my dinner."

I left the dining room and tears trickled down my cheeks, I just couldn't take it anymore.

"MAISHA stop, MAISHA."

Dad was calling me but I didn't want to be there, It just felt worse to see them fighting like that. I was sitting in my bed and could hear Mom and Dad still arguing. This had been my whole life till now and at that point I just wanted to run away and find peace somewhere. And the only way I could find peace was to be with HIM.

Asalamualaikum, this is my first story and I hope you all like it. Please comment, I would love to know what you people feel about the story. And please don't forget to vote for it. Thank You.