BROKEN

My Dad's Return

June 1st 2014, I had been waiting for this day to come since January. The six months without my dad were long and worrisome, it felt like he had been in Somalia for years. I guess that's what happens when you get used to somebody's presence, you tend to feel empty in their absence. My dad went to Somalia to visit his mother after he heard she had fallen ill. I was very close with my father, I guess you could say I was daddy's little girl. I was an only child and he was the closest thing I had to a sibling. My earliest memories were of him acting like a child and playing with me. He was the perfect mix of a parent and a friend and thanks to him, I never felt like I was missing out on anything with not having any siblings. With the absence of my father, I had grown very close to my mother. She was a beautiful woman, and my father was a handsome man. My mother was an elementary school teacher, she loved kids. And my father was a businessman. They were so in love, I had never once seen them fight. I had always hoped for a marriage like theirs. I knew that my mother was just as excited to see him as I was. We had missed him so much, and had been worried sick that something bad would happen to him on his trip.

Although I knew that Somalia wasn't as bad as it was a few years ago, the stories that my mom told me about visitors from America getting kidnapped by al-Shabaab were more than enough to keep me up at night almost every night for six months. I sat in the passenger's seat as hooyo and I drove to the airport.

"When can I leave Ohio?" I asked as I looked up at her.

"We can go somewhere together one day." she said without taking her eyes off the road. I knew she didn't mean that, I'm 17 years old and have yet to leave the boring city that is Columbus, Ohio.

"When?" I asked even though I knew the answer I would receive.

"InshaAllah one day Warsan." I could tell she was annoyed, I tend to ask her this a lot.

"You always say that hooyo, and we haven't gone anywhere. You should have just let me go with aabo."

"There is no way in hell I would let my daughter go to Somalia, not in this day and age."

"I think you're overexaggerating, aabo seemed fine when I talked to him over the phone."

"It's not the same place it was when we were growing up. You have gotten so used to the American lifestyle, you wouldn't last a day in Somalia. I'm surprised your father did, and you knew how long I had tried to talk him out of it. You definitely get your hard head from somewhere Warsan, and it's from him. And he had to have gotten it from your grandmother " she rambled on and on and I zoned out up until I heard grandmother. She was coming with him today to live with us and I could tell that hooyo was less than excited about it. I never asked my mother why she didn't like my dad's mom, all I knew was that she was dreading her arrival. But I for one was excited about it. I could finally meet the woman I was named after. Plus, it gets boring with just the three of us at home. It's going to be nice to have a fourth person around.

I was deep in thought when my phone vibrated. It was my best friend Tasneem.

"Watch his last story!" It could only have been one person, Fuad. I opened snapchat and clicked on his story. He was in a car listening to music.

"Okay this isn't so bad." I thought to myself. I skipped through about seven snaps to try to see what was so shocking. I finally got to it, he had his arm around some girl and they were lip syncing to the music on the radio with three other girls bouncing along in the backseat. My heart sunk in my chest, I should have been used to this feeling by now.

"Lmaoooo eww, I should really find a crush that isn't such a man-whore." I replied.

"Lmfao fr, he's such trash and he's not even that cute 😂 idk what you see in him." She sent back instantly. I really hated hiding things from my best friend but this was a secret that was best kept hidden. Tasneem was quite a character. I remember the first day of middle school when I had met her, I automatically knew that me and her would become close. We were a squad on our own, just the two of us. Almost six years later and here we are, practically sisters. Which is probably why I felt so guilty keeping such a huge part of my life from her.