Alnihayya

||Z a i n a b||

T w e l v e

Don't trust everything
You see
Even salt looks like
Sugar.

☆

Mashal

"Hey I'm sorry. I really am." Ibrahim mumbled, nagging me with his elbow.

I didn't care to reply and continued focusing on making my omelette, trying not to break it's circular shape into something that looks like pencil shavings.

On the frying pan, the sizzling sound of egg in the oil was the only sound in the kitchen before Ibrahim had decided to disrupt the silence by apologizing.

"Please....Mashal try to understand I was a bit too worked up and under stress thats why-"

"Under stress?" I snapped at him, trying to make my voice feel rude, "So the excuse you give for treating your little sister like shit is that you were under stress? Thats Amazing."

He let out a loud sigh and ran a hand through his beard. "Okay fine, yes I was wrong. Can't you forgive me?"

The truth was I had already forgiven him when he first said sorry, only because no one had ever said sorry to me before. I just....felt a strange kind of happiness to know that someone actually cared enough to say sorry.

I still remember the days and nights I spent wishing that Minahil would apologise to me. Even outside my home, no one ever apologised because of the fact that I wore a face veil.
It was as if people wanted to say sorry but when they saw my veil, they decided against it.

"Hmmmm let me think." I said, scratching my chin to pretend that I was in deep thought. "What would I get in return?"

Ibrahim chuckled at this and then pointed at the frying pan, "I think you would get a burnt omelette in return."

Ya Allah I totally forgot!

Quickly, I turned the omelette over to the other side but I guess I was a bit too late to do so, like I always am because it was way too brown or in simple words, burnt.

"Ugh!" I frowned "I will never be able to make a perfect omelette ever."

Beside me Ibrahim was laughing like a maniac at my loss and I wanted to punch him for that. But I knew words can do double the damage.
"Laugh as much as you want. You are the one who has to eat it anyways."

Rightfully, his laughter faded away and he twitched his nose in disgust. "I take my words back!" He grumbled and then added, "So I was thinking why don't I take you to Syria to visit our real house and maybe our blood relatives too..."

Did he just say Syria?
I looked at my brother in disbelief with my mouth agape, "What?"

He shrugged and explained, "Yeah.....I think I forgot to tell you that before. We- well, our parents at least....were Syrians."

My mind was way too slow to process what he had said. I was a Syrian?
This was a completely new revelation to me because for my whole life I thought I was a Pakistani because Papa and Mama (Minahil's parents) were Pakistani. I even grew up learning the Pakistani language 'Urdu'.