The difference she made!

Family atmosphere (2)

Although it was Khalid's habit to wake up on time, but it was also kind of habit for him to get everything done as quick as he could. He took a shower, put on his formal white Thobe with Shemagh for work, and sprayed some of Boss perfume on himself then ran down the stairs to the dining room where they usually had their breakfast. He greeted his father who was already sitting on a chair at the top of the dining table reading newspaper and joined him while Fatima and Huda kept coming and going to the kitchen bringing this dish or that. At that early hour everyone was awake except Fajr and Fahd.

"Well, it's Fahd's habit to wake up late, and I guess the foreigner has got same habit." That thought crossed Khalid's mind.

He took his cell phone out of his pocket to check the messages he received. Two minutes later and against his expectation, Fajr entered the dining room.

"Good morning." She greeted with a smile.

She was wearing her abaya over her dark blue dress that matched the color of her hijab.

Hassan raised his eyes from the papers and replied her greeting with a fatherly smile while no words left Khalid's mouth. Khalid thought it went unnoticed, as Fajr had been already occupied by answering Hassan's stream of questions such as whether she had slept well, how her first night was...and so on. But he was wrong as Fajr was surprised that he didn't even reply her greeting. She was thinking "There is absolutely something wrong with this man."

She followed Huda to the kitchen offering her help; "What shall I do to help?"

"Just sit down, we have finished." Huda told her smiling.

So did she. She went back and sat on the chair that faced an empty one, while Huda sat to her right at the opposite direction of Khalid's seat.

Fatima took her seat as well, repeating same questions her husband had asked Fajr earlier.

They all ate in silence except those two girls, who kept chit-chatting until Hassan said something got their attention.

"Fajr, there is a family gathering in your grandfather's house on the coming Friday, I think it will be a good chance for you to go and meet all your relatives there. What do you think?"

Fajr felt so excited, finally she was going to meet her relatives at once. Her face lit up with pleasure; "Yeah sure."

But Khalid interrupted seriously; "I don't think it's a good idea, dad".

As soon as the words left his mouth, Fajr turned to look at him.

Carelessly he added; "putting grandfather in situation like this will be like forcing him to face reality, do you think he will like that? you already know this is not the appropriate way to tell him about her being here."

However, he could tell by the look in Fajr's eyes and the way she was pressing her lips together tightly that she didn't like the way he intervened.

"Do you think if I went and told him that the daughter of his disinherited son is here, he would welcome her happily and would come here by himself to see her?" that's what Hassan asked Khalid who replied; "of course not, but taking her to him in this way won't fix anything either."

With a protest wavered on her lip she listened to their conversation patiently. As Khalid finished his statement, she turned to her uncle and said in a firm tone ; "even though I'd like to meet them, uncle."

Although she avoided looking at Khalid this time, but he could actually realize that the reply was meant to be said to him rather than his father. Therefore, he didn't wait for Hassan to say anything further, as he stood up immediately and told them; "I told you what I think, it's up to you to decide, but personally I don't want to get involved in this."