The difference she made!

The secret

One hour passed, since Khalid started searching for her. He hoped she would be somewhere near so he looked around the house, in the neighborhood and around the nearby roads. He was trying to think of some potential places that this foreigner might go to, but the problem was that there were no options. She knew no one apart from them. Then where the hell had she disappeared? If his father came and she didn't show up, he would be really in a real trouble. And worst of all, it was getting dark. He was caught up in his worry; What if she didn't show up soon? What if she was lost or got hurt? He shook the thought away. As a dozen what-if scenarios flew through his mind, he sighed rubbing his forehead and mentally started blaming himself for what he had said to her, maybe he was too harsh!

He drove his car around the places there, looking at every possible road until his head began spinning, and there was no sign of her.

A thought that she might be at home, crossed his mind that's where he decided to return and check. He turned left at the first roundabout, and drove in a different street that led to their house, so that he might look there as well. Instead of getting to the front of the house, he reached the back side. He parked his car and got out, making his way through the back road heading to the front entrance, when his eyes fell on the girl sitting over there. She was hugging her legs with her left hand and poking at the dust with a stick in her right writing something. She looked completely lost in thoughts.

Fajr had never been offended this way, and nor expected that someone from her own relatives, whom she had been always wished to meet, could treat her like this. Her heart was heavy and her whole being was engulfed in despair. She raised her bent head at the sound of the car stopped nearby and soon she could recognize the tall figure walking towards her.

She stood up to face him, wondering about all the anger oozing from his pores. His eyes were squinted and a vein on his forehead throbbed. "For Allah's sake tell me, do you have a piece of brain in your fucking head? Can you imagine how much time I spent searching for your highness? Why can't your little brain understand the difference between the place where you came from and this place?" he shot a series of questions at her as he reached where she was standing, a twig snapped under his feet.

Fajr let out a soft sigh, and turned her head to look at the big neem tree in front of them as soft wind played with the leaves of the tree.

Unlike him, she was not into useless arguments. However, her silence made him even angrier as he went on; "Can't you behave reasonably for once?"

Listening to his ongoing lecture that provoked her into a fight, she closed her eyes, willing herself to calm down.

"Have some manners and before going somewhere let the people you live with know it. This is not a hotel where you go and leave whenever you wish. And know that I'm not in favor of going around and searching for you."

Fajr glanced at him and threw the stick she was holding; "I am not under your charge here so that I have to report my whereabouts to you." She fumed. They were eyeball to eyeball.

"believe me I'm not interested in knowing any of that either, but you should know we don't adopt a western style of life here where you can come and go carelessly."

Fajr was very agitated to hear him speaking thus; "stop playing the role of being the responsible; the know-it-all man, let me get lost or go to hell who on earth asks you to look for me".

With those words she stomped out of the place, going back to the house, not giving him time to say anything further. As he looked at her disappearing back, he took a glance at the stick she had thrown, the word she had patterned on the dust with capital letters captured his attention "EMPTY"