Qulsum

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"I want to go to my father" I say.

"Oh God of course! " He says.

"Call him. See where he is." He asks.

I dial my dads number and wait for him to respond.

"Assalamu Alaykum"

"Salary Kumsalam baba. How are you. It's me Qulsum." I say.

"Oh my Allah Alhamdulliah. How are you my daughter? How do you feel?"

"Where are you? "

"At home"

"Baba I'm coming" I say.

"I was going to come over actually." He says but I wanted to see our house.

"I'm almost there baba."
We said salam and hung up.

"Let's go." Yaseen says getting out.

-

I knocked on the door and as soon as my dad opened the door he pulled me into a tight hug.

"I'm so thankful that you're here." He says.

"Why wouldn't I be? I am your daughter." I say.

"Forgive me for any wrong forgive me-"

"Baba please -" I say covering his mouth before he continued.

"You have done nothing wrong to me. Come on let me make some coffee for you." I say holding his hand. Reminding me of the good old days.

-

"Baba..? Where's.. the rest of them?" I ask and his eyes turn to Yaseen who has been extremely quiet.

"Oh this might sound irrational but I gave her a divorce . I made a big mistake marrying her in the first place. But now Im happy Alhamdulliah. "

"Oh.  But now you're going to be alone..." I say and he lets out a small laugh.

"Who said that? I'm not alone I have Allah. You don't need to worry." He says and I smile.

"I won't. But if you ever need anything I'm just a phone call away. Okay? " I say taking his hands into mine.

"Okay " He says laughing.

"How about you cook for me today? I've been eating bread egg and cereal for almost a month now." He says andI don't know why but my eyes got tears when he said that.

"Baba-"

"Do you want to come live with us?" Yaseen interrupts, like he felt my pain in seeing my father like this.

"Please" He adds in.

My father lets out a laugh.

"No no Oh my God I'm fine here don't worry about me I'll learn to cook don't worry." He says.

" I feel-"

"Qulsum...By Allah I am fine. And everyone has to be alone one day. If not in this world then in their Qabr (grave) I'm happy here. Plus there's no stairs so when I get older I won't have problems going up and down."

I let out a small laugh and he smiles. We stayed for a while I made him some food and put some curry in the freezer so it could last about a week he can just warm it up and eat it.

"Qulsum, remember when you use to bug your mom to cook" He says as I set his food down.

"Of course I do! back then I loved cooking for some reason. Now it's boring."

"She was so committed to this, she actually burnt yourself! She wanted to use the spatula but her mom said nope you're too young! Oh and she hated those words! You hated that! When people called you a kid!" He says laughing.

"I know but to be fair I didn't grow much. I guess I'm still a kid."

"Do you want to stay here? Or go home?" Yaseen asked. I almost forgot he was here.

"Oh this guy... you seem happier than before. Or maybe it's just me?"

"I guess you can say I'm a changed man." Yaseen replies with confidence.

After a while at around 11 pm we decided it was time to go. It was nice spending time with my father. I feel like I should get my dad and Yaseen to get together and hangout or something. They seem very awkward and uncomfortable. Yaseen barely talked. They were just really quiet.