Coming Home (English Version)

3. Scones

Scotland, 1995.

Layla was pushing her bicycle to the side of the road that surrounded the family's estate. With tears on her eyes, she squatted down under the shade of a tree and realized the chain had slipped out of place. She let the bicycle fall on the ground and tried to fix it, but she only ended up with black grease on her fingers and no success.

Hamdan was on the lead of the race against his siblings. His legs spinning as fast as he could on his bike, the fresh wind blowing on his face and small sweat drops forming on his sideburns. Only one more lap left to go and he would be the winner. Again.

His eyes were entirely focused on the road ahead, until he saw Layla with her bike on the ground. He hesitated for a moment, his first instinct was to keep going but suddenly, winning didn't seem important anymore.

He slowed down his pace and gently pressed on the brake levers. Coming to a full stop, he slid down from the seat and put both feet on the ground.

"What happened?" Asked the out-of-breath eleven year-old boy.

"It's the chain." Layla complained.

One after the other, the rest of the kids swooshed by them laughing. Hamdan got off the bike and went to kneel down next to Layla's.

"We'll fix it." He comforted her.

Layla sat down on the ground and crossed her arms. "It's not fair! I always finish last!"

"That's not true." Hamdan countered. "Sometimes you beat Sheikha."

Layla let her arms fall down to the sides and rolled her eyes. "But she never wants to play the cool games! And I can never, never beat the rest of you."

Hamdan grimaced as he was struggling with his task, but finally the chain was back in place. "There!" He smiled proudly.

The girl moved the hair away from her face with her fingers and leaned over to see.

"Thank you, Hamdan." She smiled at him.

Hamdan chuckled when he saw grease smeared on Layla's cheek. He pulled the sleeve of his jacket over his hand and cleaned her face.

"I think I saw some scones in the kitchen." Said Hamdan while wiggling his eyebrows.

Layla's eyes twinkled. "Do you think they have raspberry jam?"

He knew any sort of sweet treat would always make her feel better.

Hamdan got up and went to pick up his bike. "Let's find out."

Layla followed suit and they both walked back to the main house holding their bicycles to their side.

From that day on, Hamdan always made sure that Layla won some of the cool games from time to time.

---

Hamdan

I get in the car and ask Saeed Hilal to take me to Maktoum's. The two Saeeds, Uncle Saeed and Saeed Hilal, belong to the small group of people I know I can truly count on. I've known Saeed Hilal my entire life, he started working for the family since before I was born and now it's hard to recall how he even ended up being part of my security, my driver, personal assistant... He does a little bit of everything and he's always here.

I'm running late as usual, Maktoum already texted asking where I am, but there's always something. My days are a planned ahead but things come up or last longer than expected every single time. People want to talk to me, shake hands, bump noses and tell me about their problems or things that should be done and I cannot say no. Someday I will be the Emir and I think one of my main responsibilities is to listen. A good leader always listens.