"16 missed calls" I read out.
"12 voice message?" I knew I was in trouble. "8 mails" I let out a short laugh.
Driving round town was a beauty to behold, all the smell of old trees and dusty grounds was quite amazing I must appreciate.
Entering a house in this neighbourhood after dark was a job for the spook-brigade, or rookies as they used to be known. We call them spooks in honour of what they may become before being promoted to a safer position
I was indeed back home before dinner that was prepared two hours ago, I saw Maryam already dozed off on the dinner table, and I didn't want to wake her up, I quietly shut the door behind me.
At first glance I wanted to take her to her room and lay her down on her bed but at second thought I didn't want to be questioned why I wasn't home early.
I quickly tiptoed upstairs, trying not to make a noise, just right in front of my door, but my quilt played a fast one on me.
I immediately turned back towards where I first saw Maryam.
She looked really peaceful while sleeping quite peacefully, I quickly took away the food she had set on the table to the kitchen so I didn't hit anything that might wake her up.
I gently took her off the table, carrying as gently as I can, more like a mother caring for a child.
This form has two hearts, just like a child and me. That's love, right, your everything belongs to their tiny form. So it is my joy to carry her, pointing out all the things that spark her brain to curiosity and how she smells of kitchen and food.
She is quiet, so absorbed in the world around us, so asleep, yet always we are connected,kind of bonded; that is the beauty of our existence and always will be, I can't tell why my thoughts were that way but it felt so good.
I slowly opened the door of her room, and adjusted her to it, she kept saying something, a name of something, probably of her son or her husband. I let her rest on the bed first.
She reverently rubbed her fingers along the silken mattress. She pressed her cheek to the cool, velvet pillows. The comforter was thick and irresistibly soft, like a billowing cloud. She toppled into it, relieved to rest her weary feet. Warmth and darkness enveloped her. She soon succumbed to the call of sleep.
I turned my back immediately to leave the room and straight to the kitchen to grab what she made, I was so hungry, In no time I was done and I quietly walked up stairs straight to my room.
I lay on my bed looking out the window, looking as the sky starts it's show.
Where the stars come out to play and the evening takes on that aroma of the night, when the crickets sing for the joy of living, my bed awaits. I love the softness, the quiet, the sense of rest.
My thoughts slow as a beautiful carousel, each dancing as ribbons from a kite string that reaches for sky, its colours embracing those lofty heights and inviting in the dreams that wear festival costumes and are formed of music. As I rest my bed is the four pillars beneath me, my safe place and cozy serenity, I dozed off.
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Sun rays come as nature's easel, giving brilliant colour to what was hidden even under the passing starlit night.
Passed leaf, upon moss softened rock, came the sun rays that were promised us by the starlit sky.
How often we see the dawn and take for granted the sun, that we see the blackness become a vista, the world we love, our home... Yet after that, do we think of the light and how it brings our world to life? Do we think of how it shows us colour instead of only grey and warms us from our skin to our core, ignites our thoughts to beauty, inviting that light and warmth to enter our hearts also, before respectfully giving us time to dream, to accept it as part of ourselves if we wish....
yet always giving us the moon and stars.
So, this dawn, as the blackish-greens take on their vibrant and verdant hues, I let it soak in a little deeper. As the sky changes from charcoal to soft dove grey I already cherish the blue that is to come. For the dawn is the invitation to the day, to the gift that is the present if we have the courage to see it fully and to love it with all that we are.
The dawn came with a musical silence, the soul hearing the melody that the ears could not. A new day had come, new possibilities, a fresh page yet to be written.
Waking up to see Maryam staring at my face, like she could slap this morning excitement out of my spirit, her hands on her tiny waist line.
I could tell she was furious and I didn't have an excuse for what happened yesterday, so I thought of apologizing.
"Good morning Maryam" I said, really don't know what to say, she didn't respond.
"Am sorry for not coming back home before dinner like promised I sincerely apologise" I said
but she still didn't utter a word to me, instead she walked out the door of my room, slamming the door behind me.
Well I know she was pissed but I didn't know she was that mad at me, so immediately rushed off my bed and followed her down stairs to the kitchen.
"I said I am sorry," I said, still no response.
"Well I didn't know I was going to come back late and besides it's my house, I have every right to come back whenever, I want" I said, she still didn't say a word, she kept herself busy with either checking the boiling water or washing the dishes roughly.
"okay am sorry for saying that, I shouldn't... I shouldn't have said that" I said reaching to touch her, she was fast to brush past me before I got to her.
At that point I knew, this was gonna take more than apologises.