Chapter One

The sun was up at its peak when two battered sandal-clad chubby feet walked into the tiny store room a young girl was in. She woke up from her slumber where she reclined on a sack of rice and was shocked to see her brother's clothes that had seen better days squeezed, torn by the collar and dusty all over, with sweat trickling down his neck and face. His expression looked defeated, his eyes showed such distress that she had never seen in them, his hand that that was empty shook. 

Moving closer, she rubbed the remaining sleep out of her eyes only to see a trace of blood on his forehead as he stared up at her with eyes full of something she could only identify as grief, his breathing heavy. 

"Wh.....wh....what hap....pened?."  She managed to stammer out with the constant twitch of her eye when she speaks. 

"Nothing, I fell."  He croaked out slowly, his grim expression giving him out entirely. He gently dropped the old sack containing the rest of the farming tools and the hoe that hung on his shoulder on the floor. When he looked up again she nodded towards his injury, and with a tilt of her head she waited for his response. He shook his head in defiance as he tried to pass by her but she reached out for his shoulder. 

"P...please tell m....me Sa..sa'ad." He gave her a defeated shrug and told her that he tripped over and fell face first on the ground while he was tilling it, leading to it injuring his forehead. 

Before she could ask any more questions he quickly went out, calling out to her that he was heading to fetch some water.

The twelve year old has been going through a series of bullying in different parts of town from kids his age and even those older than him for his weight. It wasn't a new thing for the both of them, he gets picked on almost as much as she gets bullied for being a stammerer and for her own weight as well but the pain she saw in his eyes today was beyond what she could handle with just a few staggering words of encouragement. She took her own bucket and gallon to follow him suit in fetching the water even though every part of her body protested. 

They fetched eight gallons and four buckets of water, emptied them in the large containers situated between their Aunt's room and the kitchen. Immediately after they were done she asked her brother to go clean up properly and take a rest then got into the kitchen to prepare lunch before everyone returns. 

One of her aunt's co-wife, Ramla, walked into the premises and dropped a couple of baby clothes wrapped in a blanket then went back into her side at the far end of the building. She emerged back with a considerably larger bundle of clothing, clearly dirty ones and dropped them alongside the ones she dropped earlier. 

"I need a wash, here." She said as she threw a bag of detergent and soap on the bundle of clothes while rocking her baby back and forth. Hafsa looked up from her crouched position as she was trying to stabilize the stove then stared at all of the clothes that she was asked to wash and swallowed. An excuse was not taken lightly as an answer, and one thing she was sure of was that she might not even get a glimpse of sleep till midnight as she already has a lot on her plate to last her a whole day. 

Ramla was her aunt's favorite co-wife. They get along really well because they both have one common enemy, their husband's first wife. So anything Ramla wants, she gets no matter the countless times she tries pushing Hafsa's limits. Hafsa nodded and tried carrying the clothes in but before she reached the door to the room, Ramla called out to her. 

"You answer when I ask you to do something". She spoke with her face pulled into a strict frown. 

"I...I...I wi..will." She choked out and quickly got into the room in a sorry excuse of a sprint with all there was in her arms. She returned to the kitchen and continued her work while cleaning up and washing the dishes that were piled up from breakfast that morning.

When she was finally done for the entire day and ready to retire for the night it was already past ten in the evening and she wasn't sure if she could sleep at all. All she could think of was the silent painful sounds she heard from her aunt's room when her brother was being punished earlier for something she had no idea about. 

She peeked through the windows to make sure everyone was asleep before tiptoeing towards the veranda where her brother laid with a thin covering over his body and on an even thinner mat that he lays. The pain in her chest constricted more to a choking sensation that ran up her throat at the sound of Sa'ad's soft sobs coming from the direction he laid. Moving forward, she crouched down beside him and touched his shoulder, he quickly wiped his tears but didn't turn immediately. 

She had no idea how to comfort him at this point, no idea what he did to be punished and since he wouldn't tell, she had no words to soothe his pain and certainly no energy to stammer them out. All she could offer was a comforting hand on his shoulder, because gone were the days they'd hug each other and grieve over their shared predicament. 

"Cc...come S..s..sa'ad ." She whispered. That was how they did it every night and every dawn for the past couple of months. She could not watch her brother sleep outside especially on days like this when he gets beaten up and it's so cold she can hear his teeth chattering from where she sleeps in the store room, so she came up with a plan to wake him up when every one was asleep in the night so he can sleep in the tiny space she spends her nights, then wake him up before anyone wakes up in the early hours of dawn. 

He got up and took his blanket with him, shoulders slouched and steps uncertain as they walked the few remaining steps to the room in silence.    

Hafsa helped her brother lay out his usual makeshift mattress with the empty sacks that were piled up in the room then made herself as comfortable as she could be on her own mat. Her mind wandered, tears she didn't feel and hadn't let out for long rolled down the side of her face as she thought about all the possible things that could go wrong in their lives. After about an hour, sleep overpowered her aching, tired mind and body, and she welcomed the temporary bliss and escape from reality it always offers. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dawn came by in a flash as the first Adhan was called for Fajr. With effort, she slowly opened her eyes, allowing them to adjust to the darkness of the room before sitting up. Sa'ad's steady breathing was faint from the other end of the room as she searched for the old wristwatch that belonged to her father to check the exact time. She grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around herself, crawled to her brother's side and gently shook him awake before dragging the door open to start getting ready for the morning.

Immediately she stepped out, a cold breeze smacked her on the face making her let out a slight shiver and tightened her hold on the blanket wrapped around her shoulders before walking to the tap to have some water and get ready to pray. She ran back to the store room as the cold got worse when she performed ablution and giggled as well when she heard her brother chuckling at her little sprint. 

"I'll go to the mosque now. I'll teach you what the Imam teaches me today when I get back ". He announced while pushing his feet into his flip flops. She could still see the little glint lingering in his eyes after his smile from the brightness of the moon. And for some reason, she wanted to capture that moment forever. He hasn't smiled like that in days. She called out to him before he stepped outside and he turned. 

"W..who hh...hit your..your head?" She asked and in other words, asking him what he did to get punished, giving him a look that left no room for silence or stubbornness. He sighed and mumbled something under his breath and she could see the effect of her question as it wiped the smile off his face. She hated asking, but she had to know. 

"Sa...sa'ad?."She pressed. 

"Saleh, it was Saleh." He whispered looking down and shuffling his feet. 

He was bullied at home then. As usual. 

"He slammed me into the door when I came back from the farm and my head got hit, he said I stole his money and phone and I swear I didn't. He told aunt Sakina that I did when she came back." He briefly explained, his face blanched. 

She opened her mouth to speak but he immediately turned around telling her he doesn't want to get late for the morning prayer. She stood there for a moment dumbfounded. They've been through this countless times before, being accused of stealing petty stuff around the house but it had never reached the point of it being a phone. And she wasn't even that surprised Saleh, their cousin will do what he did but still, the pain of knowing he did wasn't any less. What she did know was that Sa'ad was never a thief. Shaking her head, she turned to begin praying. 

She prayed but stayed seated on the mat for a few more peaceful minutes before another day full of misery starts as it was a weekend, which meant more unpleasantness. The presence of the people around her causes her anxiety to hit a more serious level, increases her clumsiness and multiple chances of paying for it. Instead of dwelling on the lack of a normal life that they were already getting used to, she got up and headed out to begin the day’s chores. The earlier she gets them done the sooner she'll get out of trouble's way. 

It was already bright outside when she stood in the store room, measuring the amount of flour to prepare breakfast when she heard footsteps approaching then subsequently heard heavy footsteps running, before both footsteps retreated, all heading out towards the main entrance. 

"How dare you tell on me to....." Shouted her cousin's retreating voice over his heavy footsteps. 

She quickly came out to check what was causing the whole commotion when she heard a loud screeching sound coming from the road just outside the house. The sound was a car, hitting a something or somebody. Her heart stopped, her hands letting go of the measuring container as she ran towards the entrance without a second thought about her appearance because she had a very bad feeling about it. It all happened so fast that upon reaching the main door, she could already see people gathering around a truck, crouching down over a body. Half of the body was under the truck, the other half peeking from under it on the road. 

The whole scene played out like a wild movie just before she saw it all, chubby feet, old yellow flip flops in different directions and a pool of blood oozing out from underneath the truck. She could feel and hear the beating of her heart loudly in her ears, her eyes almost at the point of bulging from their sockets, a large lump forcing itself up her throat needing to be set free, and the scream that followed sounded as if it was from a distance not from her mouth which was the last thing she heard before everything went black.