Always at your side

"Sidraaaaa...this is my last warning to you. Wake up already!" She was half asleep when her mother shouted from the kitchen. She folded her prayer mat and kept it on it's place and lazily dragged herself to the bathroom to freshen up. After offering her fajr salah, Sidra was deeply missing him, asking Allah SWT to grant him a place in Jannat-ul-Firdaus when tears had made their way down her cheeks. Sidra was 10 back then when that incident had happened. She doesn't remember much about her past apart from what her mother had told her and made her believe. She felt it strange that she doesn't know much about her own brother but silently accepted the reality. She felt horrible whenever she remembered my brother. She felt as if she failed as a sister. Whenever she was reminded of him, tears automatically made their way down her cheeks and she found herself weeping. Thinking about her brother, she had drifted off to sleep on her prayer mat. "Sidra." Her mother's voice brought her back from her chain of thoughts as she saw fresh set of tears in her eyes as she looked in the mirror. She hastily wiped them and washed her face to stop the burning sensation in her eyes. She stepped in the shower and quickly took a bath, wore her favourite purple kameez matching it with white salwar, tying her hairs into a french braid she covered her head with her dupatta. She put on a smile on her face, though her heart felt heavy in that moment. Sadness covered smile. Stepping out of her room, she headed towards the kitchen where the most important part of her life, her mother is. Her mother is a house wife, very loving and very caring person. She always felt she coukd never find a person as sweet and caring as her. "Assalamualaikum ammi, I'm sorry I slept and missed my college." She spoke, walking upto her mother who was busy making breakfast. Sidra smiled affectionately as she peeped in the dishes and took the aroma, her eyes closing on the heavenly scent of food making her stomach instantly gurgle. Taking the dishes, she quickly started setting the breakfast table. "Walaikum assalam, not again Sidra, how many times to tell you not to read those novels of yours till late night when you have your class to attend in the morning." Her mother spoke more like scolded, as she took a seat beside Sidra placing the bowl of pasta on the table. "I know mom but you know the story was so interesting that I lost the track of time." Sidra reasoned, munching on her toast. Her mother shook her head at her and let out a sigh. Her father was an engineer who worked in one of the top multinational company In Mumbai. He appeared all dressed up and ready for office as he took a seat across from Sidra after giving her a quick kiss on her temple and she gave him a huge smile, still munching on her toast. Her mother served him the breakfast while he looked at the morning 'boring' newspaper. "Not the newspaper again!" Sidra's mother grumbled, when she found her husband still immersed in reading the newspaper, his food untouched. Sidra looked at them both and giggled. That was an everyday thing in their family. Her father quickly placed back the newspaper and began with his breakfast, not wanting to piss his wife. Her mother so hated when they did anything other then eating on the dining table. No newspaper and no cell phone allowed! Her mother gave him an annoyed sideways glance and her father just winked at her in return which didn't go unnoticed by her luckily. Her mother quickly looked away, a ghost of a smile playing on her lips. 'Aww soo adorable!' Sidra thought. Her father always made up with her mother pretty quickly, in his own charming ways. Looking at her parents, Sidra always prayed to have a relationship just like her parents, filled with so much love and care. Sidra found her lips curled up in a huge grin as she quickly lowered her face to hide her smile, not wanting her parents to get the idea that she had noticed their small moment. She looked up when her father called my name, asking her the reason for not going to college as she smiled sheepishly telling him that she overslept. Hearing her reason, he chuckled making her mother glare at him for not scolding her for doing so. He quickly straightened up after getting the silent message from her mother's glare, as he looked at sidra in the eye. "This is very bad Sidra. You should be responsible and not waste your time like this. Next time I won't tolerate it. I'm warning you ok!" He spoke, trying to maintain a straight face but failing miserably, making sidra broke into fits of gigles. He too tried hiding his smile but let out a chuckle which ended up in coughs when he looked at his wife giving him glares. "I'll be more responsible from next time." Sidra quickly assured, not wanting to piss her mother more. They ate in silence, apart from the small chit chat here and there. After breakfast, her father stood up from his seat and paying his Salam he left for work. Sidra and her mother headed back to the kitchen as she began helping her mother in cleaning the table. "Ammi I was thinking to go shopping." She suggested a while later from the living room, arranging the cushions on the couch. "Nope." Came her mother's short reply. 'Oh-kaay!' 'Mom is pissed!' Sidra thought. She bit her tongue recalling the small chat on the dining table where she and her father had angered her mother quite a bit, as her back faced her mother. Sidra held her bottom lip in between her teeth and thought of all the drama that she can put on to convince her mother. She slowly turned to her mother and met her narrowed eyes which were directly staring at her. 'Oh-kaay!!' 'Note to self 1- Pissed off Ammi not so cool Ammi 2- When she's looking at you like this that means you are in trouble!' Sidra thought. 'Oh forget it! She's way too sweet. She'll forgive me easily.' She thought again, grinning like a cheshire cat as she gave herself a mental high5. She gave her mother a sweet, innocent, sugar-coated smile. "Oh no! You are up for a drama. Again!" Her mother spoke, shaking her head, already knowing what her daughter was up to. 'How did she knew it?' Sidra thought confused. 'Oh well yeah that's why she's my mom.' She gave her shoulders a shrug. "Ammmmii puh-leease." She requested in a sing sang voice and clasping her hands together, she took dramatic steps towards her mother. "Not gonna fall for your drama this time." "Ah! Ammi please. You are my sweet Ammi." She gave her mother her best puppy dog eyes. Her mother turned around, not wanting to look at her face which could definitely convince her. "Oh-kaay I'm sorry. Please let's just go shopping. I promise I'll be more responsible next time." She promised, circling her arms around her mother's shoulder hugging her from behind. "Nope!" She denied straight away. "No one loves me!" Sidra spoke sniffing as she wiped her fake tears dramatically and turn the other side. "Fine." Her mother finally gave in and agreed. She grinned triumphantly and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. 'Well that was pretty easy!' Sidra thought. "Do you know that you are the bestest Ammijaan in the whole wide world?" Sidra spoke pulling at her mother's cheeks. "And do you know that you are the biggest drama queen in the whole wide world?" Her mother shot back pushing her hands away. "Heyy you were supposed to say the 'bestest daughter in the whole wide world' but it's fine I soo agree to whatever you said." She raised her imaginary collar and gave her a big grin. "All thanks to your dad." Her mother spoke, rolling her eyes at her daughter's crazy self. "Aww you are allowed to take some credit as well my darling Ammijaan." Sidra laughed and quickly ran upstairs before her mother could start with her 'grow-up' talk. Sidra opened the door of her room and walked in, falling on her bed on her back. She turned her face to the side and glance at her study table where her assignment layed incomplete and grumbled, sitting up back again and walked herself to her desk to finish off the remaining project. 'Stupid Biology!' Her face curled up in disliking. She busied herself in explaing to self whatever she was scribbling down on the papers in case her teacher decided to ask her any question based on the project, which she didn't have any single idea about. 'Nope. Not gonna embarrass myself!' She thought as she continued with her assignment. After what felt like an eternity, she was finally done with it as she assembled all the sheets accordingly going through them one last time. Filing it nicely with her name written in bold letters on the first page, she was done. 'Phew!!' By the time she was finished, it was already Zuhr time so she quickly made her wudu and stood on her prayer mat to offer her salah, thanking Allah SWT for blessing her with everything that she was grateful for. Placing her prayer mat back on it's place after her salah, she grinned on the thought of all the dresses that she would be buying. Doing a happy dance in her mind, she walked down the stairs. 'Shopping, here I come!!!'