Why, We Fall (Book One)

03: Jummah

Friday noon was Jummah time. Aleya liked Jummah. It's like mini Eid. She missed the traditional things she would do back home with her family on the day.

She had Clinical Psychology with professor Nadir at 2 p.m.. Which was unusual from the regular time they would have the calss at. But it worked out for her. Now she can attend Jummah and listen to khutbah without any hurry.

After taking a bath she secured her head with a Hijab and started for the Masjid. Normally she would wear hijab inside the masjid then pray but that day she didn't have any other classes in the morning. She could get ready for prayer from her home.
She reached the Masjid near her campus just a minute after the call of prayer.

She was just about to approach a door through the Masjid entrance when she stopped dead in her tracks.

To say it was Instinct would be an understatement.

There he was. Right in front of the men's part of the masjid.

His trouser folded high up from his ankle, the sleeve of his shirt folded up to his elbow, his hair was covered with a handkerchief tied around his head. Water was drifting from his face. He just made udhu. Aleya could make out every   droplets glinting in the sun while moving down his face.

Professor Nadir looked so peaceful and... PURE. Unusual word to describe a man but nothing else came into her mind. It was just a glance before he walked into the Masjid but that was enough to send her heart racing a mile per minute. She explained it as a surprise of seeing him there and didn't let her mind dive deeper into the emotion. Very slowly, she begin to approach the door of the masjid. 
For some reason she didn't want to face him right then.

***

Jummah prayer was Hasan's favourite. He liked the solidarity and bond he felt with other brothers standing beside him, praying to one God, facing one direction. For other prayers it was hard to find time to come to the Masjid but he always made time for jummha.

Scheduling his classes late, making sure he can have a bath before coming to the Masjid. After prayer, he exchanged some greetings here and there with his peers then he started his way out of the door.

He had a class at 2 p.m..

A Clinical Psychology class to be exact.
The very class Miss Noor was going to attend.
Would it feel awkward with her after yesterday?
Would she even say Salam to him after the way he reacted and left the previous day?
Why was he thinking about Miss Noor in the first place?
Worried she wouldn't address him if she sees him?
Who cares?

He was her professor. As long as he fulfills his responsibility as a teacher and she as a student it's not necessary for them to like each other!

At least that's what he told himself.

A gust of wind came from nowhere and got planted on the contradictory face of Professor Hasan Nadir. 
      
He didn't realise when his handkerchief came undone around his head and only could get back to his senses when the said handkerchief flew away. 
He looked back in the direction the white piece of cloth was fleeing and tried to retrieve it with his hand but he had to stop mid-air.

It was instinct.

There she was. Right in front of the women's entrance of the masjid.

The very person who had been popping up in his mind whenever she wanted without notice since yesterday.
 
Wearing her signature white long kurti, jeans and the usual long scarf she would wear around her neck was covering her head.

She looked ethereal in the sunlight.

The very wind that manipulated him a second ago, tried to do the same to her but Alas! she didn't look disoriented or a slight bit annoyed. She basked in that gust, her lose kurti was trying to fly away with the wind behind her, only to realise its restraints and falling on her body. 
Her long sleeves dangling from her wrist that showed a silver bangle glinting in the sunlight.
         
She marveled in that wind with her eyes closed and before she could open them again, Hasan was already gone. Leaving his forgotten handkerchief behind.

***

Aleya was late for class. She didn't know how it happened. As she still had forty five minutes on her hand when she left the masjid, she was browsing in an Indian boutique shop near the campus.
It would only take a few minutes to reach the building of her class from there but she didn't know how she lost track of time like that.
If a freudian was here, they would probably say it's because she was contemplating meeting the professor again after yesterday's debacle. So, her unconscious mind made her forget about the class altogether but she didn't believe in psychodynamic theories that much. Anything that you can't measure or experiment in a lab felt unscientific, thus false to her.
Which was ironic since Freud's theories are considered unfalsifiable for that very reason that it can't be measured.

She rushed through the door and entered the classroom, gave a hasty  Salam and a small apology to the professor and took her seat while panting.

***

Hasan was disappointed. What kind of childish behaviour is this!
He thought Miss Noor to be more professional than this but missing out on a class?
When he knew for sure that she wasn't sick as she looked very fresh to him even an hour ago.
So she was deliberately skipping class?
But for what reason though?

What, she was angry with him for leaving so suddenly yesterday?
He admits it was rude and a bit childish which was tuche but he really hoped Aleya wouldn't mind his behaviour and forgive him. 
     
It seems unlikely now. Well, if Miss Noor thinks she can just skip classes to avoid him, she had another thing coming.

He would confront her personally...

He would do an enquiry why she thought she could just put a dent on her attendance and still expect him to grade her...

He would...
     
The double doors of the classroom suddenly burst open and there came a flying mess of black hair that the girl was trying to tame.
She gave her routinely Salam like nothing had been amiss between them and a small 'sorry professor' all the while struggling to tie her hair behind her back and took the nearest seat not to disturb any other students who already hadn't been disturbed by her intrusion.

She hurriedly took out her notebook and started to look around to see what she missed but Hasan knew she hadn't missed anything.
In the midst of his rant about Aleya in his mind all he did for the last 10 minutes was flipping the pages of the textbook and checked and rechecked the slides he prepared for that days lecture. He didn't even realise 10 minutes had already passed of class time.

Was he subconsciously waiting for Aleya?
No, that's Freudian bullshit. He never liked that guy anyway. Clearing his mind from everything, he began his class or at least he thought he cleared his mind but to Freudian's delight he subconsciously kept looking at Aleya's direction the whole time.