A Piece Of His Heart

Twenty-one

Waleed

"Asalam Alaikum." I greeted my mother after having decided to drop by at her house before going for work today.

She stood up and smiled wide as she pulled me into a hug. "Walaikum Asalam. What a pleasant surprise!" Then she looked over my shoulder and frowned. "Eliza...?"

"She's staying with her family for a few days. Where are Dad and Shifa?"

"Oh, your father isn't home. Shifa's upstairs in her room. I'm seriously concerned for that girl. She's always in her room, doing something she refuses to tell anyone. I don't know what she's indulged herself in."

I couldn't help but smile at her concern. She was always concerned like this for both I and Shifa. "Relax, Mama. It's probably studies or something."

"Actually, how about you go and talk to her? She needs human conversation, unless she's been hiding someone in her room to talk to." She shoved me lightly in the direction of the stairs and I shook my head but went up anyway, heading to Shifa's room.

I knocked on her door and patiently waited for her reply which came as a mumbled 'come in' a few seconds later.

"Bhai!" Her eyes lit up as she threw herself onto me, arms going around my neck. It honestly reminded me of Eliza, who I'd last seen two days ago.

"What is my little sister up to? You're worrying Mama."

I saw her cheeks turn red as she averted her gaze, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt instead. She sighed and I knew she'd decided to confide in me. "Making plans."

"For what?"

"Bhai... I want to study law." My eyebrows furrowed at her words.

"And why exactly do you look nervous while telling me this? You know I, and our parents, would support you fully, right?"

"It's because I want to leave the city." She blurted out, leaving me to blink at her in surprise.

"What? Why? There are plenty of good law schools in Islamabad, Shifa." There was absolutely no reason for her to want to go away when she had everything here.

"Because I want a sense of independence, Bhai. And I'm not going to get that, or even want to do anything myself if I knew that you or Mama or Dad are right there for me to rely on, do the hard work for me."

Shifa was my only sibling, my only sister and Mom and Dad's only daughter. She was nine years younger than me, born when Dad had permanently returned back to Pakistan from the UAE. Of course we all would do anything for her.

But the idea of her being far away... It didn't settle well with me, and I knew it wouldn't settle well with our parents either.

"Shifa—"

She waved a head and shrugged. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not planning to do anything now. Maybe in two years? We got plenty of times for my plans to change."

"Have you told Mama? Dad?" My eyes fell onto her open notebook and once I read the word 'diary' on the top, I immediately shut the book and set it aside. She was turning twenty in just a few months, and even if she hadn't been, everyone's privacy mattered. Under her table, in the shelf, I smiled at the six copies of Pride And Prejudice sitting there neatly. She was so obsessed with the book, and she was still collecting more copies.