A Piece Of His Heart

Thirty-five

Waleed

The ceiling was grey. So was the fan. Faint light from the evening sun poured into the room, casting shadows on the walls.

Why are you staring at the ceiling? The voice in my head asked, sounding as confused as I felt in that moment. Maybe I'd finally gone bonkers after living with Eliza for months.

"WALEED!" Her scream pierced through the air and I sat up on the bed, alarmed, and ready to check out what had happened to her. She'd gone into the kitchen saying she had something to do— a new recipe to try.

Before I could get up and go to her, Eliza burst through the door, breathing hard as she ran up to me with a spatula in her hand, and climbed up on the bed and... on top of me.

One look at her horrified face had my eyes crinkling in concern. "What happened—"

"Mouse! There's a mouse in the kitchen, Waleed! Oh my God, it was so big!" She puffed out through staggering breaths. I stared at her and blinked, trying to process her words.

And when I did, I snorted.

"A mouse has you this scared?" I couldn't believe it. She was barely scared of anything.

"Stop laughing! It was huge, okay? Like," she held her hands about six inches apart, "this big. And it was brown, and hairy, and it had this wiggly tail. It was disgusting!" She shuddered, her face twisting. I could imagine it but... I'm certain it wasn't that big. I'd never seen a mouse around here before.

What was more hilarious was that she in her unicorn pajamas with a pink headband in her hair with a small unicorn plushie stuck to the top and her hair flying winding out of her messy bun, and a spatula in her hands. And here she was scared from a mouse.

She buried her head in my shoulder, arms winding around my neck from where she sat in my lap. "We should get a big cat and have her eat all the mice. I can't live with a mouse, Waleed."

"I have experience living with a mouse." I told her, trying to sound as serious as I could when I was seconds away from bursting into laughter.

She lifted her head and passed me with a confused look. "You do?"

I hummed in response. "Yeah, that mouse was big too. I even held her."

"How did you know it was a fem— Waleed!" She screeched out and smacked my arm, causing me to finally release my laughter. "How can you compare me to a mouse?!"

I raised my hands in surrender and defended myself, "I never said I was talking about you." She continued hitting my shoulder and arm until I caught her wrist in my hand.

"I hate you!" She scowled at me. I couldn't even take her seriously with that unicorn headband of hers.

"Okay, I'm very sorry, meri pyari begum." She only crossed her arms and turned away from me, huffing out an angry breath.

*"my lovely wife."

An idea popped up into my head and she must've seen the sudden mischievous look on my face because her eyes slowly widened as her hands raised between us. My hands immediately went to her sides, fingers softly grazing her stomach over her shirt before I started tickling her and she fell into a fit of laughter.