Mandate

Chapter One: The Beginning

Rehan- The Nostalgic

December 10, 2029.

Brooklyn, New York.

3:45 p.m.

I was 19 years old and was riding my bike from my last delivery spot in the city. I was on winter break from college, and was working at a flower shop that was owned by my adoptive parents.

Riding my bike wasn't too bad. I enjoyed thinking on the ride. But sometimes the journeys were filled with loneliness, a feeling of solitude I sometimes found uncomfortable.

The city's skyscrapers towered over me, and, for a few seconds, I had anxiety over the thought of them collapsing on top of me. How the beautiful buildings would crumble almost satisfyingly, and fall to the ground. Suffocating, then killing me.

"Rehan bhai!" A kid's high-pitched voice scared me out of my menacing thoughts. Perhaps that's another reason why I hated being by myself. I'm often worried of the dark thoughts that occupied my mind.

I glanced behind me to see my 9-year-old neighbor, Rayees Anwar biking behind me. With one hand, he adjusted the strap of his backpack and he finally caught up to me.

"Hey, Rayees!" I greeted him. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you still be in school?" 

"No." Rayees said. "School ended and I'm going home."

"Already?" I asked.

"It's 3:45." I looked at my watch, which said 3:46 in white letters.

"Ha! It's actually 3:46." I told him. Rayees looked at his own watch and rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. It was only a few seconds difference." He muttered. I chuckled.

"It's already 3:46?" I said to myself. "I guess time flies when you're making deliveries."

"You mean when you're selling flowers?" Rayees teased. I rolled my eyes.

"It's not my fault I got stuck as the flower delivery guy. It's not even my fault that the owners decided to open up a flower shop in the first place. I don't know why they did. I guess they really like flowers. The newsboy cap doesn't help get rid of the humiliation, does it?" Rayees shook his head and I laughed. The two of us kept biking through the city to the more rundown part of it, where our home was.

Was.

"Hey, you wanna race?" I asked the boy and he eagerly nodded. "I bet you can't catch me."

"I can too!" He protested.
"No you can't. You're too slow." I said, picking up speed.
"Wait!" He yelled after me. "You didn't count us off. Rehan bhai! Wait!"

I smiled as I raced past people and dodged cars whenever I went into the road. The vehicles honked at me and people stared, but I didn't really mind.

Rayees started catching up to me and, just to be nice, I went slower so he could win. We both stopped at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the apartments. I locked my bike on the metal bike stand, and helped Rayees lock his. His mom, and my neighbor, Daliya Anwar, came down the stairs.
"Oh, there you are Rayees." She said, hugging her son. "I was beginning to get worried."

"But school just got out, Ammi." Rayees said.

"Oh, you're right." She said, "I guess I was just missing you, betha."

"Ammi." He whined, embarrassed. "Stop." I laughed, watching the embarrassing, yet heartwarming interaction between the mother and son. It made my heart ache.

I didn't remember who my parents were. I accepted the fact long ago that they must've died in some sort of accident, perhaps when I was too little to remember. The only family I really had left was my little sister. Even though I tried searching, there was no other relative that could confirm our parentage. I was glad that the flower shop owners took me and my sister in. To me, they're like my real parents.