Operation: Survival

Chapter Two

"Please Meena, just another hour. It's not like I'm not paying you," Aasiya begged the teenage babysitter.

"I have plans this evening and I'm already late, you were supposed to pick her up half an hour ago. Can't do tonight but any other night I could have," Meena responded with annoyance.

"What plans?"

"Look, I already told you this the other night. You're always late to pick your daughter up and you promised you would be on time today. My friends are so angry with me right now. Just come quick, okay?"

Meena wasn't sure why she even believed Aasiya would be on time for once and if it wasn't for the fact that she always paid on time, she would have stopped babysitting her child a long time ago.

Aasiya was so caught up in her own problems that she forgot how offensive her words could come out, causing Meena, a sensitive soul, to believe the former did not respect her at all.

The honking of a car horn caught Aasiya's attention and she put the phone down after promising to pick her daughter up as soon as possible. On her way out, she quickly glanced at the mirror by the front door, adjusted her niqab and grabbed her bag. In an attempt to leave the house in a hurry, she left without her jacket, a decision she would regret later.

"Coming!" She shouted when the car honked another time, even though the person in the car wouldn't have heard her.

She jumped into the passenger seat, buckling her seat belt on.

"What took you so long? I've been waiting for, like, fifteen minutes!" Amy questioned in disbelief.

Amy's gaze bore into the face veil that covered the cheek of Aasiya as she refused to look back at her out of shame.

"I'm so sorry, was running a little late and had to make a quick phone call. Do you mind if we make two more stops before heading over to the station?" Aasiya apologised, finally looking back at Amy.

Amy and Aasiya bonded over the lifeless body they discovered recently; when Aasiya got off her bus on the way home from her second job early in the morning, when the streets were almost empty, she heard a scream from the alleyway she usually took and quickened her pace to find a female figure leaning over a male motionless one, both covered in blood. The female figure being Amy.

"You can't just ask for favours, keep me waiting and still not be ready for what you needed me for," Amy sighed, shaking her head. "You really should learn to drive yourself."

The side fringe of her brunette hair fell over her eyes as she shook her head and she attempted to blow it out of the way with her mouth. After the third attempt, it worked.

"Honestly, I am really sorry, believe me. I just hope I can make it to my second job in time. Just running a little later than I expected." She gave Amy a wary smile even though she wouldn't be able to see it.

"What are you going to do with your daughter?"

"Well, that's the phone call I was making. I needed to see if the babysitter was going to keep her a little longer so that I can go to the station and then once I'm done, pick her up and drop her off at my brother's house and then for you to drop me off at work. Change of plan though, can you go to this address so we can pick her up? I need to call my brother and see if he can take her early, I hope they're home. I will be eternally grateful!" Aasiya practically spoke in one breath, worried Amy would not agree to it since she hadn't told her the full story when she called her to pick her up.

"That was not part of the plan. What happened to the quick favour of dropping you at the station and back home?" Amy questioned, taking the postcode Aasiya had shown her from her phone and typed into google maps.