Amidst Our Hearts

Sixty five.

Cairo, Egypt.

The El-Bahds alighted the several cars they came with to the cemetery to visit Haaya's grave. Sakeena's hand nervously shook as she held onto Khalifa's which also felt sweaty. To her, she's meeting the sister she never got to meet for the first time while to Khalifa all the horrible memories of her death kept replaying in his head.

The entire family is overwhelmed, rollercoasters of emotions. Haana's face is marinated with a stoic expression. No one can tell or predict what she's feeling. Her heart is racing, her palms sweaty as she gulped down the lump in her throat nervously. She has always blamed her sisters for the misfortune and torturous way she grew up not knowing she has been left in the dark all along.

Amma and Arwa are a crying mess, they both haven't been here since she died. Abba, Hammad and the rest of the guys went in first, then the mothers and lastly Khalifa, Sakeena and Haana. Khalifa's body shook as he took slow steps towards the heap of sand where his cousin laid beneath.

Indeed, with every thing life is given to death is promised. It is inevitable and no one can escape that. One minute you're here and the next you're gone, and life goes on either way. We all have limited time in this world and when our time is up, not a single second is added.

The three squatted down and touched the heap of sand, Haana was first to leave while Sakeena and Khalifa lingered longer. Khalifa stared mindlessly at the sand until he heard Sakeena sniffing beside him. "Even though I've never met you, I love you as a sister would and I wish I got to meet you. We would have played like sisters and age mates would together with Haana, play princess tea party and makeovers, we would've grown together and become as tight as a band. Sisters are a blessings but you all got taken away the very moment we were born." Sakeena paused and wiped the tears gushing down her face that kept rolling and rolling nonstop.

"You asked me to return and take good care of Khalifa? I will do that exactly. I will take care of our parents, Amma, Abba, Mamie, Baba and all of our siblings. I wish you were here to meet my foster siblings you would've loved them just like I did growing up with them. I'm sorry for all that happened to you Haaya, I truly am but I'm sure you're in a better place In Sha Allah. You are in the hands of our Lord, the one we trust the most. I love you and I'll always will, till we all unite in Jannah In Sha Allah." Sakeena kissed her fingers and touched the heap of sand. She felt Khalifa rubbing her back soothingly as she turned to hug him.

Khalifa's face looks void of any emotion. He feels a lot but he has to stay strong for both of them. He misses Haaya a lot, every single day of his life but it was Allah's decree to take her back to him and no one could've stopped that from happening. He now has Sakeena by his side, he'll protect her with his all and they'll continue to pray for Haaya, till the end of time.

They both got up to leave the cemetery with Sakeena's face read and puffy. Khalifa opened the front door of the car and made sure she's settled down before rounding over to the driver's side. The rest of the family members have gone back home but left a car for the two.

Khalifa got himself settled in the car as well and passed a handkerchief to Sakeena. "It's good to get things off your chest, that's what you taught me right?" Sakeena nodded. "I want you to stop crying now, it kills me to see your precious tears dropping." He kissed the back of her hand then interlaced their fingers together and started the car with the other.

They both sat in comforting silence with only the sound of the air conditioner blowing. Sakeena has stopped crying and turned her head to the see the view outside. She felt the car stop and looked at Khalifa then to her front. She gasped at the sight and smiled widely. "How did you know I was craving this?"

"I read your mind." Khalifa replied.

Sakeena got out of the car excitedly and rushed into the frozen yogurt shop with Khalifa following behind her, they placed their order and took a table to wait. Sakeena grabbed Khalifa's hand across the table and took out her phone. She made a shirt boomerang video on instagram, added a heart and infinity emoji then posted it on her story.