Endurance

CHAPTER ONE

The sun was up at its peak when two battered sandal-clad chubby feet walked into the tiny store room a young girl was in. She woke up from her slumber, where she reclined on a sack of rice , and was shocked to see her brother's clothes that had seen better days squeezed, torn by the collar and dusty all over, sweat trickling down his neck and face. His expression looked defeated, his eyes showed such distress that she had never saw in them, his hand that that was empty shook. Moving closer, she rubbed the remaining sleep out of her eyes only to see a trace of blood on his forehead as he stared up at her with eyes full of something she could only identify as grief, his breathing heavy.

"Wh.....wh....what hap....pened?."  She managed to stammer out, with constant twitch of her eye when she speaks.

"Nothing, I fell."  He croaked out slowly, his grim expression giving him out entirely. He gently dropped the old sack containing the rest of the farming tools and the hoe that hung on his shoulder on the floor. When he looked up again she nodded towards his injury, and with a tilt of her head she waited for his response. He shook his head in defiance, as he tried to pass by her but she reached out for his shoulder.

"P...please tell m....me Sa..sa'ad." He gave her a defeated shrug and told her that he tripped over and fell face first on the ground while he was tilling it, leading to it injuring his forehead.

Before she could ask any more questions he quickly went out, calling out to her that he was heading to fetch some water. The twelve year old has been going through a series of bullying in different parts of town from kids his age and even those older than him for his weight. It wasn't a new thing for the both of them, he gets picked on almost as much as she gets bullied for being a stammerer and for her own weight as well, but the pain she saw in his eyes today was beyond what she could handle with just a few staggering words of encouragement. She took her own bucket and gallon to follow him suit in fetching the water, even though every part of her body protested.

They fetched eight gallons and four buckets of water, emptied them in the large containers situated between their Aunt's room and the kitchen. Immediately after they were done she asked her brother to go clean up properly and take a rest, then got into the kitchen to prepare lunch before everyone returns. One of her aunt's co-wife, Ramla, walked into the premises and dropped a couple of baby clothes wrapped in a blanket then went back into her side at the far end of the building. She emerged back with a considerably larger bundle of clothing, clearly dirty ones and dropped them along side the ones she dropped earlier.

"I need a wash, here." She said as she threw a bag of detergent and soap on the bundle of clothes while rocking her baby back and forth. Hafsa looked up from her crouched position as she was trying to stabilize the stove, then stared at all of the clothes that she was asked to wash and swallowed. An excuse was not taken lightly as an answer, and one thing she was sure of was that she might not even get a glimpse of sleep till midnight as she already has a lot on her plate to last her a whole day. Ramla was her aunt's favorite co-wife. They get along really well because they both have a common enemy, their husband's first wife. So anything Ramla wants, she gets no matter the countless times she tries pushing Hafsa's limits. Hafsa nodded and tried carrying the clothes in but before she reached the door to the room, Ramla called out to her.

"You answer when I ask you to do something". She spoke with her face pulled into a strict frown.

"I...I...I wi..will." She choked out and quickly got into the room in a sorry excuse of a sprint with all there was in her arms. She returned to the kitchen and continued her work while cleaning up and washing the dishes that were piled up from breakfast that morning.

When she was finally done for the entire day and ready to retire for the night it was already past ten in the evening and she wasn't sure if she could sleep at all. All she could think of was the silent painful sounds she heard from her aunt's room when her brother was being punished earlier for something she had no idea about. She peeked through the windows to make sure everyone was asleep before tiptoeing towards the veranda where her brother laid with a thin covering over his body and on an even thinner mat that he lays. The pain in her chest constricted even more to a choking sensation that ran up her throat at the sound of Sa'ad's soft sobs coming from the direction he laid. Moving forward, she crouched down beside him and touched his shoulder, he quickly wiped his tears but didn't turn immediately.