My salvation

Chapter 1

A 7-year-old enters the kitchen. He sees his mother, Mariem, making breakfast. “Good morning, mom.”, he says with a huge smile on his face and hugs her tightly. His mother looks at him with a smile, hugs him back and says, “Good morning, Zain.”. He takes his place at the table and says, “Good morning, siblings.”. His twin sister, Khadijah, and his older brother, Hassan, smile at him and say, “Good morning, sibling.”. Mariem puts his breakfast at the table and says with a grin, “Here. Your eggs. I made it just the way you like. Raw.”. Zain looks at her and says, “You mean not burned.”. Mariem chuckles, shakes her head and says, “whatever.”. He too chuckles, thanks her and starts digging in.

He was halfway done when his father, Yassin, Walks in. His smile fades. Yassin takes his place at the table and greets everyone. Zain greets him back even though he’d rather he didn’t. Unlike his siblings, Zain doesn’t like his father. He doesn’t even understand why anyone would like him. He is so impatient. For example, he would curse the driver if the taxi is 5 minutes late. He is an attention seeker. He likes to victimize himself. He prays that Allah hurts anyone who isn’t Muslim or anyone who is Muslim but doesn’t do his religious duties instead of asking Allah to guide them and to help them. He believes he is a bad man. He always hurts his mother. He doesn’t hit her but he yells at her a lot. And, sometimes he even insults her.

To Zain, his mother is everything. He thinks of her like a superhero. She takes care of them, she feeds them, she does chores, she cleans their house, she does the laundry, she even takes care of their grandparents from his father’s side even though she doesn’t have to. She works all day long. And yes, sometimes she gets angry and shouts at him but, with all that pressure and stress on her, who wouldn’t?

And what does his father do? He works and after he comes home, he has lunch and God forbid lunch isn’t ready yet. He insults Zain’s mother and shouts at her because he is tired and hungry -as if she isn’t tired too- and just wants to have lunch. After that he takes his nap and when he wakes up, he drinks tea, goes out to see his friends and then comes home and sits with grandpa and grandma for about half an hour and then of course he gets cranky because he is hungry and tired and wants dinner now. Zain doesn’t understand why he is tired?! He already had lunch, had his nap, had his tea and he went to hang out with his friends while his mother was busy all day. Why doesn’t he have any patience at all? It’s like he is a little baby and not a man.

Zain doesn’t like his father at all that he wishes he wasn’t his father. He wants to be like his mom. He wants to be a mother. He knows that men can’t be mothers but he is terrified that his kids would hate him if he is a father just like he hates his father. “If only men could be mothers.”, thinks Zain to himself. 

His thoughts are cut shortly by a loud cry. It’s his youngest sister’s cries. Reem is the latest addition to the family. She is one. She is this little beautiful baby. Zain loves babies and wants to be a parent someday. He thanks Allah she was born beautiful and not like him and Khadijah when they were newborns. Actually, their uncle saw them for the first time in a picture and started to console their mother because he thought they were retards. To be honest, it wasn’t their uncle’s fault. They really did look like they were retards. This always makes Zain laugh.

Anyway, Mariem went to get Reem. She brought her to the kitchen and started feeding her. Everyone cooed at her and played with her for a while then Yassin went to get his briefcase to go to work and the siblings brought their bags to go to school. Both Yassin and the siblings kissed Mariem and Reem goodbye and went down to the first floor. Yassin, Mariem, the kids and Yassin’s parents live together in one house. The house has two floors. The grandparents live on the first floor and Yassin, Mariem and the kids live on the second floor. They live in a village called Bani Adam. Grandma’s name is Zeinab and grandpa’s name is Adam. For a while, the three siblings thought that this village is named Bani Adam after Adam, their grandfather, but thankfully, they learned the truth. They learned that it’s just the village’s name and that it has nothing to do with their grandpa.

The siblings adore their grandparents. They me be stern but they are also kind and sometimes even funny. Yassin and the three siblings hugged their grandparents, kissed them and bid them goodbye. Then Yassin took the car to work after saying goodbye to the three siblings and the kids went to school.