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The Progeny - Part 3

Time skipped

It is the school holidays. Khatijah helped Aisyah to carry the stuff and got into the car. Aisyah gave Mak Esah days-off as they were going back to the village to visit their family. They began the journey, not knowing there's a woman wearing the baju kurung was sitting at the back of the car beside Wafiq, following them. It's the same woman Khatijah saw after she was being left at the school alley. Since Khatijah's dad died, they had no time to visit her grandma because Aisyah worked so hard every day. She's still grateful for everything they have now, though she didn't spend much time with her mom. Aisyah's mom lives in a big wooden house in the village. Her father died of cancer in 1998 when she was 18 years old. She has two older brothers, but both of them died in a car crash. Since then, Aisyah's mom has lived alone in the house. Every day after she did her chores, she would sit on the couch that her husband used to sit and looked at her view outside her window. After Aisyah got married, she always brought her children to visit whenever she and her husband, Saiful, got a day off. Khatijah and her grandma, Salmah, become close.

"Assalamualaikum.. grandma!" They got out of the car and smiled as soon as they saw Salmah sweeping at the front yard outside of her house. She frowned at first when she heard people calling her, but then she smiled as she saw it was her grandchildren that called her. Khatijah and Wafiq ran to Salmah and hugged her tightly. It's been so long. Salmah only saw Wafiq when he was like 3 years old. Aisyah smiled and immediately joined the group hug.
"Waalaikumussalam.. I miss all of you so much! Come, let's go inside." Salmah said.
"We miss you too, mom." Aisyah gave her a warm smile. All of them went inside the house to settle down. Salmah goes to the kitchen to serve them some kuih that she made this morning as well as cups of hot tea. Aisyah immediately went to the kitchen to help her mother.
"I'll help you." Aisyah says as she takes out the plate and puts the food in it. Salmah smiled at her. She was happy that her daughter got to visit her after everything that happened to their family. She knew the reason for all that. In fact, she knew it was their family's fault.
"So, how's everything going for you and the children?" Salmah started to. Aisyah raised her eyebrows.
"Oh yeah, it was okay. It's just that I've been busy at the office. The company's doing great. Khatijah is still the top student. Wafiq loves legos, but yeah. He's doing great, too." She replied. Salmah nodded while they brought the plates to the diner table. After eating, they spent their time together in the living room.

While others were still in the living room, Khatijah got up and looked around the house. She goes inside a room that is full of books. It looks like a mini library. She raised her eyebrows, amazed. As her eyes were wandering around for a book that she could read, she saw a book that was placed on top of the shelf. She wonders why. She tried to reach it but couldn't. She took a chair and stood on it to reach the book. She grabbed the book and got down from the chair. The book looks very antique and has a great design on the cover. As she was going to open it, she heard someone call her name. She stopped.
"Khatijah.." A familiar voice whispered her name. She turned her head and peaked outside the room to see if someone really called her while still holding the book. Her mom and the other were still watching TV. She was confused. When she walked back to the shelf, she saw a woman outside of their house through their window. The woman was just staring at her. She thought that maybe it's the same woman because the one that she saw at that moment was wearing the emerald baju kurung. She got close to the window to see the woman clearly. But then, she disappeared. Her eyes wandered around until she heard her name was being called again.
"Khatijah?" Aisyah called her while standing in front of the room. Khatijah was startled. She sighed out of relief.
"Are you okay, honey?" Aisyah frowned by how shocked Khatijah was.
"Yeah, I'm okay it's just.. Uhm, nothing. Hehe." She was about to tell Aisyah, but didn't.
Aisyah nodded slowly as she was still confused. "Okay, anything, just let me know, yeah?" Khatijah nodded as a response. She looked back outside the window and saw no one. She frowned. She then closed the window and went out of the room. Before that, she put the book that she was holding back on the shelf.