To Our Doom (Paused)

Chapter 10: Rain, It's yOur Fault

The sky was grumbling lightly in the morning, like Sawda when Hasan gave her cat food instead of tuna. Despite that... Sarah left her house to go to the city to get an abaya for her mother. She had noticed that her mother's favorite abaya had torn a bit on the bottom, so she wanted to get her mother another one. Ishaaq was going to tag along with her, but as usual, he was being fashionably late.

Ibrahim was also headed to the city to get Maryam's favorite boba from the mall near their old house. He also wanted to take a walk along the familiar surroundings of the city he grew up in.

Unlike Sarah, he's prepared and brings an umbrella with him. It's comically large as if it's made for two people. He can't complain though, because he doesn't want to go through the hassle of rummaging through every storage furniture and room to find a smaller umbrella when he already found one.

It's gonna be alright. It'll just shield him from the rain better if it does rain.

"Ishaaq!" Sarah called from outside the washroom. What's taking him so long? "I'm going, you take your time,"

"Ukthi! Wait, I'm almost done with the shower!" Ishaaq called out.

"I'm leaving you here," she said simply. "Come to the bus station later, okay?"

Ishaaq grumbled, probably complaining, but the shower water muffled his words. Sarah checked her Niqab in the mirror, and when it was alright, she walked away.

The walk under the light gray sky was peaceful. Icy winds swept past her, making her eyes feel frozen (it's 16℃). She reached the uncharacteristically empty bus station. She sat near the glass wall and pulled out her phone... which was on its last life... at 2%. That's alright, Ishaaq will come along, and his phone will be there. She had to put the phone back in her green purse and stared at the serene road in front of her.

The other side of the road was grassy with trees spaced out. Mist was hovering around the trees, blurring her view of whatever was beyond the line of trees. She took a deep breath in to inhale the fresh morning air. She turned to look around and see if anyone else had joined her in the bus stop waiting area – and yes, there was someone. Ibrahim. Concentrated on his phone

The thing is, he noticed her first and decided to pull out his phone and pretend to be busy. I wonder why.

Sarah glanced at him for a moment before shifting her gaze to the sky above. It was still light gray. She looked at the sky around her. She then noticed a wave of dark, dark gray clouds emerging from their right.

Darkest clouds she had ever seen.

Soon, the dark rain clouds had splashed over the entire sky. As if looking down at Sarah and Ibrahim and smirking at each other... it took a moment. A moment before the clouds let loose. Pitter-patter quickly turned into thunder rumbling. Rain crashed on the road.

Sarah didn't have an umbrella. Her phone was dead by now. The bus is definitely not coming in this weather. She won't be going to the city today.

Abu Ishaaq stayed home today for the same reason. The oncoming rainstorm. They had been advised to stay home. But she thought the rainstorm would be a drizzle like always. It wasn't.

"The bus is not coming today," Ibrahim announced, possibly to the air. Sarah turned to him. He had a phone. And an umbrella.

Ibrahim noticed her gaze and observed that she had no umbrella on her. He was also going to leave this umbrella behind but decided to be prepared.

"I need to call someone; can I have your phone?" Sarah requested, after five seconds of weighing the pros and cons. Ibrahim was surprised. "This phone is dead," she explained, showing him her dead screen.