Finding Mustapha (EDITING)

One

People say first impression matters a lot, it would define the way one saw you as a person. What you did or said on your first meeting with a person would shape the way your relationship went.

As for Hairan, her boss would paint her as unpunctual for the rest of her service at her workplace. She fumbled with the contents of her hand while constantly reciting 'Innalillahi wa inna illaihir raju'un' Her alarm clock failed her on the day she needed it the most. She was so tense the night before that she couldn't sleep early. Though she woke up to observe her Fajr salat, somehow she managed to be Twenty minutes late.

She knew exactly why she was late, Sleep. Hairan cherished her sleep; after all sleeping kept her young, wrinkle free, beautiful and happy. She had observed her salat at five twenty a.m knowing she had to be at work at eight thirty a.m and since she had about three hours to go she set an alarm for seven a.m and drifted off to sleep.

By the time she woke up and checked the time, it was already ten minutes past eight o'clock "La haula!" she exclaimed, jumping out of bed and into the bathroom. She quickly took a shower and tried to calm herself down in the process and by the time she was fully dressed and out of the room, it was already thirty minutes past eight, ~she happens to take very long showers especially when she is tense~ and it would take her ten extra minutes to go through the struggle of deciding what to wear and getting dressed.

She quickly ran to her mother's room and opened the door, scanning the empty room calling out 'mama' before turning around and rushing down the stairs to the kitchen where she found her frying yam.
"Mama ina kwana (good morning mom)" she greeted, still trying to catch her breath 

"An tashi lafiya? (How are you this morning)" her mother replied, a wide smile capturing her lips.

"I have to go, na makara (I'm late)"

"Won't you eat something?"

"No, I'll get something to eat later"

"At least have some tea" Her mom wasn't one to argue with, things went her way no matter what. She poured  Hairan some Chinese tea with a mix of different wierd branches and cinnamon into a travelers cup in no longer than thirty seconds and put the lid on.
"Goodluck"

She checked her watch again and it was fifty minutes past eight o'clock. She hastened up and it was as though she was walking on air, until...
"Hasbunallah!" she shouted, trying to grab on to something, anything at all. But gravity just kept pulling her down. When she reached the bottom of the ditch, she slowly opened her eyes and saw three heads, strapped with helmets looking into the hole. If Yusrah was here, she would literally die of laughter. Yusrah was her only sister and was like a personal bodyguard to her, she would take out anyone who tried anything funny with Hairan. While Hairan wouldn't take anything in life seriously and joked about everything Yusrah was the opposite, she was cautious and did all the right things.

Hairan couldn't stop coughing because of all the dust that had risen from her fall, when it finally settled she recognized a face from one of the heads looking down into the ditch at her.
"Baba" she slowly called out feeling relieved there was a familiar face around.

Abdallah was his real name, they met in the university through a friend of hers.

Baba stretched out his hand for her to hold and he pulled her out. She was covered in sand and to make matters worse, her veil had fallen off.

Could this day get any worse? She thought to herself feeling ashamed as all passers by had their eyes on her.

Someone passed her veil back, she covered her now messy hair with it. She dusted off the sand from her clothes and collected her bag, her two humongous textbooks and her cup of tea which surprisingly didn't spill.

All this wouldn't have happened if her bus had stopped in front of her workplace but she lived in an unsafe country and with all the insurgencies happening the road had been closed down so she had to drop at the next junction before walking back and stupid 'Her' didn't look where she was going.

"Well hello clumsy" Baba said when he finished laughing at her "Where to?"

"Work" her eyes caught the sign that read 'caution men at work' then she looked around and saw red tapes, which she had somehow managed to pass surrounding the area.

"Let me walk you" He collected her books which was a huge load off and they both started walking. After about a minute of silence and an unexplainable expression on Babas face she decided to break the silence "What?" She scoffed, refusing to smile.

"Well" he looked like he was holding back a laugh "your forehead is covered with sand" and he bursted into another series of laughter.

She groaned "I hate you"  and increased her pace, walking away from him.

"No you don't" He added calmly and he was right. She couldn't hate him, how could she hate any one with a good physique? "How did you even fall into the ditch? Will you ever look where you're going?" He threw his head back remembering her facial expression the moment she realized she was falling " I hope you didn't fracture a bone"

"Get out. Do you guys have to dig up a hole everywhere?" she asked beginning to feel frustrated, this wasn't the first time they had met like that and she had promised in the past it wouldn't happen again, unfortunately it did. He kept laughing as they finally made their way to the gates of her workplace.

"You're such a lifesaver" she said properly adjusting her hijab as she tried to dust off any remaining dirt from her body.

"I know" He said, egoistic much "you missed a spot" he said pointing to her knees causing her to quickly look down, but when she didn't see any dirt she looked back up to see him smiling "just kidding" He handed Hairan her books saying a quick goodbye before she rushed in through the pedestrian gate with only one thing going through her mind, what was her boss going to say?

xoxo hairanumar