Choosing The Right Path

37) 👴Golden Oldies👵

👯 A A M I R A H 👯

It was only two hours after Sehri when Rubina shook me awake.

"C'mon, Cuz, we have a ton of stuff to do!"

I groaned and slowly got out of bed. It was too early for me to function like a normal human being.

"Okay, relax. I'll be downstairs in a few minutes."

I brushed Rubina off and went to freshen up. Once I was done dressing up, I ran downstairs and grinned when I saw Aunty Husna in the kitchen.

"Salaams, Aunty. How are you this morning?"

"Salaams. Very, very busy habibti. Rubina and I need your help with preparing the food for this evening."

"Oh? Rubina's finally doing some work," I chuckled.

Aunty Husna shook her head, "All thanks to you my darling. Now take these lentils and sort them out, will you? The five pots of biryani won't cook themselves!" She said in a sing-song voice.

You heard the woman; five pots.

》》》

"This is the last one, right Mom?" Shaarif asked Aunty Husna that evening.

"It should be. You boys can join us later, if you'd like. We'll be joining the old age residents for iftar and taraweeh."

I was so excited to be visiting the old age home. The people would be so happy, especially to eat Aunt Husna's amazing mutton biryani. To share the evening with these people was going to be good for the soul. Community work is essential, especially in today's society where every person is for themselves. It so often happened that the elders in communities are often left behind and it was up to the youth to care for them. If we didn't, who else would?

Once the car was loaded, I jumped into the backseat with Raeesa and Rubina sat in the front passenger's seat with her mother. Uncle Ismail and the boys would join us later. All I wanted to do was focus on the present and helping people in need. I silently prayed for Azlan and before we knew it, we stopped at the gate of the old age home.

A young woman of about 5ft. walked up to the gate and swung it open. "Welcome to Gary Greene's Senior Residence. I'm Leslie. Oh my, are you the family that offered to donate food for the seniors?" The woman asked in wonderment.

"Yes, we are," Aunt Husna replied.

Leslie called care takers to help offload the food from the car. Once that was done, we followed Aunt Husna and Leslie into the main building. Sadly, the last time I had visited the senior home was about two years ago. It was good to be back.

We walked through the grounds; peaceful gardens that separated the different buildings and gave the place a homely feel. We were led into a communal area in which many older men and women were seated around large tables, waiting for their food to be served. Aunt Husna, Raeesa, Rubina and I started dishing the food immediately. It felt great to be serving the community, even if it was in just a small way.

Thankfully, Aunt Husna hadn't prepared just one meal. She catered for the needs of every person in the old age home. Although that proved to be a challenge, the cooks at the old age home assisted Aunty Husna and the evening really turned out to be a success.

Later, we joined the Muslim residents for taraweeh at the same mosque that Uncle Ismail and the boys attend everyday. Reading the Qur'an always gave me piece of my mind and I prayed for Azlan's speedy recovery. He was strong. I knew that he would make it through this difficult time. Allah was on his side.

✴ A Z L A N ✴

There's nothing much for me to say. The hospital's more boring than I could have ever imagined. I always seemed to have a headache but thankfully, the nurses were nice enough to strike up a conversation once in a while.

Somehow, I got a visitor. Nurse Margie informed me of this. It was a Sunday and my hopes were high.

"Hey Azlan!" Zak whispered as he walked up to my bedside. "How are you buddy? I heard about your accident but I couldn't get off work on Friday and we had a bit of an electrical fault at the flat yesterday. I also thought that you were staying with your parents..."

I felt really bad for suck. He looked really upset and forlorn. Even a little guilty for not coming to see me. I knew that there woild have been a logical explanation as to why he never came to visit but it didn't make me feel any better to know that Zak was handling all these problems himself. Now that I was in hospital, I could not even help Zak pay the bills because I was not going to work. Things always just seemed to go from bad to worse in my life. It was difficult to find a sliver of positivity in this moment of darkness.   

"Look, Azlan, I don't want you to worry. Just updating you on how things are going. Everything will get better. You just focus on recovering, okay?"

I nodded weakly. I felt powerless.

"Say, has your girl come to visit you?"

"She did. She feels that she's to blame for my accident because she reunited me with my parents. She never said anything but I can see it in her eyes everytime she looks at me... Zak?"

"I'm listening," Zak replied while sitting down on a cushioned wicker chair next to my bed.

"She met my parents. My mother was very hostile towards her..."

"Ah. I'm sorry, mate. I'm sure your mom was just stressed out and not in the mood to meet new people."

"I hope that's the case. I don't want Mom to be stressed out but I don't want her to dislike Aamirah either."

"So that's her name. Sorry for being so forgetful..." Zak scratched the back of his neck.

"Say, when are you gonna be discharged?"

"About two weeks from now."

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And that brings us to the end of yet another chapter 😆.

Keep reading 💖x.