A Tale Of Happiness

Chapter One: With smile, life goes on

Fatima placed all the checked copies of her students in her locker which were assigned to her, and  took her cellphone and other belongings and put them in her handbag, the bell had indicated that school has ended she had 15 minutes left to get out of the school and take the first bus to her home, another of her colleague came in the stuff office of teacher to retrieve her things,

"Miss Fatima have you prepared the attendance list we have to submit this week, I haven't even started it." she asked her in a manner of exhaustion, indeed it was a long day of summer and work was piling up in the office and the test series of student were suppose to start from upcoming week.

"Yes, I'm almost done with it, and I've even started preparing the question papers for students as well." Fatima replied with a smile on her face, she was tired as well but that is the thing about her she had a lot of endurance, there can be a pole breaking on her head still she'll be calm as a cow and to think of it it was the best way of solving the solution. After seeing her calm expression her colleague shook her head at her and left the office, Fatima knew if she didn't hurry she won't be able to catch the bus, she got out of school door and started walking towards the bus stop, luckily she caught the bus, although it was already full but it was better than nothing. After reaching her home stop she had to walk a bit more towards her home street in this summer heat.

Naheed knew her daughter will be arriving soon, she had already prepared some lemon juice for her and on her thought the door opened and fatima entered with cheerful greeting, she could detect the exhaustion in her voice, after replying to her greeting Naheed placed the juice in front of her, " Drink this and retrieve your energy beta."

Fatima gave her a teethy smile "Amma jaan, you always know how to bring smile on this beautiful face of your daughter, though I was really thirsty", she gulped the whole glass of juice and it was refreshing after taking the heat outside.

"Well, your beautiful face already had a smile since you walked in, it has nothing to do with me providing you with this juice." Naheed knew how much patience her daughter had, she gets sad after seeing her struggle and how much Fatima is doing for her family. Being the eldest was not easy, she graduated from college but couldn't afford to join University, although she had so much potential in her, but her father having given early retirement due to his health led her to get a job, which landed her in Highschool full of energized students. But she was happy enough for Saleha, for whom she had saved enough money to got her in a good University and it pleased her a lot more than anything. It worked out good too because her sister now worked in a company that too in a finance department, and Fatima never left a chance to brag about it, she was that proud and now she wanted her other sister Tooba to become a doctor and she can be very persuasive.

Her Mother always told her to leave this job and get married so she can be in peace and not get to see her tired face every day but she was hell bent on doing this job, her excuse was to get tooba into medical college until then she would never even think of leaving this teaching job. Tooba was in her second year of college, she had one more year to get her into medical college. Their father pension was only enough for their house to run, so fatima saved most of money for her sisters.

"I'm telling you again fatima, if you don't quit this job after tooba gets into college, I will go to your school to ask them to make you quit." She warned her.

"Amma jaan, you can't even warn zubaida massi for taking day off unnecessarily and yet you are going to threat my school officials." She jokingly replied, and got up to change.

"I'm telling you Fatima, I won't listen to your excuses then." Fatima just smiled at her mother and left her to get fresh up. Fatima knew it was hard for their family to get by, the economic rate kept getting higher, if she was to quit her job there won't be anyway she will get it easily after. Although Saleha was making enough but she can't take any chances, for the future is always unpredictable.

. . . .

It was evening tea time in Sulieman's house where they all enjoy their tea in the living room and have community time with the family.

Naheed was the first one to begin the conversation, "Zakariya, why don't you talk to your friends about any suitors, I've tried with my friends but they haven't gotten me anything, our daughters are getting older, I'm worried at this rate they won't get married." This was the hot topic these days. Fatima and tooba signed heavily, they knew her mother won't stop until she will get her daughters married.

"Naheed leave them be, Allah will bring suitors to our doors when the right time will come." their father was always on their side, he wasn't able to fulfill all their wishes so tried to make them happy in ways as he can.

"That's great, Allah told us to put effort in out mission for him to make a way. At this rate, I'm sure no one will come for my daughters..." she rumbled on and on about how her daughter will get old soon and no one will take them as their wives.

Fatima tried to calm her mother down, "Ami I'm only twenty-five, how can you be so sure about not getting suitors, like Abba said leave it to Allah. Insha'Allah everything will sort out well."

"That is easy for you to say fatima, when you'll become a mother one day Insha'Allah then you'll know." Fatima had heard that sentence before and can't argue with ever.

"Amma, why do we always talk about the marriage topic, can't we discuss some other thing?" Tooba insisted.
"And tell Saleha Api to leave her phone while we are having tea she's always busy with work all the time." When she said that, everyone's eyes turn towards Saleha who was pressing buttons on laptop, sensing a sudden silence she looked up from her laptop, and asked while looking at their expressionless faced "What? What happened?"

"See Abba she wasn't even listening to what I just said."
Zakariya turned to Saleha, "Beta I know you are busy and have lots of work to do, but I've made this rule only for us to have family time in the house. You can be busy as you want after this hour, do you understand beta?" She replied "I understand Abba,"  that was one thing about their father he had never scolded his daughters, but only make them see wrong in the situation on which they had their own choice to make them right.

"So what were we discussing just now?" Saleha asked to which tooba and fatima laughed and their father smiled in amusement.

"Are you sure you want to hear that api?" Tooba dared, while fatima amusedly waved her hand to her question. Saleha was the quiet and reserved piece between the sisters, and most of the time she didn't pay that much attention to the conversation and then got curious after.

"Allah, now they find amusement in my worries, now I won't even talk to you guys about the matter," Naheed started again, and everyone in room start laughing Saleha just smiled with them getting the hint of the topic, while fatima hugged her mother trying to make her smile too.

That was how the evenings were spent in Sulieman's house, laughing and teasing each other and most of all being happy.

. . . .

Zakariya entered his house after a morning walk, called naheed in quick manner who was in the kitchen making breakfast for him. She went to him asked, "What is it, is everything alright?" He nodded and tell her to sit down, "you know who I met today?" zakariya told her happily, "Faizan."

"What's new about that you meet him everyday while having a walk."

"Can you let me finish first?" She nodded indicated him to go on. "So the other day, we were talking about current matters and then he asked about you guys so I told him we were fine and mentioned about you being worried for suitors, so he told me he has been doing the same for his daughter, asked me if i want him to look for my daughters as well, I told him fine, today when I met him he told me about a family and has given me their contact number, told me they were seeking our type of family." Zakariya ended.

Naheed eyes widened with happiness, "Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah Allah, I hope they turn out well, are you going to talk to them today?"

"Yes, in the evening Insha'Allah."

_________

So the first chapter, here it is, do give it a read.
Jazaki'Allah khair kaseer 🌺
You can ask me any question in comments.