Blue ✓

♠ five ♠

He did end up loving it. So much so that he managed to describe it perfectly for Aiyla to picture it vividly in her mind. Their current house had no hallway, the front door led directly into the sitting room, which directly led to the dining room. But this house had a hallway that led straight to the kitchens separating the two front-rooms.

Ammi had already decided to convert the dining room into Aiyla's bedroom; the kitchen being much larger so they could have lunch and supper there. The first use of the extra money saved from having to pay no rent went towards buying a bed for Aiyla, and a small bedside table.

The house had come with sparse furniture, and added to their own furniture, there wasn't much else that needed to be bought.

But, Aiyla's favourite thing had to be the bookshelf in her soon to be room, stuffed with volumes of different topics. Their current house had no such space, so this was a dream come true. Granted, she couldn't read any of it, but the rustic smell of paperback and crinkling of pages brought her to a sense of home she'd missed dearly.

There was a small park located on the street behind them; which meant Suhayl's window, located to the back of the house, had a beautiful view. An upgrade from the slums and alleys.

This house was also much closer to the shopping area, and there were at least three mosques within walking distance. Both Aiyla and her Ammi had great fun observing the difference in Suhayl's mood from the beginning of the visit till the end, by which the sharpness in his words to Habib dadu had melted away into gratitude.

♕

Spring had begun to crawl in by the time they moved to the new house. The breeze carried with it a fresh scent, of trees, flowers, and just so nature.

Aiyla tried to remember how spring looked at it beginning stages; bare trees beginning to bud, small flowers beginning to crawl up towards sunlight after months of being trapped under dirt, and the buzzing of insects welcoming the new season.

She found the image was blurry. Uncertain. She had never paid much attention to the gradual change of seasons. It was something that happened. Something that she acknowledged in the back of her mind, only ever concerned with what came with, rain, heat, exams, stress. And general depression.

Right now, she would have prepping for GCSEs.

The moment that thought entered her head; she shook it as if to physically fling it out. Future had no space in her mind. Yet.

Now sitting in the garden, that could actually be labelled as a garden, feeling the breeze ruffle her scarf and caress her face – she wished she had paid more attention, if only to be able to recall the image in her mind now. Perhaps the tree hadn't really began to sprout buds yet, still bare from the winter. Perhaps half the leaves had already opened amidst many buds waiting to open. Perhaps the flowers have already blossomed, bright under the sun. The sun which peeked through the branches and buds on the tree on the still messy, dewy grass underneath – the grass which no one had mown. Birds flitting around the tree, resting on the branches, and occasionally swooping down to peck at the stray seed amidst the dandelions and daffodils.

She could think it all. Yet the eye in her mind remained blurry.

Closing her eyes – which made no difference – she leaned back on her hands, sitting uncomfortably on the doorframe that separated the kitchen from the garden. Her mind was split between wanting to go out into the garden, or following Ammi's words to remain inside the threshold.

She shouldn't go out. Really. She's still heavily reliant on surfaces to help her navigate. This was a new house, new place, new surroundings. She wasn't familiar enough to walk without touching something yet.

She shouldn't.

Yet her feet burned to feel the grass underneath. Ammi was completing her evening shift at the retail place she worked at, Suhayl was in the mosque. There was no one to stop her.

Might as well make use of it.

The garden was still part of the house. It is nowhere a stranger can reach her.

InShaAllah.

Tentatively, she stood up. She remembered the door leading to the garden is on the left side of the kitchen, so the actual garden spans out on the right.

Leaving her shoes by the door, she turned to her right and moved forward. To her disappointment, the concrete slabs seemed to stretch forever, until her toes finally touched upon the grass. A jolt went though her body, and she relished the feeling of sheer grass, earth and nature underneath her. There was a slight dampness to it, as though it had sprinkled moments ago.

'Typical British weather,' she mused, immersing herself in the cacophony of noises around her: singing birds, chirping birds, meows, rustling leaves, the soft blows of the wind. The feeling of eyes on you.

She stopped.

"Who's there?" Aiyla sharply lifted her head, turning to the direction she felt the gaze was from.

Being sightless for almost three months had granted her the ability to acutely feel gazes upon herself. And there was a gaze on her right now.

A small creak. Aiyla thought it was maybe from behind the wooden fence that separated their garden from their neighbour's. Was the person attempting to step over it?

Why did she decide this was a good idea?

The darkness felt more suffocating than ever. It was dizzying. Spinning. Her heart was beating rapidly.

She should have listened to Ammi and stayed in the house.