Finding Hafsa

Finding Hafsa Chapter 1
Wednesday 5th October

Hafsa came down from the taxi in front of the tall office building and smoothened her smart, ash colored skirt suit.

This is it, she thought as she walked through the main entrance of the building and took the lift up to the fifth floor of the high rise.

This was the moment she had planned and been waiting for all this while.

'Can't afford to fail now,' she thought.

The job interview was for 9am and she saw from her wristwatch that she was thirty minutes early.

After writing her name on a list provided by an assistant in the office, Hafsa sat down. To calm her nerves, she plugged in her ear phones to listen to some music on her phone.

She shut her eyes and allowed the cool music to wash over her, sweeping away all the stress and strains and pains of life...

Then a tap on her shoulder brought her down to earth.

"Hafsa Ismail? You're next!" the assistant said crisply.

She took her folder and taking a deep breath, walked briskly towards the door, held open by the assistant.

There were four persons on the panel- three men and a lady but he stood out among them. Her eyes were instinctively drawn to him, to his face that had haunted her all these years and would not let her be...

'Focus' she rebuked herself as she greeted the members of the interview panel in a calm voice then sat down.

She gazed at them, her eyes moving to where he sat, staring at him briefly then swiftly looking away again. But not before she saw the look of recognition in his eyes. He was about to say something but the man sitting at the head of the table, cleared his throat and the interview began...

She was standing by the roadside waiting for a cab when a voice called out:

"Hafsa!"