The doorbell rang and Sara ran to open the door. It was daddy returning home from work.

“Assalamualaikum daddy!” Sara greeted cheerfully and took the briefcase from daddy’s hand. After closing the door, Daddy came in and sat down while Sara gave him water to drink.

“Where is your mum?” daddy asked.

“Aunty Sadia was not feeling well, so mum took her to the doctor,” she said.

At that time Emad brought daddy’s slippers and placed them in front of him. Then Emad picked up his shoes and went to put them in their place. Daddy put on his slippers and went to wash his hands and face. After coming back, he asked Sara for the newspaper as he sat down on the sofa.

Sara ran and fetched the newspaper. Daddy took the newspaper and when he tried to take the glasses out of his pocket, it was not there.

“Oh, Emad! Sarah! Bring me my glasses,” daddy called out to both of them.

“Where is it kept? Let me look for it,” Emad went and looked at the usual places where daddy kept his things, but he could not find it. He then asked Sara if she had seen daddy’s glasses.

“No, I have looked for it everywhere, but I can’t find it,” said Sarah

“What happened, where did you both go?” Daddy became angry

“Daddy, where did you put your glasses? I can’t find it,” Sarah answered.

“What do you mean you can’t you find it? I have just come from the office and I must have kept it in my room with my wallet. Go and check on my side table,” daddy instructed.

Daddy also started looking for glas­ses with Sara and Emad, but they did not find it anywhere. They eventually gave up and sat down worried, as daddy needed those glasses to read.

“Hello everyone! Why are you all looking so worried?” mum asked when she returned home.

“Mum, we can’t find daddy’s glasses. We have looked everywhere,” Emad disclosed.

“You two go and do your homework, I’ll check where they are,” mum said to them. Turning to her husband she spoke, “Let me go wash my hands and make tea, then I will find your glasses.”

When mum was washing her hands, she saw daddy’s glasses on the rack attached to the mirror over the washbasin. She smiled and took daddy’s glasses to him and said, “Read the newspaper, while I’ll bring the tea.”

“Read without glasses?” daddy spoke with irritation.

“No, with the glasses,” mother said while holding out the glasses to him.

“Hey! Where did you find them?” daddy asked.

“Mum, where did you find the glasses? We looked all over!” the kids spoke together in astonishment.

“When you went to freshen up, you must have kept it by the washbasin and forgotten about it,” she explained with a smile.

“Oh yes, now I remember I kept it there,” daddy answered with a bit of embarrassment as they all started to laugh.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 30th, 2022