Amara knocked on the door thrice, her feet making a rhythmic sound on the floor as she waited for her mother to open the door. It was after a few seconds that the door opened and Amara rushed in. Amara tried to turn on the air conditioner of her room when her mother shouted from the kitchen,

“There is no light and it won’t come until five in the evening, your father received a message.”

Amara couldn’t believe her ears. She was already having such a frustrating day and now this added fuel to fire. Earlier today, her teacher had not liked her assignments on which she spent a full weekend working on.

“I expected better from you,” he had said.

That had stung. Moreover, on her way back home, her school van had broken down. She had to wait for an hour in the blazing hot sun for it to get fixed.

To get herself in a better mood, she decided to take a shower. After the relaxing shower, Amara was drying her hair as she made her way out of her room when she saw Wania and her little mischievous brother Hassaan, her neighbours, coming inside the house. Amara simply looked on as they invited themselves in and sat on the newly purchased white couch. She was too tired for guests today.

She reluctantly went and greeted them. Then, for around half an hour, she endured the continuous chatter of Wania. On the other hand, Hassaan continuously kept swaying his feet, they would meet the couch every two seconds, resulting in a little thud which made irritation crawl up Amara’s spine.

She glared at the little boy as he intentionally slurped the apple juice he had been served, loudly. Her patience was running out, as she had already asked him to stop doing that twice and that too politely.

Wania had passed her a tight smile at that and said, “He is just a child. Let him do what he wants.”

Her mother had also passed questioning glances her way.

It was Amara’s last straw when Hassaan spilled the apple juice on the new white couch. Amara just got up and went to her room, knelt on the floor and broke down. It had been a very hard day for her. Soon, she felt comforting arms wrapping themselves around her.

“It’s okay. Sometimes it’s hard to see the hidden sunshine behind the dark clouds,” her mother’s sweet voice reached her ears.

Amara couldn’t help but laugh at that and said, “I have seen a lot of sunshine today.”

Her mother smiled and rested Amara’s head on her lap as she continued crying. Amara didn’t realise when the guests went, when the electricity came, as she just kept crying in her mother’s lap. Amara’s mother patted her head and comforted her.

Amara drifted to sleep as she felt her mother kissing her forehead and saying, “Sometimes, it is okay to take a little break. And don’t think about anything happening around you, everything will be perfect just as you want it to be. Just go to sleep….”

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 20th, 2023