🌕🌕 THE MARRIAGE OF RESOLVING A DISPUTE 🌕🌕
By MAMUH GEEE
and ZINNIE SMART
The whole family was excited about her return, especially the girls of the house—Siyama and Ayshat—who felt they had gained a new gossip partner.
She stayed in her father’s wing because he had remarried long ago.
Her room upstairs had been kept for her since she left the country.
After taking a bath and praying, she was wearing her top when Siyama entered with a big tray of food.
Lailah looked at Siyama, then at the tray filled with different dishes. She sat on her dressing chair and said:
“I’m not hungry, but you can leave it in the kitchen. If I want to eat, you’ll help me warm it.”
Both of them went downstairs. She noticed her stepmother but pretended not to see her as she walked out, heading to her grandfather’s section where her father was visiting. Her biological mother had died long ago.
She went to her grandfather’s section, frowning because the breeze was too harsh against her skin.
At the doorway, she bumped into someone while looking at her phone.
Annoyed, she lifted her head—
If she wasn’t mistaken, this was Yaya Zubair.
He stared at her, smiling at her dramatic expression because she looked like she didn’t know what to say.
He said teasingly,
“Just say sorry, brother Zubair.”
She laughed quietly because his comment amused her.
He laughed too and said,
“Sorry, little sister. When they went to pick you up, I wasn’t around. An urgent issue came up at the office.”
“It’s alright,” she said, trying to pass.
As she reached the entrance, he raised his voice playfully:
“Stop rushing to the old man. He said he has forgiven you already. Come on, new blood.”
She stopped, turned back, and smiled slightly while shaking her head.
She greeted and sat beside her grandfather, happy to see him. She was still smiling from Zubair’s joke.
He happily answered her greetings and asked about her mum.
Her father looked at her lovingly and said:
“Lailah, haven’t you seen your elder brother sitting there? Greet him.”
She hadn’t noticed anyone else in the room until her father mentioned it.
She raised her head lazily and said,
“Hello.”
To her surprise, he replied.
She had known since childhood that Yaya Jabeer never joked or relaxed around them—much less respond to such a casual greeting.
She stood and said:
“Daddy, let me go greet the aunties. I haven’t seen them yet.”
“Alright, Lailah.”
Her grandfather said:
“Come back later, let’s chat.”
She laughed and said nothing because marriage talk wasn’t on her agenda at all.
At Siyama’s mother’s side, the woman was overly excited to see her, unlike Lailah, who couldn’t wait to return to her own room.
At Zubair’s mother’s side too, the same excitement—especially because she had noticed that her son seemed to like Lailah.
She smiled to herself imagining her son marrying Lailah.
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