Our Space

Chapter 28

For a whole week, Sami had avoided wearing hoodies in case he absentmindedly began to chew on his drawstring again. But he couldn't go on any longer as he needed the comfort so he put on his favourite hoodie and reminded himself to keep the drawstring away from his mouth.

He managed to keep himself from falling into his bad habit the whole time he was visiting Radia's family with her. It was probably because he was distracted by the people and the noise. Radia's sisters kept talking to him but he could barely remember their names!

"So you're Madia, right?"

"No, I'm Nadia! That's Madia," Nadia said, pointing to her sister while Zaki decided to lean over Sami to get the cookies in front of him. Radia swatted his hand away and he began whining in Sami's ears.

"Okay, so you're N, she's M and that sister is... H, right?"

"Yeah, that's Hadia."

"So confusing." Sami handed over a cookie to Zaki. "This is for having a different name which I can remember."

"You can call Hadia Hadez. That's what I call her," Nadia said with a mischievous grin as Hadia leapt across the room to attack her.

"That's not my name! Now say you're sorry!" Hadia said, holding Nadia in a headlock.

"My hijab!"

"Apologise!"

"Astaghfirullah Hadez, my hijab's coming off and you don't even care!"

"Don't call me that!" They continued to fight as Sami turned to tell Radia to help them. He saw Radia looking at them and laughing.

"Oh, they're not serious. Nadia fights with Hadia and Zaki all the time. She's a little troublemaker," Radia explained.

"I don't even understand what they're fighting about!"

"Someone at some point in our history came up with the name Hadez for Hadia. She hates it which means she gets called by the name more often. They love annoying each other."

"Is it like this all the time?" Sami asked, feeling Zaki lean over him again to steal another cookie and then hiding behind him.

"Yep! And I saw that, Zaki."

"No wonder you complain about how quiet it is at home."

For the next hour, Sami was overwhelmed the attention he received from every individual and though he wasn't going to admit it, by the time they left the house, he had a headache.

Sami and Radia made their way to car Sami had borrowed from Manahil the previous day. Their next destination was going to be Muhammad's house where Sami would reunite with him and Ali and their wives would get to know Radia. But before that, they had to go home so Radia could check on their kitten. Radia had, in her words, 'kitten-proofed' the spare bedroom to keep the kitten in. She was terrified when they thought they'd lost the kitten and sound it behind the washing machine.

During the journey, Sami stopped at traffic lights and without thinking, he put the drawstring of the hoodie into his mouth. He savoured the satisfaction of chewing on it for a while, listening to Radia telling stories about her childhood.

"One time, I used Sadia's toy saw and made little dents all over this new shelf my dad bought and then I blamed it on Sadia. I only confessed it was me nearly a decade after the incident!" Sami laughed and then remembered the drawstring in his mouth and quickly apologised as he was taking it out.

"Who are you saying sorry to?"

"You, who else?"

"Why?"