The City With Only One Tree

I would wake up at the crack of dawn, as my mickey mouse alarm clock blared on. It was an old 70s clock, cracked and chipped but gifted from my great grandmother when I was 8. I still love the clock as if it were new, but my mum complains: 'It's like the devil screaming Bojo, Make it stop.'

I stuff my half frozen feet, courtesy of me being anemic, into over-sized fluffy flip-flops because my over-sized feet demand room and head out of the door.

That is where I find mum and Huma looking out. This view.

Joy. This is what I think of, when I want to think happy thoughts. When I'm getting a shot, or getting my armpits waxed and want to will the pain away (Oxycontin all the way!) so I would forget my skin is on fire. I snapped photos of them with my Iphone (no editing). When I saw the competition for 'Outdoor challenge' I knew exactly what I wanted to submit to Vocal media.

Why this photo, you ask? It's because this will remind her that she's the kind of girl who loves rainbows; A brave girl who loves heartily and forgives easily. When she is an adult and thinks the world is too big and scary to enjoy the small things, this photo will remind her that's not the case.

My father taught us how to make a garden in the backyard: Tomatoes, carrots, coriander, chard, parsley, and last but not the least Rosemary. Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean regions but Papa loved its fragrance and told us wildly that the homes in which Rosemaries grew couldn't be sad.

Strangely, my favorite horror movie that really scared me witless was named 'Rosemary's baby'.

I don't know about sad but we grew up well with expensive tastes and good dreams. Everybody said we were nice young ladies, the four of us, but then we were five; Hareem toppled in out of nowhere and took the smallest room in the house. She is the mischief to my calm. She demands attention, toys and love. Our hearts grew to encompass her as well and our big family grew bigger.

Everybody think they can't love until the opportunity comes and they do. Then suddenly your loved ones' worries are yours and you don't think you can live without them.

Our previously clean walls were stained with markers. Everybody that came in knew there was a toddler in the house. No matter how much mum yelled at her to not draw on them, her creativity was only piqued when she saw the shiny surface of a newly painted wall. It was like we suddenly had a cat running around the house, except less well-behaved. Mama said she never planned on having more kids but now that hareem is here she never wants to go back.

During Quarantine, my mum teaches her math, science and arts. She's fussy with all the terror of a 3rd grader, my mum is finally realizing what a blessing teachers are. ''They should get a raise for dealing with our little terrors!'', my mother said one fine morning when Hareem wouldn't just put her mind onto a concept mum had explained a billion times. She gave up and started to cook and left hareem to her devices. Hareem adores slime. She makes sure she tells everybody in a 10 mile radius about her love of slimes and all things water when her birthday is near. So we have bucket-loads of that nasty stuff lying everywhere.

While we sisters grew up in Peshawar 'the city of flowers', but no trees, she is growing up in Rhode Island, just by the sea.

I hope we come out of this quarantine, more grateful to the people we took for granted for. I hope we come out stronger, eager and more compassionate. I hope we grow financially strong so Hareem can visit places and learn more; But more than that I hope she looks at people as if they are her equal irrespective of gender, race, or the places the have come from. Everybody is strong in their own way. I hope all of us realize this sooner that later.

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