Part 2:
She used crawl under Abdul's "Femus Chai" stall, where I used to wait for her. It still amuses me how that Abdul never noticed the friendship that was brewing under his stall. We used to give ourselves a lot of credit for being so sneaky about it. However sometimes I felt like he always knew, but chose to be unaware. I liked our theory better though.
I never seemed to mind getting my uniform, or anything for that matter, dirty back then. Though I guess that was the bliss of being a 10 year old, where words like "danger" and "consequences" were just words mom's used to keep you from having fun. Though being the self-proclaimed "intelligent and mature" 10-year-olds we were, we did all agree it was because they loved us.
We'd meet under that chai stall, every day after school. It like we had our own secret club. And for the past month we had been working on a very important mission.
She opened up her tied up hanky to reveal and odd amount of coins. "I have 50 paisa. That took one whole week of no paani-puri. Better appreciate my sacrifices for our mission Mr. Khan." She didn't mask her irritation. I liked that.
"And I have 25 paisa" I took out my notepad to do some hard-core math, "That brings our total to 9 rupees and 80 paisa."
"That means we're still 20 paisa short. Mr. Khan I really thought we made it today. I even gave up a whole week of paani-puri for crying out loud."
I wasn't going to totally forfeit the mission, but her whining made it obvious what she wanted.
"Okay Ms. Farooqui, I'm going to put 9 rupees and 70 paisa back into the jar, and we can use the 10 paisa to get you your beloved..."
But I looked up to find that she was gone. She'd been strange like that, from the start. I put the 10 paisa back in the jar and thought of ways we could raise the last 20 paisa in a day.
***
Ayaan and I were done playing for the day and were retiring back home, it was Ayaan's turn to carry the cricket bats. Enjoying the sound of 20 paisa in my pocket, I was looking forward to seeing her tomorrow.
It was then that the wall grew thin 10 year old arms and pulled me in between the gap of my house and Rahim Bhai's.
"I have good news!"
"Me too."
"Me first!" She raised her hand only to realize she was no longer in school.
"Okay Ms. Farooqui, go first."
She struggled to untie the knot of her handkerchief for some reason.
"Sorry I guess I tied in way too much excitement," she continued her battle with the cloth.
"Here let me do it,"
And that was the first time, I'd ever felt her hands. They weren't too soft, not rock hard either, they were just right. In a moment as innocent as our hands, I experienced those butterflies again.
Finally we got the knot open to reveal 10 paisa.
"I helped Salma with her homework," she confessed with a smile.
"Zoya!" I was mad. As mad as a mildly-irritated 10 year old could get.
"Ms. Farooqui!" She corrected.
I handed her my 20 paisa. "I promised to help out at Abdul's shop for a week. You didn't have to go and..."
"I think you're forgetting that this club is a 50-50 partnership. We share the fun parts and the hard parts. You can't go around arranging for the 20 paisa yourself because then that would mean we aren't partners." She simply explained.
She forced the smile I'd been fighting to finally show through.
"Ayaan! Tell ammi I'll be a little late. Yaseen wanted me to play one last match!"
I turned to her. She already knew the plan. The moment we heard the front door close "shut," we ran, with a million dollar smile on our faces fueled by 10 rupees an my extra 10 cents.
We were going to have that Top n Town's vanilla ice cream cone and in that moment, nothing could stop us. Nothing...
Nothing except for a big fat "Closed" sign on Top n Town's shop. It was when we got there disappointment hit our faces like a defective firecracker on Eid.
"That's lame," she kicked the door as if it were to make a difference as we turned back around towards home, mourning our excitement.
"We'll come here tomorrow," I tried to be optimistic.
"Ammi said she's taking me to Nani's house tomorrow,"
"When are you going to be back?"
"I don't know, maybe a week,"
"Well then Ms. Zoya Farooqui, I Mr. Asad Ahmed Khan promise you, that I will not experience my first Top n Town cone without you."
"Pakka wala promise?"
"Pakka wala," I reassured.
"Mister! Are you going to eat that?"
I looked down to find a young girl pointing towards my Top n Town cone that had begun to drip. I smiled, "No" and tossed the useless cone out.
Before her face fell, I kneeled down to whisper, "That one was crummy, let's get you a new one."
Ok so I finally decided I wanted to tell the whole story behind that one little snippet you guys got. Can't write an extensive author's note, feeling sleep deprived. Did not edit, will check that later.
Tried to get this up ASAP for my Papaya.
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