Chapter 9

For a moment she tried to recognise the voice, it was somehow similar. It was Fatima! After realising she ran to her door. The reciter was silent by then. She knocked the door. She had to wait few minutes when a little boy opened the door.

“yes?” the boy asked.

“uhm, I wanted to ask who was reciting just now?” she replied nervously.

“it was my sister” he said instantly.

“can I meet Fatima?” 

“do you know my sister? You're her friend? 

“yeah” 

“come inside then, I'll call her” 

She entered, it was clean and cosy inside.  there were no sceneries or pictures on the wall, instead she saw some Arabic calligraphies. The boy showed her the way to their drawing room.

“you may wait in here; she’ll be coming in a moment.” he said and went to call her.

As she stepped inside, she saw someone sitting. He had a short beard of medium length, wore glasses, pale colour, dark black eyes resembled to Fatima and had a good-looking and a cheerful face. He was sitting on a sofa using laptop, he didn’t notice her presence. She stands there looking at him while he was too busy to give a glance. Until, Fatima arrived.

“oh stella! What brings you here?” she asked with a smile.

And then he looked up at stella and stood up with her sister's voice.

“I'm sorry, I didn’t realise that you were here” he said apologetically.

“no problem, I just came here” said stella.

“Fatima can you introduce her?” he continued to Fatima, smiling.

“she is stella, she lives next door, our neighbour and my class fellow too and stella he is my eldest brother, Mustafa”. 

“nice to meet you stella” stella realised that he was a very jolly man like her sister, always smiling. 

“nice to meet you too” she greeted. 

“well, I should be going to my room then, enjoy girls” he said and walked away. 

“please sit here, you'll like hot or cold?” asked Fatima. 

“I don’t need anything I just wanted to ask something” 

“ask away then” 

“who was reciting earlier? Was it you? What were you reciting? She splashed questions. 

“yes, it was me, it was Quran” she replied calmly. 

“thanks, I just wanted to say, you have a good voice” she was puzzled 

“mine is nothing, my brothers voice is enchanting” she said with interest. 

“well then I'll come later then, my mother would be waiting” she stood up.

“yeah sure” said Fatima while she leaves her to the door and said goodbye. 

After coming out, she felt that she's being crazy, she just went to Fatimas house for confirming that who was reciting and what was it? She completely forgot about the earlier thing and after entering home, she lied on her bed and took a sleep. 

The next day she went to university and had a fine day, she tried not to remember anything about the day before. On her way back she went to library. She didn’t know that why she came here and what book she wanted to read. Pointlessly she looked at the shelves and read the names, she didn’t realise when she entered the Islamic section. She picked up a translation of Quran and sat on the nearest chair, while she was trying to gather courage to open it, she saw someone familiar sitting opposite to her on the same table. He was Mustafa! 

But this time before she could stare him for a long time instead, he looked at her. He recognised at her once.

“is it you? Stella? If I'm not wrong” he asked her as looking towards her continuously.

“yeah, I'm stella” she replied while looking him into the eyes. His eyes were darker than she expected, but they seem to be attractive, capturing to her.

“what are you reading?” this question stroked her mind for a moment.

“well, it's not important” she tried not to answer but he already noticed.

“let me guess, its English translation of Quran?” he put her in the hardest spot. Her face went white as if someone tried to shot her, and there were mix feelings of embarrassment and confusion. While he waited for answer, he read her face and understood her expressions so he made it easy for her. 

“you should read translations of other holy books too, it gives you a great knowledge about others religion but Quran is the most preferable book, enjoy reading it, I myself also read bible” he stood up along with his laptop. 

“thanks” the only word she could utter. 

And he went off, she felt most grateful words for him at the moment.