بسم الله

كانا يمران معاً أسفل خيط طائر، ذكرت لعبة لم تلعبها قط واقترفتها في أمنيات عديدة،
جذبت يده من جيب سرواله الكحلي، واعترضت طريقه شغفاً بإجابة ..
'' لو أني طائرة ورقية ضلت الأفق؛ هل تتلقفني .. وأنا أسقط أرضاً ''
لمحت الخيط يسقط، يسقط على بقعة موحلة، لم يغثه أحد !،

'' حقًا لم يعد أبيض ! ''،

تركت يده و استدارت.

_{*/ نصّ من [أبنٌ عشر]}

بسم الله

Once Upon a Winter

Ch.5

Her Story Epilogue

i collapsed under my favorite tree, crying my eyes out, sobbing nonstop till i heard your voice

"Why are you crying"

it was a simple logical question, but it hushed me, i stopped sobbing immediately, & all was left two stained cheeks, misty eyes and some muffled sounds.
i stared at you, but i didn't answer. you got  out some tissues and offered them to me. i
figured that i must have looked like a monster!
when i didn't take it, you were hesitant but bent down to my level and offered them once more, this time i accepted them.
"thanks" i muttered
you nodded your head, and i noticed that you were holding an adorable umbrella a little bit
larger than the ones you gave me before.
i was looking at my stained clothes when you talked again "it's okay, when they are washed
they 'll be as clean as they were" i raised my head to look at you with wide eyes.
how did you know?? that i was crying over my stained clothes??!
you smiled sheepishly, my eyes widened even more, then as if still hesitant about it, you
offered me your umbrella.
i slowly said "but it's sunny .. it's sunny today"
you sat down a little far from me, and still offering the adorable umbrella
"mmm, could you please just take it?  you may need it later..i think"
i turned my head from one side to another vigorously "no, thanks .. i already want to give
you back the ones you gave me long time ago" you put it beside you &looked disappointed .

i went on "umma said that giving a complete stranger two umbrellas is really weird"Oops, i was
really clumsy wasn't i? your face was flushing a feverish red color & you lowered your gaze even more.
i muttered with a barely audible voice "sorry.."
your head shot up "it's okay .. uhmm it's really okay"
i felt sadness overwhelming me after seeing your gloomy face, may be that's why i found
myself deciding to accept it, i closed my eyes shut, i don't know why i did that! and i rashly
grapped it from beside you.
your head shot up once more, for a moment i regretted doing so, but when you smiled, like
genuinely smiled i felt i did the right thing & i smiled too.
you stood up still smiling
"thanks"
i didn't say anything, i was feeling very bashful, i kept my gaze lowered till i felt you
turning around and walking away. i stared at your back for a while and i was thankful to allah that you didn't see my rosey cheeks, i took a shy glance at the adorable umbrella & i was very happy
to have such a cute adorable umbrella, in fact as iam older now i sort of see it more as a
parasol, an umbrella for sunny days.

later that day i told umma about all that happened, sure enough she was furious worried &
looked at me intensely for a long while
"i'm going to inform your school about those girls' behavior, i'll shall see their mothers too"
i was delighted but not for long
" & i would like if you stopped coming back every winter with an umbrella from that weird
boy, you should know it's not convenient to do so" i pouted i didn't ask him to give it to me
he did on his own & i didn't want to embarrass him so i accepted it.
"Umma, you should say so to him too" my mother rolled her eyes frustrated alittle bit
"he isn't my son, but you are my daughter"i pouted even more
"sweet little bun ..."
" i won't accept it umma, i didn't feel it was convenient, but i just was embarrassed to not
take it"
my mother hugged me

when you are older, you 'll understand lot of things"

and since that day, i never catched a glimpse of you again, i kept my promise to my
mother, although i waited for several winters to at least come across you again, i stopped
holding umbrellas since then if it wasn't yours.

the first three winters were depressing as ever, but as time went on, though i could feel i had changed, i was back to my old self.

sometimes when snow falls i fold my umbrella and let myself indulge in it, i feel all the
memories coming back to me, and i smile without caring about the visible stains of sleet
that wetted my gown and my face veil.
 i'm all grown up now, i'm a college student, about to graduate too, still for some odd
reason i refuse to use any other umbrella else yours. you are probably not the little boy who
gave me an umbrella so that i won't get wet, or the one who was out of breath to protect
me from getting drenched. As a young man now are you still kind at heart like the boy you
were?  who offered me tissues? who gave me a parasol? are you still a very caring person?
i hope you are!  Because eventhough you didn't show up you have impacted me so much in every way, everytime i'm going through hardships i would think of you and feel blessed by Allah, i will pray then that Allah preserves you.. i believe that everyone we meet, we meet for a reason, we may not figure that reason at the time, but later on we will .. when the right time comes we will.

.

i think in life we need inspirations not an excellent exemplar, because we already have this, but inspirations as how we could implement that ideal model in real life. and somehow you managed to entrance me and 've come to be amongst my most important inspirations.

By the way, i never used the last umbrella you gave me, it was too adorabel and memorable to be used, but sometimes when it's cloudy, when there's a downfall i take one of the two others with
me, i look funny holding any of them, but it's okay.. they keep reminding me of the one
knight who was caring enough about the others around him that he rescued me every
winter.
today is going to be memorable too, i have come to pick up my niece, from the
kindergarten across my favorite Cherry tree park, i was early so i went to my lovely tree, i
didn't sit under it as i used to do a lot, i just kept staring at it, smiling to myself before i
started to gather the sakuras as i used to do .. years ago

our left memories are way significant to be forgotton

*/ Her story has just ended, his story will soon begin.

بسم الله

الحُزنُ ليس أنبَلَ من الغدرِ جدًا
فالطعناتُ التي أسقطتني من شواهقِهم
خلَّفت حُزنًا أكثرَ قسوةٍ من إيلام الخناجر.

بسم الله

أريدُ أن أحكي لها عنه مرةً أخيرةً قبل أن يفارقني موتًا، أو يغادرها إلى دارٍ يذود عنها؛ أريد أن أصفه لها، و أن آخذ رأيها في أمور كثيرة؛ فكثيرًا ما أحسّ بي هنا لها أخًا كبيرًا.

 لعلّها سميّتي !، و أصدقكِ أنّكِ لابدّ أنا، و لعل ما يشبهه بنا الفريضة المغيبَّة.
أعلم أنَّه مثقلٌ بأشياء جمّة، لا تُنكِري، فقط تفكّري بكل ذاك الذي قد لا يثبتني الله في نازلته لو تبادلنا دورًا بدورٍ؛ أليس بلاء تثبيت، و تمكين، وَ جنَّة!

لو تدرين كيف يحيا غيرُه ، لحمدتِه صدقًا لا كَرْهًا.

انصتي إليّ؛ لستُ مثل الحكّائين .. لذا أحتاجكِ كي أذكره.

سأكتبه عنكِ، و لتحفظيه عنّي.