The plane ride home went by quietly. Abdullah was exhausted; all the walking, travelling, and excitement had finally caught up to him. He fell asleep against the cold window until the landing jolted him awake.
When they stepped outside, he felt the difference instantly. The air in Ireland tasted colder, cleaner, almost empty compared to Pakistan's warm chaos. The airport was crowded but strangely quiet, like everyone was trying not to make noise.
Then Abdullah spotted them his father and his brother.
"Baba!" he shouted, running straight into his father's arms. His dad hugged him back, steady and warm, while asking his mother a dozen questions about the wedding. Soon they were in the car, and Abdullah spent half the ride retelling stories from the trip, only stopping to catch his breath.
Life slipped back into routine quickly. School reopened as the pandemic eased, and Abdullah was glad to see Tomek and John again. He told them all about Pakistan, exaggerating a few parts for fun, and everything felt almost normal again.
Still, Ireland felt quieter.
"It's so empty here," he kept thinking. "I can't wait until everyone else comes too."
At home, Abdullah fell into a new obsession: science and theory videos. Channels about space, biology, physics, game theories—he watched them all.
"Kirby is technically an amoeba," said one video. "A living organism made of a single cell."
"But that's just a theory" the narrator added, and Abdullah grinned.
He loved the feeling of learning something new every day. It made him feel bigger somehow like the world wasn't just school and home and streets he already knew.
One afternoon, while heading outside to play, he noticed Tomek with two boys. one around Abdullah's age, and one much younger.
Tomek introduced them.
The younger one, Dimitri, was three years younger than Abdullah small, energetic, always smiling.
The other boy, Igor, a year older than Abdullah, barely said hi and gave him a cold look.
Over time, because of Tomek, Abdullah and Dimitri grew closer. They lived near each other, so even when Tomek wasn't around, they'd end up hanging out. Dimitri loved climbing anything he could. trees, walls, railings while Abdullah watched, half impressed, half terrified he'd fall.
He also had a strange hobby making wooden knives.
"What are you doing?" Abdullah asked once.
"You get a rock," said Dimitri, scraping wood, "and a stick. Sharpen them together. Boom knife."
"That's sick! Can you make me one?"
"Make your own," Dimitri laughed.
Sometimes they played a game together on Dimitri's PlayStation, but only when it rained his family didn't let them inside otherwise.
"Bro, what are the chances it rains today?" Dimitri asked one morning.
"Google says ten percent," Abdullah replied.
"That's so ass," Dimitri groaned.
Igor, meanwhile, seemed to be friendly with Abdullah's brother Ali, though Abdullah never really knew how they became friends.
Months passed this way. But while Abdullah was busy living in his small world of games, science videos, and climbing trees with Dimitri, something darker was happening quietly in the background.
His grandmother was getting worse.
Abdullah didn't fully understand it he only noticed how often his mother looked worried.
"Mama, what's wrong?" he asked once.
"Your Nano is sick. Pray for her, okay?"
Abdullah nodded confidently. "Don't worry, Mama. Allah won't let anything bad happen to her. She's the best person in the world." He speaks
Abdullah gets concerned for his grandmother but he quickly covers it up "why am I even worrying Allah won't let anything bad happen" he thinks to himself.
His mom smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.
"I know, beta. Just pray for her."
Sometimes they'd get calls from Pakistan. His Nano and abuji would try and talk to him. Abdullah always wanted to just go out and play so he often didn't talk much with them.
They let him go. They didn't have the heart to stop him. Despite how much they wanted to talk to Abdullah.
Before he realised it, September arrived. His parents told him that his mother and sisters would be going to Pakistan in October, while Abdullah, Ali, and their father would follow in November.
Abdullah was ecstatic.
"We get to go two years in a row?!" he shouted. "I can't wait!"
But then reality hit him.
"Wait I have to live without Mama for a month?"
He begged her to let him come earlier.
"Mama, please, I want to see Nano now. Why do I have to wait?"
"You'll see her in November, I promise. Just wait alright"
"Okay…" he said, though he didn't feel okay at all.
School started again, and September passed in its usual blur of new books, new routines, and Abdullah counting down the days until Pakistan.
Then the day finally came.
His mom and sisters were leaving.
At the airport, Abdullah hugged his mother tightly.
"We'll miss you, Mama," he and Ali said together. They stood there waving as she walked into the line, the crowd swallowing her up.
And just like that, she was gone. It was already time to
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