~

Waiting to fall asleep is my favourite part of the day. My life in my dreams was better than what I go through when I am awake. My life is mundane with my regular wake up – eat -work -eat – sleep. I can rest when I'm sleeping, but sleeping also gives me hope. A hope that I can look forward to living a better life. All I must do is wait. But waiting is boring. My life seems better in my dreams. I have gotten married and had a child in there. What more do I want than watching myself lead a happy life? But one day the continuous dreams of my life flourishing, disappeared, just like that. I did not know why. But I continued to live my life. Hoping for the same experience I had in my dreams.

Getting back to my work. I become a workaholic in a few weeks. It kept me busy, and I almost forgotten about my dreams. After finishing my work, I nodded a goodbye to the security and left the office. It was late in the evening. The sky was a mixture of gold and purple in colour. A rare scene that left me in awe. I was so lost in the scenery that I forgot that I was waiting for the traffic light to cross the road. The green signal to cross was already blinking, indicating its too late to cross the road now. In a rash thought, I was about to make a run for the crossing. That is when someone stopped me by hugging. I was startled.

"Mom!" exclaimed the kid in school uniform.

He is too tall for a student, might I add.

"I'm sorry. What?" I asked, taking a step back.

I do not know why I can feel a bunch of gazes at me. It is not even a school zone.

Maybe he mistook me for his mom. He did stop me from running across the road, though.

"Ah, you look like my mom! Just a bit older!" He said excitedly.

I was taken aback. This kid just called me old. Never in my dreams, I would think someone would call me an old person. I get it. I am aging.

He was still looking at me with a bright smile on his face.

"I came from there!" He said, pointing at the opposite side of the road.

I looked at the place dumbfounded.

'Yeah, that's the place he walked from?' I thought to myself.

"That's where your house is?" I asked, not knowing what he wanted to say.

"No, look again. There's my school!"

School? I looked closer, and the work buildings turned into a school.

I took a step back in confusion.

I wanted to take a closer look, but its traffic signal is still red in colour, so I cleaned my glasses and look at the opposite side of the road. There was a sign saying, 'school safety zone - drive slowly'.

Still in shock, I looked around, and everything else is the same. I could not believe I was not aware of a school being built near my workplace.

I quickly took out my phone and searched for schools near me.

"What are you doing?" The kid asked me.

"Ah-what? What are still doing here? Do you need any help?" I asked.

"Nothing. I just thought you looked like my mom. So I wanted to say hi!"

"Okay. Is not it getting late? You should go back home! Your parents might be waiting."

"No ones at home. My dad is working!"

He did not mention his mom. So I didn't ask further.

"Okay, my bus is here. See ya!" He said his farewell and walked back when the traffic light turns green.

I received a notification from my boss. After reading the message, I exited and the map search result from earlier popped up.

'No school near you.'

I raised my head back to see the kid just standing there. The school is gone. But not him.

I was in a daze. The kid turned to face me. There was still a big smile on his face.

Next second I know he is running back to me.

"Mom! I could stay with you!" He screamed.

I should not have stayed here. I took a step back when the kid came hugging me.

"Stop stop stop! You should not hug me" I warned him.

"I'm sorry mom!" He pouted.

"I'm NOT your mom" I almost shouted at him, "Stop calling me, mom!"

"I'm sorry. What should I call you then? Aunty? Sister?"

Aunty? I thought. No.

"Just call me, sister!"

"Okay, sister, it is! Or... I can call you Nadia if you don't mind."

How did he know my name?

"I can tell you how."

Did he just read my mind?

"Are you stalking me kid?"

He shook his head no and pointed at my ID card.

I mentally facepalmed. That was embarrassing.

"My mom name was Nadia too." He mentioned in a low voice. "I'm from that world, sis."

I sighed. I must be too tired from work, and these conversations are just an illusion in my head.

"Kid, you have watched too much sci-fi! Go home, yeah. Take a rest, okay!" I said lightly tapping his hands.

"Sister, I can't. The path disappeared. I'm sorry!"

"What you mean, you can't? It is okay. Did you miss your bus? Don't worry, I call a Taxi for you. Grab might take longer."

"No, it's not that. See, my school is gone." He said, pointing at the work building. "I'm from the school. It's gone."

I hailed a taxi on the road and asked the kid for his address. He gave his address to the driver.

"You should come with me." He insisted.

I thought he might not be used to taking taxis alone, so I went with him.

"Is it okay if you go home late? Will your dad scold you?"

He did not answer my question.

We arrived at the destination soon. That kid opened the door immediately and went off. I paid for the taxi and gotten off the cab as well. I did not want his dad to be mad, so I wanted to apologise if he was there. When I get off, I realised it is my neighbourhood. He must be from around here as well. I did not realise it is near my place as I always take the MRT (mass rapid train) and it is from the other side of my apartment.

I followed the boy in a hurry and ended up right in front of my main gate. He was about to open the lock, I stopped him.

"Are you trying to rob my own house?" I asked him in frustration.

"What? This is my home. This is my key! look!" He said, showing his key with his name on it.

He took out his IC and showed me the address. It is my home.

I searched for my purse and took out my IC and showed him.

"Sister. I told you I am from another world. You look like my mom. If this is your home, then my house address is the same here. I'm not robbing you." He explained.

I opened the house and took a step in.

"you stop fooling me and go home". I shut the door.

I must be imagining all this. Too much working has made me insane.

"Mom! Sister! Nadia! Open the door, please." He yelled while knocking on the door.

The yelling and knocking did not stop for some time.

"If You don't believe me, look at this diary! I won't come inside, I promised!"

I sighed. Thank god the neighbours will not be home at this hour.

I opened the door and snatched the diary from his hand and closed the door.

I skimmed through the bunch of entries. Every word was describing my life and how I lived. I read some of them in details. It sounds so depressing and wondered if his mum lived the same life as me.

There was another knock on the door. It was a soft one that I might have missed. I went to open the door again and let the boy in.

"I'm sorry about your mother, Keyan."

It did not occur to me that he might just be missing his mother. I might have overreacted.

"How did you know my name?"

"I watched you grow up until you were three years old. But I stopped getting those dreams. I wondered why and thought, maybe because I become busy with my work a lot."

I did not realise his mother had dreams of my life. It sounds so depressing compared to my dreams of her life.

I felled down. The kid's mother died because of my tragic life.

"Hey, hey! Are you okay? What happened?" He said, kneeling in front of me.

"This book is my life. Your mom had dreams of how I lived. I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault."

It is.

"How are you going back home? How did you come to this world?" I asked him.

"I don't know. I was leaving my school and waiting to cross the street. And I saw you. You look like my mom, but a bit older. I wanted to meet you. I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable."

"As you know the path, I came from disappeared. I've indeed watched a lot of sci-fi movies. I don't know how to go back home. I don't know how it works." He continued.

"Do you want to eat?" I asked the classic mom question.

"Yeah, sure!"

I went to the kitchen and looked for food. And I found none. Great.

"Is bread fine? I'll go groceries shopping tomorrow."

He nodded and settled down on the sofa.

I cut an onion for a simple omelette and toasted the bread. I took 4 slices of cheese out and add 2 for each sandwich. Added some ham and then plated them. I brought it to the dining table.

"Keyan! The sandwich is ready! If you want more food, I can order!"

He put down his phone on the sofa and came to dining to the table to eat.

"It actually tastes good!"

"You are saying you expected worse?"

"I've read mom's diary multiple times. It says you were the absolute worse cook!" He chuckled.

"Give my sandwich back" I tried to snatch it away from him.

"I've already eaten half" He laughed.

I sat back in my chair.

"After eating, you can change to my dad's clothes and sleep in their room. They don't stay here, don't worry."

"Sleep this early? Even my dad isn't this strict."

"I'm just saying. Well, we can go shopping tomorrow. And figure out how to go back to your home in the evening. Lucky it's the weekends."

I took my plate to the kitchen, and Keyan followed me. He waited for me to finish washing and he did his.

"Not bad," I said.

"My dad forced me to learn."

"As you should," I said, walking back to my parents' room. I cleaned the whole house last weekend, so there was not much for me to worry about cleanliness.

I took some of my dad's clothes and new towel and laid them on the chair and went back to the living room.

"Should I sleep now?" Keyan asked me, scratching the back of his neck.

"No silly. Take a shower. There are clothes and a towel on the chair. After that, do what you want. But behave. Don't leave the house." I said sternly.

I went to my room to change. I took off my hijab and dried my hair for a while. This was an exhausting day. Now I have a school kid in my house, and he is from another world.

Goodness! How can I take care of a kid? Isn't this illegal? I do not know. I sighed.

I took a long bath and changed to a full-length pajama. I took a prayer scarf that is an instant one.

I went out of the room and sat on the sofa. Keyan was already seated on the other side and playing games on his phone.

"Your phone works here?" I asked him.

"Wah, you scared me. Why are you wearing that? You look like a ghost pranking people on Halloween."

"You have those in that world too? Wow! And I don't have a shorter instant hijab." I said, looking at my knee-length prayer scarf.

"It's a parallel world, I think."

"I don't think so."

"Why?"

"Look at me. At this age, I'm single, and soon I'll be called granny."

"Mm. Maybe you missed your chance, or maybe some things operate differently. Not everything can be the same, yeah?" He asked.

I nodded. I was getting sleepy and dozed off on the sofa.

~

"Nadiaaaaaa" Keyan screamed at the top of his lungs startling me awake.

"What! What you want?" I yawned.

"Go to sleep in your room."

I got up slowly, went to my room and slept.

Waking up panicking that I left the kid unsupervised in the middle of the night was not on my to-do list. I slept in my prayer hijab that was tangled with my duvet.

I almost tripped while I rushed out of my room.

"Keyan?"

He was sprawled on the sofa. His phone dropped on the floor.

"Keyan," I called him from the other side of the sofa.

"Go to sleep in the room." He woke up slowly and got startled.

"You scared me again. You slept in that?" He said, referring to my prayer scarf.

"I forgot to change. Why did you sleep here? Were you using your phone all night?"

"No"

"Okay"

I asked him if he needed more food. One sandwich might not be enough for the boy, so I went to the kitchen to search if I had any hidden snack that he could munch on and found Nothing.

I picked my phone and ordered fast food. I asked Keyan for his preferences and allergies. What a good host that I am.

I thought I might just lose my mind, so I picked up a paper and started writing down what happened in the last 12 hours. If I write them on my phone, I might not believe myself.

Keyan was peeking at my mind-map of events that happened.

I realised that before I saw him at the traffic light, I was admiring the weather. The colour was a mixture of gold and purple.

"Did you notice the weather before you crossed the road?" I asked him.

" Not really. I just crossed."

"Well, try to recall it."

I went back to drawing my mind-maps and told Keyan to write down whatever he has seen from his point of view.

I began to wonder if there is a reason for this or just a glitch in the universe. I cannot search it up on the Internet, nor can I ask anyone. They indeed will not believe me.

The food arrived, so we stopped for a while.

"How come you believe me so easily? Others might have called the police."

"Intuition maybe?" I shrugged.

Why did I believe him instantly? He might have just been fooling me. But at what cost? The journal he brought is full of my life details.

Any passerby or a stalker might know how I lived but not my thoughts. The horrible words that haunted me all my life are written in that journal.

No one would have known them, not my parents, not my relatives, not even my friends or colleagues. But Keyan's mother journal proved that she dreamt of me all her life.

"Are you okay? You are zoning off" Keyan voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Nothing. Just thinking about how to get you back home."

"You don't want me here?"

"You know it's not that. Your dad will be searching for you. Come eat up and rest for a while. We go grocery shopping later!"

"In the morning?" Keyan whined.

"Yes, kid. I barely have food at home. And I don't want your dad to resent me for feeding you unhealthy food all the time."

After we ate, we headed to our rooms. I mentally took notes of what we are buying tomorrow as I fall asleep.

~

I have gotten used to shopping alone, but with Keyan it is impossible. He is everywhere in the store. Picking and throwing random items on the cart.

All my energy drained from returning the ones I am not buying. I have not received my pay, and I still need to buy him proper clothes to wear. Now I am wondering why I made this decision.

After we bought everything we needed, it was time to go home.

"Keyan. Can you hold these bags? I need to go real quick. I will be back in a few, I promise. And you better stay here."

I rushed to the washroom and came running back. To my surprise, he was really gone from the spot I left him.

Great! I went around the mall, running up on the escalators, shop by shop and still could not find him. I exited the mall exhausted. Then I spotted him near a road shop.

I could not even raise my voice to call him. I walked towards him and noticed he was buying cotton candy.

"You have money to buy that?" I whispered behind him.

"No, I just wanted to test if the money here works. Seems Like it does."

"You really left the mall when I told you to wait."

"You could have just called me."

"I don't have your number, smart kid."

"Ah. Here!"

He showed me his number while munching on cotton candy. I dialled his number and gave a call. Surprisingly, it worked. I saved the number.

"So let's go?" I asked as I get some bags from him.

"Wait for yours. He is making it in a flower shape."

"I don't need one."

"When I read the journal, mom stated she always wanted to try this cotton candy. So I'm getting one for you! Plus it's cheap!"

I'm not your mom. I wanted to say that out loud, but I have said it too much. I do not want to hurt this kid again with my words. I waited for the cotton candy to be crafted, and we went home.

The morning I had to make bread toast, so to make up for it, I decided to make lunch for him.

"So my cooking is not bad after all" I stated after seeing him take more rice for the second and third time.

"Kids need to eat a lot to grow up!"

"You are tall enough!"

I went to clean the kitchen.

I told him we will be leaving in the evening to the place we met. The path might open at the same time, and we should try it.

I told him to change to his school uniform and pack the things we have bought. I had them washed in the morning, and it should be dry now.

I booked a taxi and went to my workplace. It was the weekend, so the place was more crowded than usual. We waited for the time to come.

We stayed in the spot I was standing yesterday for the signal to turn green.

"Nadia sister. It's not your fault that my mother died. She was not sick and was very healthy. My dad told me she took care of herself and us greatly. So whatever is in the journal was not her.

And she wasn't affected much by it. So don't blame yourself for her death. You take care of yourself okay?"

I was shocked. Keyan crossed the street when it was time and reached the other side of the road. I could see a faint vision of his school. He turned towards me and waved goodbye.

And then he disappeared, just like that.

I went back home in a daze. Could not believe what just happened.

How did he know that his mother's journal was about me? I did not tell him much about my life. Oh! I smacked myself after realising what I had told him yesterday.

The realisation hit me as my phone pinged.

'Mom don't be upset' the text reads

And he sent me a bunch of photos he had taken and wrote

'your two most favourites.'

And sent me more pictures.

I replied 'Don't forget to eat dinner and take care.'

I choked up. I did not even know I started crying.

I received another text saying 'Don't tell me you are crying and forget to see the meme I accidentally sent.'

'What?'

'Forgot it. I deleted it.'

The day ended just like that. I do not know if he will be ever back. I am glad he went back to the same time he left there.

______________________

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