Bismillah hir rehman nir raheem

In the name of Allah who is the most beneficent and the most merciful.

"Yooshu! Pass me the pen."

"First, call me Yousuf."

"I won't."

"Then I won't give it to you."

They were studying for the board exams which were due in two weeks. Anaya's exams had already started and today was her first one.

"Fine! I will get it myself." Saad extended his hand to pick up the pen but his hand only touched the bare surface of the table. He looked up to see the grinning face of his twin with tongue out and the hand holding the pen waving in the air.

He lunged forward, Yousuf leaned back and with a huge bang went backwards with the chair while Saad, unable to keep his balance fell on top his brother.

"Owwwww!! Get off me, Saadi!"

"Don't-call-me-Saadi." He  tried getting the pen but Yousuf started waving the pen again.

"Give it to me."

"Get if you can."

"Saad, Yousuf, ma-..." They looked towards the door where Anaya was standing with her mouth open.

"Close your mouth Aapi! A fly might get into it." Saad said getting up, and got a glare from Anaya.

"Uff, thank god you got up. I never thought my small brother was that heavy." Yousuf sighed trying to get up but his shirt was stuck in the chair and he fell down again.

Anaya and Saad burst out laughing.

"Why are you guys laughing ? Help me get up naaa!!!"

"Learn to get up yourself after you fall Yousuf." Anaya pulled him up.

"I am trying."

"Oh! I forgot." Anaya slapped her head and was cut off by Yousuf, who had got up now and was dusting his shirt from his hand

"No big deal! You always do that-...Oww!!" He got a smack by Anaya.  

"One from me too aapi!" Saad sniggered.

"I would love to, if  Jameela Auntie wasn't sitting in our guest room."

"Who is she?"

"Apparently our  new mohallay wali aunty, she just moved next to our house two days ago."

"How can you tell she is our new mohallay wali aunty?"

"Because she has been telling tales of all the houses of our street for past fifteen minutes. Mama wants you both downstairs, to greet her."

Saad sighed. "Okay."

Why everyone remembers to visit us when we have exams?

"........and her married daughter was in her house , I sensed something fishy, otherwise she would have been in her husband's home......"

Standing outside the guest room, Anaya gave a meaningful glance to her brothers.

"You guys go inside, I am going to my room to get some rest. I am tired." Saying this, Anaya went upstairs while Saad and Yousuf entered the room.

After a whole fifteen minutes long interview with Aunty, they were just going upstairs when the words of Jameela Auntie froze them.

"That boy Yousuf, he is adopted na?"

The very moment these words resonated the air around the both twins their footsteps came to an abrupt halt

"No he isn't." Saad, for the first time, had heard his  mother use a tone which was as cold as ice.

"But he looks like it, I mean, he is so different from your other two children, in appearance and colour. He has a very normal appearance, while your other two are MashaAllah good looking."

How dare she!!

"He is different, but that doesn't mean he is adopted."

Perhaps, Jameela Auntie noticed that too, because at that very moment, she changed the subject and started recounting another story of another house, unaware of the effect her words uttered in ignorance had on the two boys standing outside the door.

Overwhelmed with anger ,Saad was a mere moment away from turning towards Jameela aunty and empty his lungs at her.

But the soft tug of Yousuf's hand on his elbow made him stop. Eyes red and cheeks rosy ; Yousuf was concealing his tears behind a facade of a strong boy, But Saad could see through the facade his twin was wearing.

"Let me go!"

"No, Saad! Don't." Yousuf looked as though he was on the verge of breaking down. His face was reddening as he was trying to control his emotions.

"Yousuf! Leave me, she needs lesson."

"You aren't going to give it to her Saad. Didn't you hear her gossiping? She'll go around in our mohalla and would tell every single soul there what you said. Why don't you understand? I am...okay." Saying that, he rushed past Saad.

Saad really wanted to give that woman a piece of his mind but Yousuf was right. She would tell everyone there and it would just confirm people's belief,"the children with no father end up wild." Hr didn't want to confirm their stupid assumptions. He did not care about these things, but he didn't want Aani aapi and Yousuf to be hurt.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Sitting on the bed, with arms around the knees and the chin resting on them, he had been staring at the wall for quite long. Chocolate brown orbs shining with unshed tears, yet hollow; devoid of any emotion showed the intensity of the pain which was only being felt by heart.

Sometimes the pain exceed its limits, can't be put into words, can't be shed by tears. It is just felt by heart and that feeling alone is so intense that it makes the heart pleading for mercy. Sometimes, some simple words just uttered as a comment penetrates like a dart, tearing heart into pieces.

Why then we do not think thoroughly before throwing a comment?

Hollow,empty,numb; that's  what he felt at the moment.

Was he really adopted?

Was he really not the flesh of the woman living in this house?

Was his blood really not the same as the two he had been calling his siblings all the time?

Did he really not have a twin?

Was this all a facade?

He got up suddenly, he had to look and see. Yes, he had to see with his own eyes the face which made someone call him adopted.

Standing in front of mirror, he looked at his own self. His dark brown complexion, unlike his sibling's fair ones was maybe the biggest  reason for this discrimination. Yeah, he did look like he was adopted.

Maybe...maybe...it was..true..

No, it can not be, looking at the person in the mirror, he shook his head. His didn't have the twinkle which Saad and Aapi' eyes held but they did hold, if he remembered correctly, his father's warmth; the same warmth that was snatched away from him at the age of nine.

The thoughts of his father made his stomach churn painfully.

"Tell me you are joking..."

"No I am not..."

"But that boy can't be Saad's twin. I mean look at him haha, he doesn't seem anything like Saad."

The words hurled at him years ago returned back. The timing of the memories' revisit wasn't an ideal one.  Those words added more to the pain that was already too much.

He focused at his features, noticing his straight nose just like his mother's.

So, did it really mean he was her flesh? Or was it merely a coincidence?

"Noticing how beautiful you are?"

A voice made him jump in surprise and turn back to where his mother (or was she?) smiling at him. The warmth in that smile and the gentleness of her tone which was directed to him made him want to break down, to cry and cry and cry.

"Kind of noticing the differences that made someone call me.....that."

His voice, despite him controlling it had become heavy, and it didn't go unnoticed.

"Meri jaan, come here."

Sitting beside his mother (maybe she wasn't ) at the edge of the bed, he put his head on her lap and closed his eyes.

A soft hand caressed his hair and a kiss was planted on his forehead. He felt somewnat calm, protected, feeling that nothing could hurt him as long as he remained in that lap.

Only with a mother can someone feel like that.

"Why do everyone reduce me to my appearance alone, without peaking into what is inside me? Why, mama, why?"

"Yousuf! You know she is an older woman. With so much going on in their lives, the older women don't think before speaking."

"But what if she said....is true."

"I don't think it's true because I remember how much you used to kick me in stomach all the time." Maysa chuckled lightly.

Yousuf smiled, but his smile faltered the next moment.

"But....it's not about just her, it's about everyone......i mean....they are right...maybe I am not adopted, but I do like one and..."

Yousuf took a deep breath and let out what caused him pain all the time.

"I...I..look like aapi and Saad's servant rather than their brother when I stand with them."

"Did you see yourselves while standing with them?"

"No...someone told me...once."

"Was that someone your close friend; someone you trust deeply?"

"No."

"Yousuf, stop looking at yourselves from the lenses of other people's eyes. If you do, you'll always find something about yourselves that will make you turn blind towards the blessings which Allah has bestowed upon you.

For example, from other's point of view. I am a widow who has three children to take care of, alone. Someone, who ran away from her house , married and is now paying a price for her deeds. Someone who is ungrateful because, despite having three lovely brothers to take care of her and her children , lives alone. A woman who loves her job more than her children as she leaves them alone in house for two to three days.

But when I look at myself from Maysa's eyes, I see a wife who gave up her husband for the sake of her country. A single mother who brought up three children alone ,a strong woman who faced all the storms and yet is standing tall. A doctor who relieves people in pain.

Keep yourselves so high, that people who judge can't reach you.  You are Allah's creation and no one has the right to question His art. "

Yousuf nodded, his heart at ease, the pain gone. Mama was right, no one can make him feel bad if he didn't want to, he just needed to stop looking at himself from the lenses of other's eyes.

And as he hugged Saad, the forever eavesdropper, who was, as usual, outside the door listening to everything, it dawned upon him that Saad wasn't the only one eavesdropping.

"Aww, mama, look, the jori of the year."

And before he and Saad could pull back, a click , and the picture was snapped by a smirking Anaya.

"Aapi!"

Anaya ran away, knowing very well that her brothers won't spare her now and she was right, a few minutes after the whole house was ringing with laughter and screams.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

How was the chapter? Too short? I know...