Rida and Madiya by Niyla Farook

Author:Niyla Farook
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Sister Disaster

Madi scowled with sadness, humiliation and sorrow in the backseat of Āmi’s car.

“Abusing your power as Break Time Monitor, turning the playground into a health and safety risk and scaring the poor class turtle,” Ābu crossly said to Madi. He had three fingers held up and put one down with each bad thing Madi had done that day.

“I’m sorry,” Madi said in a groggy voice (she’d cried and shouted apologies until her voice nearly went).

“We know you are,” Āmi warmly said in Poṭhwārī as she looked at her troublesome daughter through the rear-view mirror. “All we ask is that you listen to grown-ups and try to be responsible.”

“Madi, Rida would always ask a teacher if she could do something that she wasn’t sure was good or bad,” Ābu explained. “For example, if you’d asked about building a mountain made of coats and bags in the playground, then Mrs Thomas would’ve said no and she’d have explained why that would be a bad thing to do. The same goes for all your pranks and most of your ideas.”

Madi bit her lip to stop herself from crying again. She still had the headteacher’s voice in her head as she was being shouted at.

“You’ll be grounded for quite a while now,” Āmi continued in Poṭhwārī. “Not to mention the trouble you got into at school too. Mrs Thomas is so disappointed, as are we.”

“Now I can’t go back to work because I had to pick you up from school,” Ābu reminded everyone. It was a big day at work – he was supposed to have had a review that could’ve led him to a promotion. But getting called out before noon had made his chances slimmer than ever.

“I’m sorry about everything,” Madi said in Poṭhwārī. “I just wanted to help make school fun for once. But I never meant for anyone to be upset. I promise I didn’t!” she cried.

“OK, don’t worry,” Ābu reassured. “All we ask is that you be mindful of your actions.”

Madi sniffed and nodded her head. “I promise to try.”

*

Rida quickly finished her homework before getting ready to go to her mehndī stall.

When the school bus had stopped outside her house, she’d entered an empty house. She had looked through the back window to see Āmi and Madi mowing the lawn. Tapping on the window, she’d waved to announce her return. Rida didn’t know about what Madi had done.

At 4:30 pm, Madi and Āmi came inside to see Rida sitting on the sofa waiting for them.

“Is everything OK, Rida?” Āmi asked. “How was school?”

“School was good, thank you. I’m waiting for Madi to clean up so we can go to the stall.” Rida looked around the living room. “Wait, where is Ābu? He always drops me off.”

Āmi cleared her throat, looking at her oldest daughter. “Ābu is working overtime. It’s quite a long story. Madi is grounded for reasons I’ll explain later. But Madi is going nowhere.”

Rida gasped. “But– but I need Madi to help–”

“Sorry, but she’s going nowhere.

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