After half an hour of being pushed on the red swing, the little girl dressed in a polka dotted jumpsuit accompanied with a furry jacket yelled.
"Stop, stop... I said stop the swing." She put her tiny feet on the wet grass trying to reduce the speed at which the swing moved.
"Fine fine, I'll stop it." He held the suspended wires that held the seat of the swing.
Once she got on her feet, she tucked her hands inside her comfy jacket and began walking away from the swing.
"Hey wait up,"the little boy called from behind as he increased his pace to catch up with her. "I'm sorry for pushing the swing with so much force." He apologized.
She ignored him anyways and walked towards the bench that was beside a bed of well-grown sunflowers at the entrance of the playground.
She muffled something inaudible as she struggled to get on the bench.
"I'm really sorry Ummi." He stood in from of her and made a cute gesture with both his palms under his chin. "Please forgive me."
Little Umaymah held her head up for a moment as if thinking of something then settled her eyes on the small figure in front of her.
"I forgive you." She rolled her eyes.
Immediately those words rolled down from her tongue, he ambushed her with a bear hug.
"Thank you thank you," he beamed and his eyes twinkled with excitement. "You're surely the best friend in the whole wide world indeed."
A small smile which she had suppressing for about a minute formed on her small lips as she muttered something along the lines of "I obviously am."
Salman pulled back and a little frown appeared on his face.
"Hazelnut, your hair reminds me of hazelnuts." The frown instantly disappeared.
"Hazelnut? Like the nuts?"she held up her loose hair and look at it.
"Yes! The nuts." He took a handful of her hair and took a long sniff of if.
The small frown appeared again.
"Do you use hazelnut shampoo?"
Umaymah shook her head.
"My favourite raspberry shampoo got finished and Umma couldn't find it anywhere in the store, so she decided to get this awful hazel-yuck shampoo and used it on my hair today." She dramatically pretended to puke to the side.
"I love them!" Salman folded his arms over his chest with the frown still there.
Umaymah rolled her eyes.
"Well I hate them."
"Don't say that! They smell and taste great." He tried convincing her.
Another dramatic fake puking action was done by Umaymah again.
"Ya illahi! They're far from that." She got off the chair and began walking out of the playground. "When I tried them, they smelt like rotten meat mixed with your famous fart." She stuck her tongue out.
Salman followed suit.
"Then you've gotta get your nose checked." He murmured and sled his hands into the pockets of his jacket.
"What was that?" She shot him a glare with he simply responded to it with a warm yet suspicious smile.
Salman closed the distance between them and took hold of Umaymah's hand from her pocket.
"You've really got too try them out again, the roasted ones especially." He winked.
Umaymah just rolled her eyes knowing well that she wasn't going to try one of those awkward looking brown nuts every again in her life.
"If you don't, I'll simply..." He paused.
"Simply do what? Huh?" She didn't feel affected by his supposed threat.
He look at her hair then back at her face before his hands travelled to her hair.
"Or I'll simply eat your hair since they remind me of hazelnuts and make you bald." He held a handful of her hair with both hands.
"Ahhh! Leave my hair you hair eater! You're going to ruin my hair!!!" She struggled.
"Just a bite, it won't hurt." He leaned in, closing the gap between his mouth and the strands of hair in his hands.
"You'll ruin my hairstyle! Mama took so much time doing this!" She struggled some more before throwing one of her legs backwards towards Salman's thigh.
A little groan left him as he let go of her hair and she immediately made a run with the little opportunity.
"Umma!!!" She called while running.
"Just wait for me, I'm going to eat it all up." He ran after her with a faint limp.
A smile had subconsciously appeared on Umaymah's face as the memory she had just recalled was one of her favourite.
She popped a hazelnut into her mouth from the bowl of assorted nuts beside her.
She needed inspiration to continue writing her book.
The memory she thought would help her out did nothing but only made her smile.
She stared back at the Google Doc page which held a couple of sentences.
Another hazelnut entered her mouth before she decided to check her word count for the day.
36 words.
Not a shock.
She sighed and dropped the laptop on the couch before picking up the bowl and began sorting out the hazelnuts.
They're not that bad after all.
She slurped loudly from her cup of iced pineapple juice.
Perhaps it would kickstart her writing spirit.
Her project was to be due in a couple of weeks and she was not even done with writing talk less of self-editing.
She was only going to submit a few chapters from the book as her project.
She was bothered about her slow progress but at the same time she wasn't because every now and then her attention would solely shift to how many hazelnuts she had left in her hands before sorting more from the bowl.
Another slurp from her cup and the competition she had registered for popped right into her head giving her a faint, almost negligible headache.
"Aish!" She dropped the bowl on the mantelpiece in front of her, massaged her temples and extended her legs on the mantelpiece.
This same book she was writing for her project was indeed the same one she wanted to enter the competition with.
The competition was closing in a couple of months time, far right?
But she felt it would just pop out right from the corner when she woke up one morning.
And that would be the most dreadful thing to ever happen.
Last minute submission was one thing she tried her possible best to drift from.
The beeping of the passcode of the front door being entered caught her attention.
She dropped her legs down and placed the bowl of nuts on the couch she was sitting on.
The first thing that came to her mind was that a thief was trying to break in.
She draped her scarf over her head then grabbed the nearest object; her laptop charger before taking slow steps towards the front door.
Once the person opens it, I'll swiftly swing this over their neck and hold onto it really tight making only a sufficient amount of oxygen get to them.
She planned.
"Why isn't it working?" She heard Salman's voice from outside and her nerves immediately calmed.
The clinging of a bunch of keys came afterwards.
After turning the lock open, the door revealed Salman.
He walked past the lobby and got into the sitting room.
"Salam love," he held his shoes in the hands that had his blazer. "How have you been?" He surely looked exhausted.
A fake smile exposing Umaymah's set of teeth was visible.
"Alhamdullilah."She replied not noticing he had just called her love.
"I think that passcode thing is bro..." He leaned in to give Umaymah his routine kiss but pulled back and sniffed the air.
He placed his shoe, briefcase and blazer on the foot of the staircase and began sniffing around the sitting room.
That's when Umaymah's eyes fell on the bowl on the couch.
Sheesh!
She moved towards the bowl, pulled it from the couch and carefully placed it on the floor beside the couch.
"Do you smell that?" He sniffed as he drew near to where Umaymah sat.
He walked past her and slowly approached the lobby again.
"Hazelnuts, roasted ones, I can't mistake that smell." He didn't stop his action of sniffing.
Under the couch.
That was the only placed her head could think of in this current situation.
Umaymah had her hand beneath the couch and Salman abruptly turned back.
Their eyes met.
His eyes travel to her hand that was under the couch.
He closed the distance between his brows as he walked slowly to where Umaymah was.
"What?" She awkwardly let out a laugh still in the same position.
Salman moved closer.
"What are you doing?" He questioned, his brows almost meeting each other.
"What... What am I doing?" She laughed again. "Nothing." She sat up straight and pulled her laptop to her lap.
"Just typing." She began pressing random keys on the laptop even though none of what she was typing was making any sense.
Salman crouched low to the level of the couch and docked his head under and BOOM!
There it was!
Hazelnuts! Just as he had perceived!
He slowly pulled out the bowl and directed his eyes back to the couch.
Where did she go?
"I just needed to snack on something," She said from the top of the stairs. "And your food is in the kitchen." She disappeared into her room with her laptop and other belongings before closing the door and turning the lock.
"It's almost Isha'a time, you'll still have to unlock the door you know." He took a bite of roasted hazelnut and allowed the salty flavour soar his entire mouth.
"I'll pray in here." Her voice came from behind the closed door.
Salman shook his head while picking up his stuffs with the bowl in his arm.
"Praying together earns you more rewards than praying alone," He stopped right in front of her door and spoke. "I'm going to freshen up now and I'll be down soon, you have to be downstairs before then." The sound of him munching on the nut could not be ignored.
Hmph.
Or else what nut thief?!!
She almost blurted out.
Rolling her eyes, she made her way to the washroom to make Wud'u before finding her way downstairs with her hijab that nearly made her trip on the stairs.