TWELVE

Three days later:

The night when I went to beach was one of the most beautiful nights in my life. It felt nice being with her and all the time I had just been staring at her without her even realising it. I wanted to let out my feelings to Adah as Mike said but didn't have enough courage. Coward Aman.

As for now, my father was on his way to our home. He was actually scheduled to come the previous day, but due to some work, he had to postpone his arrival. I was a bit nervous about his arrival since I would be seeing my father for the first time. I had asked my mom what should I call my father. She had replied that since I called her 'Mom', I should call him Dad.

I had also asked her to show a photo of my Dad and she had many. She showed it to me and then I came to know how much I resembled my father. In one photo where he was in his college days he looked exactly as I was now. Anyone could believe that it was my own photo.

Then, I asked my mom about my father's occupation and she replied that previously he worked as a Sales Manager in a big textile company and now, he was retired from there and now he had decided to start a textile business of his own.

At noon, my dad arrived at our home for the first time. I had multiple emotions floating in my head at that time. I didn't knew what to do when I saw him. I saw tears in my mom's eyes as she saw him in they broke down into a hug. I stood there, debating whether I should look away or not. I could understand their feeling, they were seeing each other after almost seventeen years. Since, he had converted to Islam, he had grown a small beard which I hadn't seen in any of his photo. By his looks, he looked like as if he was born as a Muslim.

'Assalamualaikum.' I said nervously, to my dad when he saw me.

'Walaikumsalam.' he said and smiled.

I smiled too.

'How big have you grown up.....you were only an year old baby when I last saw you.' he said and hugged me.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I hugged my long lost father for the first time. That moment was overwhelming. Now, I could be called as Aman Khan, son of Armaan Khan. I had got my father, finally after becoming an adult.

Later, that day, in the evening, Mike, Adah and Sam came to my house and I introduced all of them to my father. Dad was so easy to get along with, that soon, I felt as if I had known him for ages.

One week later:

'Aman, there's a letter for you!' Dad called out in the morning while I was asleep.

'Hmm...' I said as I tried drifting back to my precious sleep.

'You come and open it.' Dad called out again.

Now I had to wake up. Ughh... There was no other way.

'Why would anyone write a letter to me and who has written it.' I mumbled to myself as I went up to my father. He handed me the letter. I opened the envelope and saw that it was a letter from a prestigious college in our city offering me free scholarship to study there. I was very happy and so were my parents. After a while, I got a call from Adah saying that she had also got a scholarship letter from the same college. I was very happy. The same letter was delivered to Mike, Tina and Sam. Under the new free scholarship scheme of the college, they offered free scholarship to the 100 best students of our city and I, Adah, Mike, Tina and Sam were fortunate to be among the hundreI never wanted to study out of my city since I didn't want to leave my mom alone and now since I had recently got my dad back, I surely didn't want to go out to another city and study there.

The letter which I got also contained an admission form which had to be filled up with our details as asked. I filled up the form, got it signed by my parents and posted it back to the college. I, Adah, Mike, Tina and Sam - all of us wanted to pursue our career in the same course, and that was Software Engineering.

I always dreamt about how my college life would be and had planned a lot for my upcoming four years in college. All this was going to be real soon. But, I didn't knew that another trouble was awaiting me.