The next day was Wednesday. It went by pretty much like any other weekdays for Tanim: waking up in the morning, hurried breakfast and getting ready, running to catch the bus, travel for 20 minutes or more depending on 'slowness' of the bus. Then working 7 hours straight with two little breaks in between when he prays, and catches up with Raihan while having something to eat.

By the time Tanim comes home it's normally 6'clock. Then he would refresh and pray. If it's his cooking day, he would have a little snack and then start cooking. Then he would eat, do the dishes and do random things he likes until it's time to sleep.

He tries to maintain an early bedtime routine so that he can wake up for Fajr easily. It often gets late but he definitely tries to keep it within Midnight.

Around at 10'o clock Tanim starts to get ready for bed, meaning that he goes to the bathroom, does wudhu and changes into comfortable cloths. Then he spends about an hour on the holy Qur'an. Normally he recites, sometimes he reflects on the meaning, or tries to memorise a few verses. He feels that reading the Qur'an before bedtime helps him to sleep better. Once he starts reading, he feels so enchanted by the beautiful ayahs  that he just wants to keep reading. He stops when he gets sleepy, reads the du'as, surahs and ayat* for sleeping, then gets into the cosy bed to recharge for the day ahead.

If he does indeed wake up the next day. For you never should take life for granted. That lesson was imprinted on his mind from the day his beloved Grandmother slept and...didn't wake up again. Tanim was an 9 year old boy and used to sleep next to her not just because of shortage of rooms, but also because he loved her smell, (not mention the free bedtime stories that Aleena were so jealous of). That night, Grandma just finished telling the first half of an amazing adventure story, when he started drawsing. Seeing that, she tried to get him to sleep but when he wouldn't budge until he hears the end, she promised to finish it first thing in the morning with breakfast.

She never got to keep her promise.

Tanim still wonders to this day, what really happened to adventurous Adam who was stuck in a an island with sharks all around in the sea.

Tanim shook that thought off as he was scared of what was about to come next: a heartache for his loving Grandmother which may well lead to...

Today was like any other day, with one exception. The whole day has been spent in agonizing impatience. Tanim has been thinking about Aleena's diary. He couldn't wait to go home so he could read more it. The hours felt boringly long, but finally, gratefully, it was over. Right as the clock struck to 5 pm, Tanim grabbed his coat and was ready to run.

"In a hurry?" He stopped at the question. Now he felt uncomfortable. He must've been pulling attention with his rush. The speaker was his co-worker, Paul.

Tanim tried to think of what to say. "Um...yeah, kinda". He decided to keep it vague.

Paul chuckled at his discomfort. "It's alright, I won't bite if you don't tell me why." He teased.

"Well you won't be able to bite me anyway. And stop prying." Tanim teased back.

"Okay Mr Tough Guy. I suppose you can't hang out later then. But I have been meaning to ask, are you going to the Winter fair?"

"I think so, In sha Allah. Raihan was insisting. Did he tell you too?"

"Nah, it's the other way around. But he probably would've found out about it anyway without me telling him."

"Yeah we all know what he is like, always upto something." Tanim replied, hoping this small talk wouldn't extend to a long conversation.

There was a silence. "Okay then, I won't keep you any longer." Paul said then, noticing Tanim's impatience.

"Thanks, " Tanim smiled gratefully "Bye!"

"See ya." Tanim heard behind him as he strode out of the doors. He gave Paul a final smile and headed for home. There was 20 minutes of bus journey that separated him from home now.

His excitement faded a little when he remembered with a grant that today was his cooking day. Last night he cleared up all the leftover pasta (by eating it of course) so if he doesn't cook tonight, he might have to starve. He was already on the bus so takeaway wasn't an option, since there's no restaurants near his house.

He considered getting off on the next stop to buy something on the way, but seeing that it was peak hour, he didn't dare to do it. The bus was packed as it is, but he was lucky to get some space to stand at the back of this bus. Waiting for the next bus with enough space left might delay him even more. Besides, he didn't want to struggle his way out through the wall of people in front of the only bus door.

By the time he reached home, it was time for Esha prayer. He hurriedly unlocked the doors, reading the du'a* for entering house, and quickly changed out of his work cloths and into a pair of comfortable sweatpants and a green T-shirt. He used the toilet and did his wudhu. Seeing that there was still 10 minutes left till the jama'ah* starts, he stopped rushing and started walking towards the Masjid (mosque) at a normal pace, locking the door behind him. The Masjid was 5 minutes walk from his house.

After Esha, Tanim came home and started cooking. He didn't have enough patience to have some snacks first. In his head, after going over the recipes that he could cook, he decided to make Spaghetti Tuna salad. It's the quickest recipe he could think of that would also meet his nutritional requirements.

Tanim developed this habit of focusing on the nutrition of food when cooking during his university life. He used to share a room in the dorms with a undergraduate student of Nutrition - that doesn't need anything else to be said.

So he cooked, ate and stored the rest of the food -which was quite a lot - in a container in the fridge. Finishing an entire dish when eating alone is almost impossible. After cleaning and tidying up, he let go of a sigh in relief. Finally he went to his room and got the navy blue notebook out of his shelf.

He started to read and soon lost himself in a much happier world of his crazy sister.

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*Glossary*

Wudhu: Ablution, a means of purification before one engages in the worship of Allah.
Jama'ah: praying in congregation

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A message from the auther:

I've recently found out that actually so many books already exist in the same book title as mine: 'After you'. Although I didn't copy it as clearly I didn't know about that before, I want to change the name. I liked 'After you', but I want my book to have a unique name so that it's easy to find. I can't decide it yet, but if you see changes later, don't be surprised. I might also change the cover. The story gets edited and revised now and then, just so you know.
JazakAllah Khairan for reading. (Sorry if I got you bored by my little note:)