Chapter 1 – Ali

The Madeenah family home glowed a gentle orange as the dawn’s light began embracing the neighborhood. The gentle, cool breeze of the morning passed over the family’s mini-orchard, rustling the green leaves of the peach, apple, and lemon trees. Though planted only a few years ago, the trees had already begun to bear bountiful fruit. Jameelah, the lady of the house, had used the excuse of the small fruit harvest to get to know the neighbors around their block as she would deliver them, her daughter often tagging along.

Adding to the chorus of the morning, the lawncare bots carefully navigated the paths of their routines, gently restoring the mulch that had been misplaced by the errant footsteps of both beasts and men, clearing the siliconcrete paths of any accumulated debris that might affect their solar collecting efficiency, and restocking the various animal feed devices around the yard. Umar Madeenah took special pride in how the routine he programmed for the bots was both quiet and efficient, meaning it would cause little disruption to the otherwise natural environment. This was key to the recovery of several species the family was trying to cultivate, a passion shared by Umar and several of his neighbors.

The story on the inside of Casa Madeenah, on the otherhand, was something slightly different…

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” The staccato sound of a sharp impact reverberated throughout the house.

“Bang! Bang! Open up!” A voice cried out.

“BANG!”

“BANG!”

“BANG!”

“This is your last warning!” The irritated voice called out again. And then, a change of tone.

“Pleeeeeeease ‘Sha! It’s almost sunrise! I still need to use the bathroom! I’m going to miss fajrOne of the five daily prayers for Muslims. Its timing is from the break of dawn until just before sunrise. More!“

Still, no sound returned from beyond the door. A hand raised to strike one more time, but its owner felt a piercing gaze stabbing at the back of his neck. He lowered it back down. But his voice remained high, “You don’t even need to pray right now. You’re not even ten!”

An even more irritated voice came out.

“Ali! Stop making so much noise!” chastized Umar to his son. “If you didn’t get up so late, you wouldn’t be racing to use the bathroom with your sister. Just make your wudhoo at the kitchen sink and then you can pray.”

“But I have to use the bathr–” Ali began to respond, but he could hear the door knob opening. “Finally!” he exclaimed. “You know, you could have said you were almost done!”

“You know we’re not supposed to talk inside the bathroom,” his little sister know-it-all’ed back to him.

Ali grumbled something unintelligible as he pushed his way past his sister. The final BANG! for the morning occurred as he slammed the door shut, and then a few moments later, everyone was relieved.