How Green Becomes Wood

It took a little while but eventually Sloan replied Uh, yeah, I think so? Why?

"Hassan," Yasmin spoke up. Her voice was surprisingly high and sweet, "Go find your sister. Stop challenging your cousins, wait until you know them better. Otherwise it's rude."

"Sorry, Mama," Hassan said quickly and scurried outside while the adults chuckled.
 
Mama's family is here. I guess he's my cousin. Looking for a football. Says he's good. Can I get it from you?

After sending the text, Xander said to Alec, "We should go join the others and sit nice. Or at least you should. I need to wait to see if I can get a football."

"I can't find my phone!" Alec complained, now looking around the floor.

Xander snagged the phone from the counter near the backdoor and handed it to Alec. "Phone."

"Thank you," Alec said with a nod.
 
Wow, that doesn't sound confusing at all. Do you want me to run it over to you?

"You should come sit with us," Khalaty Neha said as the rest of them moved down the couch to make some room, "I actually have something to give to your Mama, it'd be good to have her family around."
 
Yes please was Xander's quick response.

Alec bounced over and quickly accepted the space. "You do? Oh, that's exciting!"

Xander came over more reservedly and sat on the arm of the couch to avoid getting crushed.
 
"Khalaty, you didn't need to," Daizi said quickly, turning towards her aunt but Neha only smiled and lifted her purse.

"No, it's just a little thing. I didn't even wrap it." Neha replied, handing a picture frame to Daizi first, "I know you can't see it, habibti, but I decided, your house needs a photograph of your Mama. I know how much Sahar would want to be here with you. And I have her favourite head scarf, I know you don't veil, but she always wore hers improperly."

Holding the frame delicately in one hand and the scarf in the other, rubbing the silk chiffon with her thumb. In the picture, Sahar was wearing it, but it sat back on her head so the front portions of her hair still showed, similar to how Malala wears hers. Besides the obvious difference between Daizi and her mother, they looked very much alike. Daizi's face was a bit longer, and Sahar's eyes were darker, but really, if it weren't for her facial asymmetry, they might have been twins. "Shukran, Khalaty," Daizi murmured.

Saladin leaned over her shoulder to look at the picture of his late wife stiffly but couldn't look for long before sitting back, contrasting emotions fighting briefly for dominance on his face before he reminded himself he was a man and shoved them all back down.
 
Alec leaned over to see, moving carefully to not displace anyone else, and gasped softly. "Mama, she's almost as beautiful as you! She has your smile." He glanced at her. "Or, rather, you have hers."

"You two really do look alike," Xander said, surprised at just how similar they looked. "And, yeah, you two have the same... light."
 
Daizi shook her head but didn't really know what else to say. Dark rubbed her back gently before saying, "Ivy-Qadira has your smile, so it is something shared between the three of you." Then, before he stopped himself, looked sympathetically at Saladin, because seeing the woman who would have been his mother-in-law, and seeing how much like Daizi she must have been, he guessed at what it must be like for the older man and how it must feel to see his daughter. But Dark had an unreadable face, so when Saladin caught him looking, he glared back. Of course that man would mock him, he didn't understand.

"My sister was a delight," Neha said with a proud, sad nod, "She was a bit shy, but she had such a kind heart."

"Dinner should be ready soon." Saladin said stifly, still glaring at Dark, "If the table has been set."
 
"Mama certainly isn't shy, but she has one of the kindest hearts I have ever met," Alec said. "I know only one person with a heart to rival hers."

Xander notted Saladin's glare and raised a brow at him but did not even attempt glaring. What would be the point? Instead, he stood and said, "I'll go set it. There's not much left to do." He stood and headed into the kitchen to take care of things.

"Grandfather, she would be so proud of our mother, wouldn't she?" Alec asked tentatively.
 
When Alec spoke to him, Saladin finally looked away, and once released, Dark exhaled quickly and looked straight down. Saladin too took a breath to think through his answer. "She would be proud of some things Daizi has done."

"She would be proud of everything," Neha said more firmly, "I knew her all her life. I was in the room when she held your mother for the first time. Sahar adored her."

"She could be a naive idealist." Saladin said quickly and then looked like he had made the decision to extinguish a fire with his bare hand and was shocked to learn it burned. So regardless of other desires, he added, "But that was why she was so well liked."
 
"What do you think she'd be most proud of?" Alec asked, looking from Saladin to Neha. "If she was telling someone about her daughter, what would she be certain to tell them?"
 
"She's a doctor," Neha replied immediately, not needing to think about it at all, "Not the kind who helps people, sure, not like Marwan---"

"Mama,"

"But a doctor! And she did that all without being able to see. And do you know, she is the first woman ever in our family to ever get the PhD? And she would be so happy--" Neha stopped, getting choked up at the thought of her sister, and Marwan leaned over to squeeze her arm, "I'm sorry. I'm okay. I just remember Sahar holding that tiny little baby, and we didn't know how serious everything was yet, but we knew there were... differences, between Daizi and other babies. But Sahar was so happy. And she held you like... Oh, I remember she had said she didn't care what the doctors said, because no baby who cried that loudly at her first breath could ever be someone who couldn't, um..." She frowned, and whispered to her son, who whispered back, "Hold their own. I didn't know what that would be translated best as. And I just know she is," Neha touched her heart and then gestured upwards, "to know her daughter is so happy and so loved."

Hearing this, Daizi touched a trembling hand to her eye, not knowing what she could possibly say to that, but before even Dark could, Amty Zeinab had pulled her into a tight hug and held her close.

And Saladin sat there silently, realizing unlike his sister-in-law, he did not have an answer.
 
"I can't imagine anyone who couldn't be proud of our Mama and what she's accomplished," Alec said with a smile. "Have you seen some of her work at the museum? It's so good! So interesting! And she is such a good friend to other people, and she even took in two teenagers and taught them how to love and trust. Out of everything she did, I think that last one was the most difficult thing to do. And she did it."
 
Ivy sat on the floor, staring up at everyone and only growing more anxious as they became more and more upset. When she saw her Mama was crying, her lower lip immediately began to tremble and she hurried across the room and pulled herself up onto her feet by gripping the couch before tearfully saying, "Mama?"

As soon as the second syllable had left her mouth, Daizi bent down and scooped up Ivy quickly and firmly, giving her a big kiss on the cheek, "It's okay, habibti. We're just talking about your Jadda, see?" She held the picture frame to Ivy, "This is your Jadda Sahar."

Ivy looked at it for a few moments and then pointed, "Mama!"

"No, Hummingbird, that's Mama's Mama," Daizi explained patiently, quickly wiping away more of her tears and trying to stop more from coming.

Neha smiled watching the pair of them even as her heart squeezed and Saladin mumbled a poor excuse and left the room, but answered Alec's question, "I have only seen pictures of her work there, but we are all amazed with it. I told Marwan and Yasmin we need to go with Noor and Hassan while we're still visiting. We're all so, so proud of you Daizi. Surely you know that."

Blinking rapidly, Daizi answered, "Thank you. I--I do know." At least, she knew her aunts and certain cousins were proud.

"But it's still nice to hear," Amty Zeinab added, smoothing down Daizi's hair.
 
Alec stayed close, wanting to be there, but not wanting to interfere or interrupt. So, he hovered and waited to see what, if anything he could do.

Xander was in the kitchen, but he could hear everything going on in the living room. Dinner was ready and everything was setup, but he wasn't going to interrupt what was happening in there. He leaned on the counter watching from a distance.
 
Saladin paced down the front hall, realizing now that he had left the room, he didn't know where to go. It had been cruel of Neha to bring out those things without warning him. Of all people, she should have warned him! And they were all talking about Sahar as if they knew, what did any of them know? Asking what Sahar would say first when talking about Daizi, what she'd be most proud of. Casting his gaze around this house he paid for decorated with so much forbidden imagery, no doubt selected by that man who had corrupted his daughter and pulled her away. What would Sahar say? What would she be proud of? But if he fashioned himself after Zeus, Sahar was Metis, buzzing in his mind and contradicting him. No, she wouldn't have cared, but she should have. Sahar had lived and died a songbird in a beautiful cage, too delicate to survive in the wild. Daizi had been turned wild, and Sahar would've lacked the strength to say so. Still, that buzzing in his mind reminded him yes, Sahar was naivë, but that naïveté meant, yes, she'd be proud of their daughter. But hard as he tried, he couldn't figure out what she'd be proud of. Being a doctor was a neutral start, he guessed. And he stood awkwardly in the front hall, wishing he still smoked so he had an excuse to step outside instead of standing like he was the new coat rack.

Yasmin sat awkwardly as her extended relatives cried over a photograph of a woman who had died decades before she met her husband, who was too young at the time to have more than a few scant memories of her. She was empathetic, certainly, because she liked her extended relatives, they had always been good to her, but she felt more than a little out of place. When Marwan finally noticed, he gave her a slight nod, and she swiftly left the room, saying, "I'm going to see if Xander needs any help." True to her word, that's exactly where she went, but seeing everything clearly finished, she rubbed her perfectly manicured nails on one hand against the nails opposite them, and watching Xander watch the action, took a quick breath and still asked, "Is there anything I can help with?"

With Saladin gone, Dark moved more closely into Daizi, and was near to saying something when Hassan and Noor stepped inside again. Noor quickly noticed the picture frame on the table, it used to hang on her grandmother's wall. Hassan, however, looked over at all of the faces and asked, with a big grin, "Wow, who died?"

Immediately, Noor pulled on her brother's arm, "In about five minutes, it'll be you, ya hamar. Were you born stupid or do you work at it?"
 
Xander glanced at her and said, "Yeah, sure, do you want to get drinks? I guess water is what everyone is drinking. Or maybe lemonade."

Alec looked Hassan up and down and answered Noor, "I think both."
 
"Is there lemonade?" Yasmin asked, lightly flipping her sleek, black hair over her shoulder, "That's a bit more fun. Marwan and I try not to drink alcohol around our parents so we don't pain them." She looked at Xander, "I probably shouldn't be telling you that."

"What!?" Hassan asked, looking around, "How was I supposed to know!?"

"Abhil," Noor growled. Stupid.

Hassan shot back his own insult and from the couch, Marwan looked up and waved a hand, "Noor, Hassan, khalas." Stop.

"Sorry Baba," both teens said simultaneously, neither of them really meaning it.

"It's okay," Daizi laughed, their little faux pas shaking her out of her mood. As she wiped her eyes for the last time she said, "Dinner should be ready, now. We should eat. I know Xander is starving."
 
"There's always lemonade," Xander replied. He went to the fridge and got out the pitcher for Yasmin. "I'm not sure which flavor this one is. Probably lavender or maybe plain." He handed it over to her, and the cups were already on the table, so all she needed to do was fill them.

Alec grinned and nodded. "I think it is, and Xander is always in a constant state of starvation. It's like no one ever feeds him."
 
"Perfect," Yasmin said, smelling the pitcher to find out what was in it: Daizi never made plain lemonade. Then she went and began to pour the drinks, not feeling the need to fill the air with conversation.

"The baby is the only one out of you looks like they have ever been fed," Amty Zeinab sniffed as she rose to her feet, "And that goes for you too, Zalmi."

Dark chuckled, turning his arms out and looking down at himself, "I eat plenty, Amty."
 
Feeling the tension dissipate and seeing that everyone looked fairly normal now, Xander stepped into the living room and announced, "Dinner's ready and waiting. Time for everyone to get fed."

Alec hopped up with a happy murmur. "We can prove to Amty that we do, indeed, eat!"
 
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