YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW
I was born on a calm afternoon in August. My mom says I didn't cry at first and she thought I might've been dead, until the doctor smacked my bottom. I wasn't an easy child, I cried and threw my arms around, and hated new people, and I sort of kept doing that for 2 years until my brother showed up. He didn't cry and throw arms around like me, Rashid was naturally suave, something he inherited from the crib. I've been told how he'd climb into the arms of new people and play with them and I was a 2-year-old who wasn't talking yet. A matter of grave concern for the house of the greatest men in the village that the eldest son wasn't turning out as what he had to be.
Things got better when I was around 6. I met Shirin and once I had made my first friend, my aversion to people started going away. Shirin was like an undertone to my unruly existence, I'd go running around the houses stealing treats from window sills and there she'd be beside me, bearing the sweet smile that filled everyone's heart, and they'd give us more. When Rashid was old enough to tag along 2 years later, we became a gang of three and because of my younger's brother superior growth people often couldn't tell who was older. That would have irked me if I wasn't worried about him getting bigger than me, which didn't happen for another 5 years. Once that happened though, he started assuming the responsibilities the eldest son of the house with the greatest people in the village must undertake. That left me with a lot of free time and well, I would have spent them with Shirin had she not chosen to zoom in and out of my life like a mosquito zooms in and out of your vision when you're trying to kill it in the shadowed evening. Just to be clear, I didn't want to kill her. I wasn't sure what I wanted at that time, but it was a sense of wanting to get a hold of her, and I'd know what to feel and what to do and what to say if I could just be with her.
For all my shortcomings in other departments, I was doing really well in school. By the time I topped my second board exam, Rashid was sitting for his first and sadly, he failed. He was never one to be attentive at class but no one really noticed or wanted to do anything about it until the worst had happened. But for the sons of the house of the greatest men in the history of the village, school was a mere formality. The mantle of leadership had fallen into his hands as soon as he surpassed 6 feet in height and 44 inches in chest. I remember his first day in the business that the greatest men in our village historically busied themselves with, that was also the day I decided I'd write a book. Like after all important decisions, I found Shirin and told her I'd be travelling for inspiration—to learn about the ways of the rest of the world, although my book would have the tales of our village, without understanding the rest of the world I wouldn't have the perspective that great books provide. Shirin understood, and held my hand and told me she wanted to come with me, because she wanted to learn about people and write about them in a way only people of our great village could, so outsiders understood us. She told me she'd be the undertone to my unruly existence that might get me killed in the rough world out there, and I finally knew what I wanted to feel and do and say all those years ago, to which I obliged.
Rashid took us to the station as we were about to leave and suited to the big brother he'd become, he blessed us. His progress in the business of great people was going well, and I gave him some advice, as suited of the big brother as which I was born. Shirin held my hand as we jumped on to the train that would help us know what we didn't know and had to be known. As the village vanished from our sights in the horizon, I looked back and could still see Rashid stand there 6 feet tall, and smiled and thanked the Gods for truly making our house the greatest in the history of all houses.
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