Khaled Ibrahim… I thought to myself, as I typed his name in the Facebook search bar. It was the next morning and I had my brain highly occupied by thoughts of my time with Khaled yesterday, therefore I decided a little reconnaissance was in order. AKA internet stalking.
He did ask me to add him as a friend, but I thought I’d take a nice look-see at his profile first. The search results popped up. And there he was, first profile to show. I click it and start browsing for a bit. Of course, he has a really good picture of him on his profile. Investigating his profile felt like reading the back cover of a book that peaked my interest, a bit vague and yet highly attractive. Alright, Khaled. Let’s see what you’re interested in besides books and All Time Low. Oddly enough (however equally exciting) he shared many of my own interests. Movies, series, heck even anime. “Alright, the coast is clear,” I say point my cursor to the ‘add friend’ button. *CLICK* The deed was done. Now I all could do was wait.
I was waiting for quite some time, though. It had been two days and he still hasn’t responded to the friend request. I guess he was just being nice. I had to get to a revision in university, so I put my laptop on standby mode and started getting ready to go. I just wore my usual ensemble: Checkered shirt over a white v-neck, blue slim jeans, and a pair of converses to match. I packed my notebook and the rest of my stationery into my backpack, got my headphones around my neck and plugged them into my iPod, ready to play the first song of my ‘walking around playlist’ otherwise known as the ‘current repeats’. On my way out, I stop by my dad on his laptop.
“I’m off to the revision, dad,” I tell him.
“Alright,” he says. “When will you be back?”
“Well it’s at 3 and ends at 6, so I should be home by 6:30 or 7,” I reply.
“Okay, be careful out there please.”
“I will, dad.” And I kiss him on the forehead and head out the door. I get into the elevator and press the button to the ground floor, then place my headphones over my ears and start my playlist. I decided to take the quicker route today, so I walked from home to the Dokki metro station and took the subway to university. The route may be quicker, but it’s definitely more crowded. And, as usual, with crowds come a variety of smells and a lack of personal space. It’s faster. I’ll get there on time I kept telling myself. Dear Lord, doesn’t anyone know what soap is? Two stops later, and I’d reached my destination. 10 minutes later, I was in university in front of the auditorium where I was supposed to attend the revision. Farah shows up a couple of minutes afterwards.
“Heeeey there’s my party animal!” she exclaims upon seeing me.
“Ha ha not so loud. I do have a reputation to uphold,” I joke.
We exchange a brief but loving hug. “Have you been here long?” Farah asks.
“Nah,” I reply. “Even so, I’ve always got these,” I said, pointing to my headphones and iPod.
“Right. Let’s go take a seat in the auditorium while we’re waiting for the TA to show up,” she suggests.
“Okey dokey.” I follow her into the auditorium and we take our usual seats: Third row, center of the bench. We take our seats and get settled in. She remains silent for a bit. I could tell she was curious to ask about something.
“Shoot,” I said.
“Huh?” she pretended to look confused.
“Just start asking. I know that face. What is it?” I ask, although I had a pretty good idea what it was.
She’s quiet for 3 seconds. “Any response from him?”
I knew it. Typical Farah. I sigh. “No. Nothing yet, I checked before I left,” I replied.
“Well, he sure is taking his sweet time, huh?” she comments.
“He could just be busy. I mean he is a working man, after all.” I try to defend and speculate, but I couldn’t help but doubt.
“Could be. Judging by what you told me about his profile, he looks like the busy type,” she says with her analytical tone.
“He’ll respond. Eventually,” I hope.
We remained waiting for the TA to arrive while other students were showing up and taking their seats and we chatted. As more time passed, we all grew impatient. “Where is he?” I heard someone ask. “Is he even gonna show up?” said a girl two rows behind us.
“I’m starting to worry too. It’s been 45 minutes,” I tell Farah.
“Yeah I know. This is getting tedious,” she says.
When it had reached 4 pm, the TA walks in. “Sorry about the delay, everyone. Traffic was terrible,” he says.
This is looking like a fun revision. Sure enough, my sarcasm was right on the mark, and I wish it wasn’t. Not only had the TA arrived late, but the projector was faulty and we waited an additional 30 minutes until it was fixed. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the TA decided to extend the revision from 3 hours to 4 hours. So we finished at 8 pm.
“Well, that was crappy,” I say to Farah, immensely pissed off.
She scoffs, “Yeah, no kidding. He could have at least left early in case of traffic.”
Just then my phone rings. Caller ID said it was my dad. This won’t end well. “Hey, dad,” I answer.
“Hello, Yasmine. Where are you?” he asks with tension in his voice.
“I’m still at university, dad. We just got out of the revision. The TA got here late and then decided we should extend it,” I explained.
“Well, get home now. It’s late,” he orders.
“Yes, sir.” And he hangs up. “Well, let’s head over to the metro station,” I say to Farah.
“Actually, I’m taking a cab today. I’m a bit worn out,” she says.
“Oh. Ok, well call or text me when you get home,” I tell her.
“Of course. See you later,” she says. We exchange a fist bump and part ways. I put on my headphones and press play. I take the metro and get off two stops later as usual. As I was climbing up the stairs of the exit, a guy bumps into me and causes me to trip onto my knees. That’s when I notice that the music went silent, and my iPod was gone.
“HEY! THIEF! GET BACK HERE!” I yell and attempt to chase him, but I fell pretty hard on my knees and could barely climb up properly. “GIVE ME BACK MY IPOD!!” I shouted. People started gathering around me asking me if I was alright and if I got hurt. A couple of people say infuriating things like, “Let it go,” and, “Pardon.” All I could think was my birthday present and one of my most prized possessions was just stolen from me, and no one wanted to help.
“I’m fine! Just leave me alone to get home!” I scolded the ‘audience’ of my robbery. I shove my way out of their mob and manage to get out of the staircase. After I walked a few feet on the sidewalk, my knees started throbbing so I decided to sit on the windowsill of a closed jewelry shop. “Shit! What am I gonna tell dad? All my music and many of my photos are on that iPod,” I tell myself.
I sat on the windowsill for around 5 minutes, thinking about what I should do. Before I knew it, I was crying. I was tired and frustrated from all the studying and today’s revision, and now I felt humiliated too. All I could do was cry. Just when I was calming down, I heard a faint whimper. I look up from the ground. I couldn’t see much since it was late and dark. Then I heard it again. Looking around, I tried to focus my sight and adjust my eyes to the dark. Just then, my gaze caught a little dark figure by the curb. Just lying down and whimpering. I wipe my tears, put on my backpack, and slowly walk towards the little figure. That little black blob I saw in the distance turned out to be a small, underweight, black puppy. Whining from the cold and hunger.
I was about two feet away from him. “Hey little guy,” I spoke with a gentle voice, although slightly broken from all the crying. He looks up at me and whimpers even louder. “You’re cold, huh?” I say, reaching my hand out and kneeling on one knee. The puppy hesitates, but then gets up and slowly walks towards me. “I won’t hurt you. It’s okay,” I reassure him. He comes to my hand and starts sniffing it. Then, I could see his tail wagging, and he licks my finger. I smile. He comes over to me and has his front paws on my knee and wants to reach my chin to lick it. “Hey, now. You’re a friendly little guy. But you need a bath.” He sits in front of me and is panting while keeping his gaze fixated on me. I pet his head and then get up from my kneeling position.
“Alright, then. Time for me to go,” I tell him. I start walking, slightly limping, towards home. It was then I noticed a little pitter-patter of feet and that same whimpering, following my every straggling step. I look down and I find that same puppy following me. “You can’t come, you know. My dad is mad enough already.” I stop. He sits in front of me, looking up at me, whining. “I’m gonna get in trouble. I can’t,” I tell him. But he doesn’t budge, and his whining gets louder. "I really would love to take you home, but it won’t work." I just stand there for a minute. But, he’s cold and starving. I can’t just leave him, he’ll die. I stay put, thinking for another minute. I let out a huge sigh. “Fine. But you’re probably not staying with me forever,” I say to the puppy. I start bending down to pick him up. And, as if he knew he had just won me over, he gets up and starts speedily wagging his tail while panting. I could’ve sworn he was even smiling. I pick him up and he starts licking my cheek. “Alright, alright, buddy. Let’s go home.” We continue onward to home…
“Yasmine! I thought I told you to come straight home!” my dad yells. My brothers came out of their rooms to see what all the fuss was about. They were standing right behind dad and were looking at me anxiously.
“I was on my way, but – “ I began to explain.
“But you decided to pick up a dog on the way?!” he interrupts. “And why are your clothes all dirty?! Why are you limping?! Don’t tell me you got like this from getting the dog!”
“I was robbed, dad,” I answer.
“WHAT?!” Sherif exclaims. Shady hurried over to me to see if I was okay.
“Robbed?!” dad exclaims, with shock over his face. “Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?!” he demands.
“No, the guy shoved me while I was climbing the stairs from the metro and I fell down on my knees. That’s why I’m limping,” I explained to him.
“When I find the bastard who did this – “ Sherif begins to get pissed off.
“I didn’t see his face. It was too dark and it happened so fast,” I tell Sherif. He began to lessen his anger, but it was being replaced with worry.
“Well thank God it went as far as that. We need to get your knees looked at,” dad says with some relief looming over his face. “But that doesn’t explain the dog.”
I still had the puppy in my arms. He was snuggled in tight, burying his face in my chest. I didn’t know if he was cold or scared of my dad’s yelling.
“I found him on the curb when I rested because my knees hurt. He’s cold and starving. I just wanted to help him,” I told my dad.
“Can you at least sit down and let me get some ice packs for your knees?” Shady asks me. “You can talk while we help you out.”
I sit down as I was asked to.
Dad sighs. “Your heart knows no bounds. But we can’t just keep the dog.”
“If he can’t stay with us, at least let us keep him safe and I’ll get him in good shape…while I look for someone to adopt him,” I say with a bit of sorrow. “I know people from animal rescues who can help him find a home. Let me take care of him while I find someone.”
“You have too much to worry about right now. Your finals are coming up and you need to focus so you get your grade average higher. Do you really think this is the time for raising a puppy?” dad asks.
I look down at the puppy. I noticed he wasn’t burying his face because he was cold or scared. He had fallen asleep in my arms. I was dumbfounded that this dog could just sleep among all this yelling and high-strung energy in the house. But as confused as I was by this dog’s relaxed state, it also warmed my heart. He felt safe.
“We’re here too, dad,” Sherif says. “We can help out. When Yasmine needs to study, we’ll look after him.”
“You have your own lives. Sherif, you’re job hunting while taking a course. You’re too busy. And Shady has school to worry about,” dad argues.
“Yasmine and I can take shifts,” Shady says. “While one of us is doing their work, the other looks after the puppy. And Sherif is here while I’m at school, so he can handle it.”
“Yeah. Job hunting is mostly internet browsing and the course is always in the evening when Shady comes home from school,” Sherif adds to the plea.
My dad is silent. He takes a seat and rubs his forehead, thinking over the situation. Just then, the puppy wakes up and lets out a high pitched yawn, grabbing everyone’s attention.
“He was sleeping this whole time?” Shady asks, baffled.
“That’s one carefree dog,” Sherif says.
The puppy looks around at everyone. I decide to put him down on the floor. He then walks over to my dad and sniffs his foot. Then he stands in front of dad, wagging his tail and panting with that smiling look on his face. My dad and the puppy were looking each other in the eye. It almost looked like the dog knew the situation and was trying to convince my dad to let him stay.
After a long silent gaze was exchanged between them, and the puppy sits down in that same spot, unrelenting of his staring, my dad breaks the silence.
“He will be staying here until we find a new home for him,” dad says.
Then both my siblings and I break into smiling. “Thank you, dad,” I say sighing with relief.
“Don’t thank me. Just make sure he’s recovered well. We’ll need to get him some food and water,” dad says. The puppy climbed up on his back paws and rested on my dad’s shin. He was happier than we were, wagging his tail and attempting to lick my dad’s hand. That’s when dad picked him up and said, “He could also use a bath.” And we all just broke into laughter.
Shady went into the kitchen with dad to find some food for the puppy while Sherif helped me into the bathroom and went to get me a change of clothes from my room. He brought them back to me and I washed up and changed into the pajamas he brought me. He got my favorite over-sized hoodie and a pair of shorts.
“I know you don’t like shorts, but I brought them so we can keep an eye on your knees,” he said.
“It’s fine. Do they really look bad?” I asked him.
Sherif kneels in front of me and takes a look. They were dark blue right where the joint was. “Yeah, they’re definitely bruised.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” I retort.
“I see your injuries haven’t impeded your sarcasm,” he remarks.
“I doubt anything will,” I reply. We both start laughing. Sherif applied a cream for contusions onto my knees and helped me out into the lounge area to have a seat on the couch.
The puppy trots over to my side and was whimpering while trying to jump up next to me on the couch. “Not yet, first you need some food and a warm bath, you little dummy,” I tell him.
Shady and dad come out of the kitchen with some doggy chicken stew. “I used this recipe for my dogs back in the day when they’d get a cold in the winter. This should warm him up plenty,” my dad says. Shady puts the bowl down in front of the puppy and, without a second thought, he walks over and devours the meal.
“I think he approves of the recipe haha,” Shady says.
“Well, don’t you think we should name him?” Sherif asks us.
“I don’t know. Who knows how long he’s staying with us,” dad replies.
“Could be a short time or a long time. Either way, we can’t just call him ‘the dog’ or ‘the puppy’. It’s not right and it's impractical,” Sherif says.
I took a good look at the puppy and knew. “Shadow,” I proclaimed.
“Huh?” Shady says, looking confused.
“I think he should be named Shadow. That’s how I found him, after all. In the shadows,” I explained.
“That and he might as well be a shadow walking around us, considering his black fur,” says my dad.
“It’s settled then,” Sherif says.
“Welcome, Shadow,” Shady says, looking at him while he finishes his food.
Shadow looks up from the bowl and lets out a couple of yips. He was so small that he couldn’t fully bark yet.
“I think Shadow likes his name,” I said.
After Shadow finished his food, I took him into the bathroom and over to the sink, so I could give him an impromptu bath. “Alright, smelly Shadow, let’s get you all cleaned up,” I tell him while holding him up to my face. Shadow licks my nose in agreement. I went ahead and gave him a good warm bath, cleaning him up until he was practically squeaking. I dry him in a towel first and then put him down on the floor so I could plug in the hair dryer. He shook his body until he had left my legs covered in water droplets. “Since you’re still not dry, I’m gonna have to pull out the big guns,” I joke. I turn on the hair dryer and Shadow is startled into a firm and attentive stance. I turn it towards him, and the little guy tries biting the air. I couldn’t help but laugh.
After he was all done drying, I unplug the hair dryer and open the bathroom door. “Come on, Shadow. Time for bed,” I tell him. I start walking to my room and he followed me all the way there, right by my side. “I guess we have another reason to call you Shadow now.” I put away my hair dryer and get my bed ready for sleep. Then I pick up Shadow and put him on the bed, turn off the lights and get under my covers. Shadow instinctively snuggles up into a little black fur ball right next to me.
It’s like he’s always been here. I guess I was destined to find you, Shadow. Or did you find me? I thought, looking at the sleeping fur ball next to me. Perhaps we found each other. Before I went to sleep, I grab my phone to check my notifications. I got a text from Farah telling me that she was home, and I found a notification from Facebook. ‘Khaled Ibrahim accepted your friend request.’ I smiled as I read the notification. I guess it wasn’t just a polite gesture. And with that, I closed my eyes and drifted into sound sleep.