"You take my breath away! You blow me away-ay-ay!"

"Raeesa!"

"Away-ay-ay!"

"Oh. My. Allah. Can you not?" I called to my best friend who was singing in the shower at the top of her voice. Raeesa was a bit of a maniac when it came to singing in the shower. She just made up any random lines with a catchy tune and sang to her heart's content. Because she and I had been sharing me room for quite some time now, I had to put up with her offbeat singing.

My best friend burst through the bathroom door, her fifteen seconds of fame ruining the peaceful silence in the Omar household.

"I'm trying to study, genius-"

"Aamirah! Aamirah! Open up!" Hamid banged his knuckles against my room door. I was fully dressed but Raeesa was busy applying lotion to her legs so I left the door locked.

"Hamid? What's the problem?"

"Please, you've got to get out of your room. Something terrible has just happened. Hurry up!"

Raeesa heard Hamid's words and was fully dressed in no time. She wore cream coloured slacks, a loose white top and a light green hijab. Once she was ready, I opened the door and ran downstairs.

"Hamid?... What the..."

And there she was. Rubina was lying on the kitchen floor, sobbing. It seemed as if the life had been knocked out of her. Quickly, I rushed to her side and knelt beside her shaking body.

"Rubina? What happened?"

All sorts of thoughts ran through my mind. Bad thoughts. The type of thoughts that you thought when you saw a devastating headline in the newspaper.

Yeah, you get the picture.

What I didn't expect was what Rubina was about to tell me. "He's gone Aamirah, he's gone. I saw it coming but this was too soon. It was only two weeks..."

"Okay... I'm not understanding anything right now. Let's get you up and get you a glass of water and we'll talk about this a bit later, alright?"

I helped Rubina to her feet. Shaarif ran over to us and held Rubina's right arm, letting most of her weight fall on him. Helping her balance, we walked to the living room and sat her down on a comfy sofa. Rubina hiccuped uncontrollably as a result of her crying.

"Shaarif, go get your sister some water."

Shaarif ran to the kitchen while Raeesa and Hamid watched the scene unfold, helplessly. Shaarif came back with Rubina's water and handed it to her.

"Thank you," She said meekly. When Rubina was ready to speak, she began to tell us what happened. "Mr. Ali..."

"What about Mr. Ali?" I asked, fearing the worst.

I noticed Hamid crying silently. He and Raeesa were sitting on the couch across from us. The tears rolled down my brother's face. I could feel my heart breaking.

Rubina looked at Hamid as she spoke. They were both traumatised. "Mr. Ali passed away early this morning..."

My heart stopped. My insides churned and a gasp escaped my mouth. I was expecing this. I prepared myself for the worst but the shock... I could not contain the heart-shattering cry that escaped my mouth. Then the most surprising things happened; Rubina began to wail too. She threw her arms around me and we mourned as if we had known Mr. Ali all our lives. He was an amazing man. The afternoon of which we had interviewed him was like a bonding session. We learned his life stories and what a struggle he went through as a child and young man.

Now Mr. Ali had a clean slate. He was pure again. We should have been happy that he would have been in Jannah but nothing could stop the waves of sorrow that washed over the Omar's that fateful day. I gripped Rubina's shoulders in an awkward hug. Raeesa then came over and wrapped her arms around the both of us. Her body shook as she cried along with us.

Hamid got up and left the living room. Mr. Ali's death must have had a tremendous effect on him as he was close to Petunia, Mr. Ali's grandchild. I heard the main door slam and I knew that Hamid was leaving to go see Petunia. I hoped and prayed that the Ali's would have the strength to cope with their loss.

When our cries died down, we let go of each other. Our faces were streaked with tears that weren't going to stop flowing anytime soon.

How did this morning go from melodious to mournful? I preferred Raeesa's high-pitched singing to our low sobs, any day.