Just a Few Centimeters

(My last thread of the day :D I promise! Hehe! This is a story I wrote several years ago which was inspired by real events.)


My father’s delicate health (my laptop) lays balanced on my lap as my fingers score goal after goal on the keyboard. I’m sitting on my bed in my small room. I am aware that it is dim in the room but I can’t leave the keyboard and turn on the light. If I do, total chaos may result and I cannot be responsible for that! I mean, I may lose 60 seconds of my precious time…and besides, I am too busy responding to questions, posts, e-mails, and forwards. With each sentence that I type, I grow farther and farther away from my room, and closer and closer to saving the world. Somehow, I feel that if I don’t respond immediately to something…it will be gone forever. Nay! I don’t feel it. I know it.

My younger brother enters the room. I know this without taking my eyes off the hypnotizing computer screen. It is his tiny little duckling footsteps that give him away. “Oh, Honey bunny, since you’re in here, could you turn on the lights for me?” I flash him one of those “I’m your big sister and you’re my darling little baby,” smiles reserved only for younger siblings. And then he is gone. Not out of the room but gone from my thoughts….

A few seconds later, I see his fingers touch the button and brightness floods the room. I am startled. I blink a few times…how long have I been staring at this screen? Suddenly, as I see my little brother standing near the light, I am reminded of a time long ago….it is me: 4 and a half years ago, and I am still sitting on my bed. I am listening to the sounds of tiny little grunts. My brother is trying to do what I have asked him to do: turn on the light but it is a bit higher than he is. How silly of me to ask him! I forgot that he is a tiny miniature little human…a 5 year old. He stands in front of me, attempting to climb Mount Everest. His eyes are focused above. His tiny feet are pointing up as he attempts to stand on tipey toes. His fingers move up and up…they almost touch the button. They fail! Five minutes later and there still isn’t light in the room. I am almost tempted to tell him to forget it, but his face- his silhouette- is so deeply absorbed in this impossible task that I know it is now, or never. In fact, my adrenaline begins to run… “Can he do it?” I feel myself rooting for him with all my being. Suddenly, nothing matters but this moment. He stands again, his hands first clenched in defiance, and then slowly, he raises his chubby fingers up….

My sister enters the room at this moment. “Oh, here, let me help you!” She is about to turn on the light, without so much as stretching her finger, but my shout stops her. “NO! He can do it!”

He looks at me then. I stare back, confident in his ability…confident in him. My sister is staring too….only she is staring at me, wondering if I have lost my mind. And then, she realizes what is going on. And suddenly, she is cheering for our little brother too.

One more time. He stands up. Sweat lines his brows. His eyes are scrunched. He raises his arms....As high as he can. His fingers miss by an inch. Again and again…missing it by a centimeter…a millimeter…and then, suddenly the light is on…the room is bright. But nothing as bright as my brother’s triumphant smile and our mirroring ones.
He did it!

As the memory fades, I get up and turn off my laptop. I grab my now 9 and a half year old brother in a huge embrace. Today, I don’t really have the time to save the world. I’m too busy loving my brother.


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Awww Subhan Allah, this was so nice, it has nice messages that I start to forget, for bringing them back to my memory.

Nice story mashaAllah and mashaAllah tabaarakAllah for the relationship between you and your brother

waSalaamu alaikum, Aisha

^Oooo, that was 3 years ago. My relationship with him is definitely not all love, at all! We get on each others' nerves, a lot, but we have our moments of sweet sisterly/brotherly love, MashaAllah.

As Salamu Alaikum

Masha Allah your writings are so from the heart touching on important issues which most of us forget.