FAR FROM HOME

Shrugging her shoulders, Laleen temporarily gave up on trying to figure out what might be going through her husband's mind.

Staring at her phone for a moment longer, something murmured to her.

Home. How she'd been avoiding the topic.

Taking deep breaths, she decided to call. She knew she did wrong by not keeping in touch and possibly worrying them to death but she couldn't help it at the time.

There was no way she could have gone back home then. Not when so much was going on.

Keying in the familiar numbers, she dialed the number and it rang.

She heard a voice from the other end almost immediately. 

"Hello" 

It sounded weak and tired. It was her mother. Something she couldn't understand immediately gripped Laleen's heart.

She sounded worse than Laleen had initially imagined and she felt her heart squeeze with guilt.

"Mother" she whispered, her eyes stinging.