“Wohoo…I can’t believe this day is finally here! You know, sometimes I imagine falling off the stage just when I’m about to say my first word” Ibrahim laughed anxiously while closing his XBox. “Hahaha.. noo sweetheart. Whenever this happens just imagine Johnny in the movie Sing rocking the stage” I said. “You’ll be amazing I’m sure.” We hugged and Ibrahim went to bed.
Next morning, I woke up super energetic to the sound of Egypt’s radio news saying their famous “Goood morning Egypt”. I started making breakfast feeling super excited to see my babe on stage. Hamed, my husband, came in looking for his coffee mug as usual. “Its on the top shelf honey, it always is” I mumbled. I told him about my exciting plans with Ibrahim. “Is there no way to try again to take today off from work?” I asked, really wishing he would change his mind. “You know how important this one is Hamed, he even invited his cousins.” I added but starting to feel Hamed’s frustration, I tried to make the best of the situation. “Ok, what do you say we meet after the concert and get some ice cream? we can tell you what happened then.” I suggested. Hamed smiled for the first time this morning and said “I’d love that. You can also show me the video?” he asked “Yes sure honey, I am taking the video camera with me. I even charged it’s battery all night” I said wishing it would make him feel a little bit better. “Perfect!”
I looked at my watch, It was almost 12 noon. “Ibrahim are you ready dear? we have to leave NOW.” The school was only a few minutes away, we arrived very quickly. I parked the car and Ibrahim got his bag. We noticed a crowd of boys and parents from far. As we approached, Ibrahim saw his friends and immediately ran up to them. As I approached, I heard Ibrahim’s voice getting louder. It’s like something was terribly wrong. As he looked at me, I saw his eyes were full of tears. I ran up to him, but I saw him storming away and going inside the school.
“We just finished the concert”
I believe it was one of the boys who said that, I can’t remember. It was one of those moments where you get to hear an echo in your head repeating the words over and over again. “We just finished the concert” and then you start repeating the sentence in your head in many ways like “The concert is finished” and “its done” also “no concert anymore because it’s finished”.
“We missed it!!” I said to myself. Oh my GOD am I dreaming? can this be a nightmare.. What happened? how could have this even happen? At this point my brain was exploding. I managed to keep walking feeling the other parent’s eyes on me. One of them came up to me and said “Didn’t you get the school note? it was sent two times last week. The concert time was moved from 1pm to 11am!” I looked at her for a very long time then opened my bag to look for my phone. “Hello, yes Hamed, sweetheart, tell you what, why don’t we make it a pizza my treat?… yes dear, yes I blew it”
