They got up and sabih straightened out his black button down shirt. he held onto his jacket and together they walked toward the street in silence. Sabih listened to the leaves crunching beneath his feet with an appreciation for the noise, which seemed to make up for the lack of conversation with his sister. He followed kat, just a step behind her, amused at her long strides from short legs. they walked through the familiar streets though he knew not where they were going. he had been this way a million times, and though he knew, recognized, and could even tell the stories behind so many of the buildings, he felt like the stranger he knew he had become. there was a time when none of this felt like anything less than home and the narrow streets had been sheltering and warm. now it was all so tediously suffocating. where once sabih could walk down the street and meet up with friends at any given place, there was now only an unknowing that made sabih uncomfortable. he wished that he had thought to recommend driving elsewhere, but kat kept walkign without talking and he thought it better to stay quiet.
She turned quite suddenly into a small coffee-shop that sabih didn't recognize. it was small and had an almost ancient look to it, though sabih knew that its existence was recent. he followed kat to the back of the room. they wat across from each other at a small table for four. the seats were steel with padded cushions and sabih wondered why kat hadn't chosen some place more comfortable like the worn in couches across from them.
next to the window, kat preferred to look outside than to make eye contact with her brother. he took the opportunity to take in the environment. it was a relatively quiet room with only one lady behind the counter reading a magazine. the walls were red and covered with white, borderline yellow, photographs taken of the city from all angles. there was a warmth to them that sabih didn't quite understand, but they helped make him feel more at ease.
"could i get you something? coffee?" a red-headed, something like 25 year old asked. she spoke fake chirpy and the caked on make-up under her eyes had sabih assumign she hadn't slept much the night before.
"coffee, please," kat said.
"same here," sabih added. "plain, black. for the both of us."
he pushed aside the paper menu the waitress had placed in front of them. the red-head nodded, faked a smile, and with the same quietness with which she approached them, she left.
kat resumed back to her musings while staring out the window.
"kat," sabih started. she didn't respond.
"kat, you just gonna sit there like that?" he asked trying to hold back the irritability he hadn't noticed was building.
"no," she repsonded. "i don't plan on just sitting here like this. i play on drinking coffee, once i get it, of course. and then, if i'm in the mood, i plan on eating something."
she looked up as she said this and though she didn't smile, sabih could see a gleam in her eyes.

1.

Sabih lay with his head resting on a jacket he would've rather been wearing. mostly he closed his eyes, but occasionally they opened, bright brown, staring at the blue in between the reds, yellows and browns above him. he watched as the seasons fought, musing over the collision of leaves, the fight against the winds, the clash of two extremes. the end of summer and the beginning of winter: the fall of yet another year of his life.

The steps were heard from away, but sabih didn't bother to move. he could hear the leaves crumbling beneath a girl who would be small, serious, and determined. though he always used the word determined to describe her, for what she was determined, he didn't know.

"you 'sleep?" she asked sitting at the end of his feet.

Sabih was thrown back to 22 by her voice. it wasn't even the last time he had spoken with her, but she always reminded him that was the beginning of the end. the fall of summer.

"nah," he said, opening his eyes and moving his hands up to his head, rubbing his face.

He propped himself up on his elbows.

"how you been, kat?" he asked nonchalantly.

He looked at her as she stared into nothingness. they looked very similar, the two of them. the same sharp features--oval face, long-pointy nose. still, kat's face had a softness that his could never have. even when he left home, he always missed her. she was good, he knew that much, but looking at her now, he saw her fierce. he saw determined stronger than he had ever seen before.

"the same," she replied, still looking out to nothingness.

"nice day, eh?" sabih tried again.

"sure."

They sat in silence for what felt like minutes. sabih no longer watched her. he looked out past her. he focused at the end of the park where he could concentrate on the quiet road. only an occasional car would pass and the sleepiness of a sunday afternoon weighed down on him. he no longer felt like being there with kat. though these yearly visits always started off fine, they felt like an intrusion into his life. she was always cold, always distant, but he knew that she cared. he knew she needed her eldest brother.

"how's mom?" he finally asked.

"crazy," she replied, with the slightest upward curl of the lip.

sabih hid his own happiness. a hint of a smile that he wasn't meant to see. he'd take it.

"dad?"

"dying."

her face was grave again. it was back to dark, sharp, determined.

sabih made no sound. he knew kat was being dramatic. she aways told him that he was killing their father...that, in some ways, he had killed their father.

"faroukh?"

he watched her face become darker even, if possible, and then just as quickly ack to light and the soft kat he always pictured returned. she always had a soft spot for faroukh. the brother who stayed. the brother who took the brunt of their parents anger and frustration. the good one.

"faroukh is...faroukh," she said with a tired laugh. she stood up and wiped down her backside.

"i'm hungry," she said, not looking at her brother.

"okay, then. let's go eat."