Chapter 5: Chapter 5
At first, Echo- or Freya as she was now known as- thought this month would be the longest month of her life. It turned out to be the shortest month. When she was not attempting to memorise her information, or review the courses she would need to teach; Leanne and a team of stylists would be implementing changes in her look. Freya didn't wear contact lenses like Echo did. Nope. Freya had big chunky glasses- which Echo thought were awesome, until she felt the weight of them. One of the only luxuries Echo had allowed herself was expensive glasses frames with as thin as possible lenses. Not only were these glasses not expensive, they were extremely heavy. Echo had a high myopia prescription, in her left eye it was -8.00, in her right it was -8.50. It wasn't as high as others, but it was still quite high.
It was last day before she would go to JFK airport to catch her flight to Manchester airport. Her suitcase was packed, her backpack was packed, her new phone was all set up. It was a Samsung- it had taken a Echo some time to get used to all the new controls on it. She also had to get used to not being able to access her Instagram or Wattpad accounts. The latter was especially irritating, as she had many followers and friends there; Echo had attempted to argue with Leanne- if that was even her real name- that no one even knew her identity on Wattpad. Unfortunately it was not to be. However, there was one thing she couldn't prevent herself from doing: calling Inaya.
Her conscience had ravaged inside her for the month she was in the government owned facility. Should she call her? Was it safe for Inaya to be called by her? What if they had already found them? This last thought had been haunting her mind day and night. Nagging at her nerves. Echo felt like a nervous wreck, not knowing whether they were safe or not. Yet, she persevered, until that day. Dialling down the number, as she had done before, she immediately pressed the call button, before she could convince herself otherwise. Whilst listening to the phone ring and attempting to connect, Echo gazed at herself in the mirror. Freya, unlike Echo, embraces her African heritage: Echo usually didn't dreadlock her hair, however, Freya did. Luckily for Echo, she had learned how to do dreadlocks from her classmates in class. They weren't perfect, but they looked passable. For the first few days, Echo despised the tightness of it. After a month of wearing them, she got used to it. Her light brown hair looked good in dreadlocks- Echo liked the look, she felt more connected to her father that way. There wasn't much else changed to her besides Echo gaining more piercings in her ears, and getting an awesome tattoo of a tiger on her upper arm.
"Hello?" a Syrian accented voice called out, it was Inaya. Inaya was raised in Syria, fortunately for her, her family was able to escape before all the fighting escalated.
"Hey, Inaya, it's me," Echo replied back after wiping a couple tears away.
Echo heard a gasp down the phone, then a shriek, "Aayan, come to the phone quickly, it's Echo!". It was obvious Inaya was excited, she then started speaking a thousand words a minute, "Echo, why didn't you tell me you were going into witness protection, you left Aayan to tell me, and he wasn't giving me enough information. Also, you should have come over, I would have cooked you some good Syrian food," Echo's mouth began watering. Visiting Aayan's and Inaya's house for dinner was a pleasurable experience. Not only for the company, but Inaya was an amazing cook. All those marvellous scents of mint, garlic, lamb, pistachio, tomatoes, vine leaves, honey, olive oil. What shook Echo out of her reverie was this shocking statement, "...remember, don't eat at MacDonalds, waste of 99 cents for piece of trash, and by the way, I'm pregnant, praise Allah.". That made Echo jump.
"OMG! Congrats! I'm so happy for you, how far are you?" now it was Echo's turn to run into this conversation with guns blazing, firing question after question at Inaya, without giving her sufficient time to answer. Eventually, Echo paused for breath. Inaya began answering her questions: she was three months in, no they didn't know the gender yet and wanted it to be a surprise, she had no preference for which gender, she was going to finish her online English literature degree even with the baby coming, they had begun planning names for both genders, however the parents were split on it. Their extended family wasn't making it any easier.
The grandparents liked the names Mohammed and Ibrahim for a boy, and for a girl, Kareema and Aisha. Inaya favoured the names Ayyub and Omar for a boy, and for a girl, Laila (her jida's name) and Farah (which she liked more). Aayan, well, he was still uncertain, he thought it was too early to decide names.
Fate definitely had it in for her, the second she was placed in Witness protection, her best female friends was pregnant and would have a child. Aayan eventually came to the phone, Inaya decided to go rest as the excitement was feeling a bit too much for her. After assuring himself that Inaya wasn't in hearing distance of the conversation, Aayan asked how it was all going. After deliberating for a moment, she told him everything, except her new name and where she was going. He listened patiently. It was good to have an extra ear. After she told him what happened, there was silence in the other end of them phone. Aayan was processing everything. He then reminded her to do some of her exercises, which they taught them in university on how to destress.
Sensing she needed a distraction, Aayan broached another topic, which he hoped would cheer her up, "Your mother is doing well with her therapy, she seems more relaxed.". Aayan heard a sigh of relief coming from the other end of the phone. After a few minutes of discussion about some mundane topics, they parted and promised to call each other up again. Echo reminded him to not save her number, she'd call him. He replied saying that she was listed as a Withheld Caller on their phones. Blushing at her forgetfulness, Echo said goodbye to Aayan, and sent wishes through him to Inaya.
Smirking suddenly Echo said, "By the way, if you are struggling with names, I hear Echo is an excellent option." Aayan laughed.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone