Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

ASPENWOOD


Aspenwood Airport is like any other small city airport in the North East.

She had searched feverishly for weeks on the net for which would be the best place to strike.

That morning in April as she entered the airport premises nobody around her knew ,that this petite friendly looking girl had explosives tied around herself under her jacket. Still taking no chances she avoided looking at anyone. But one lady was able to engage her. Where are you from? What are you doing? She told her that she was from Kabul (gasp!), was studying in the US. What she did not tell her was that her parents and a younger sister were killed in a drone attack in their village.

She managed to enter the main hall. Her right hand gripping the trigger. As she tried to avoid looking at those around her, she found him sitting on a chair reading a newspaper. Father John!

It all came back to her! Her school in the village. How he once carried her father to the nearest hospital after an accident in the fields. Father John, because of whose guidance and devotion she was able to get her scholarship.

There he was. One of the odd hundred people she was about to blow up along with herself.

Finally it was all over. She had decided. Slowly she walked towards him. But she had to do it. She just had to.

"Father John?"
He looked up.
"Sakinah?"
She could not take it any more.
She hugged him. Hugged him tight while he sat on the chair.
And six years of sorrow, suffering,and bitterness poured from her eyes.