Nila, the elder sister, kept glancing at the sun, measuring how much time had passed. She remembered the way their mother always greeted them with a warm smile, her arms open wide for an embrace that seemed to make all worries vanish. Niko, younger and more impatient, kept asking, “When will she be here? Do you think she’s bringing something for us?” His voice was a mix of excitement and longing.
They had spent the past few days with their grandmother, who took care of them with love and patience. But no matter how comforting Grandma’s stories or how tasty her cooking, there was a special warmth only their mother could give. The house felt incomplete without her laughter echoing in the rooms, without her gentle hands fixing Nila’s hair in the morning or tucking Niko into bed at night.
The wait was filled with little activities to pass the time. Nila helped Niko make small boats from banana leaves, and they floated them in a nearby stream. They played a game of counting how many birds flew past, but their attention always drifted back to the path. Each sound of footsteps in the distance made their hearts leap—only to realize it was a neighbor passing by or the wind carrying sounds from elsewhere.
Nila tried to reassure her little brother, telling him that Mother would surely come before the evening stars appeared. Niko’s eyes lit up at the thought of sitting under the night sky with their mother, listening to her stories about the places she had been.
As the sun began to set, the golden light painted everything in a warm glow. And then, at last, a familiar figure appeared in the distance. Nila’s heart skipped a beat, and Niko leapt to his feet, shouting, “She’s here! She’s here!” They ran down the path, their small feet kicking up dust, until they were wrapped in their mother’s arms.
In that moment, all the waiting, all the longing, melted away. Their mother’s presence was like the missing piece of their world finally falling into place. For Nila and Niko, home wasn’t just the place they lived—it was wherever their mother was.
