May June 2020
The following response has been written by Syeda and corrected by
Ridwan Abrar where deemed necessary.
Section A
Anna hesitated, wondering if she had made the right decision of
cutting all communication with her parents. But why wouldn’t she? Her
parents had betrayed her feelings and left her hopeless. They didn’t
care for her happiness but for their company Woods & Co, which was
on the verge of bankruptcy. But wait. Why did Anna have to get
involved with this? She was never allowed to poke her nose in business
affairs unless she became well educated and only after she graduated
from her college.
Anna moved into a new apartment with her best friend Cara. This
wasn’t entirely her wish; her own apartment was just twenty minutes
away. However her parents wanted her to start living on her own so
she can start to live life independently under the care of her “motherly”
best friend Cara. Cara was strict when needed, but also treated her
affectionately enough which was almost impossible for her busy
parents. As a result, Anna felt quite well to be distant from them.
Anna woke up quite late the following morning after moving in with
her friend. Her classes started from midday, so she got ample time to
sleep in the morning. She felt like God should wake her up in the
morning, no alarms needed. She made her bed and then strolled into
the bathroom to freshen up. Stripping down and twisting the faucets,
she let the water to rain down upon her. It was the time when she
could be at peace, alone with her thoughts with the soothing
Prepared by Ridwan Abrar
, background music of the pitter-patter sound. This always calmed her
down. At least she didn’t have to listen to her parents arguing over
practical things: the recent stock market crash, horrible employees,
nasty clients or even petty things like the broken coffee machine in the
office pantry. Anna always viewed this as a sort of foolishness and
thought that they should have spent time with their daughter. “Why
bring up such things about office when you are at home?” she always
wondered.
It was one early morning that Anna woke up from her slumber due to
forty five missed calls and voice messages all coming from her Dad and
Mom. If her parents had spent their precious time trying to call her, it
meant that all hell had broken loose.
She bolted out from her bed and headed straight to the washroom.
After taking a quick shower, she slipped into a tank top and some
shorts. She then immediately ran towards the kitchen to eat something
decent and listened to some of the voice messages:
“There’s something we need to tell you”
“Come to the office quickly, Please hurry”
She couldn’t stop herself from having a sickening feeling in her
stomach. On top of that Cara decided to blurt out “Please don’t go, I am
having a bad feeling”. Meanwhile, she stuffed a creamy donut into her
mouth before fleeing her house.
When Anna reached the office, she was given a card to scan on the
elevator which took her to the 38th floor. She walked through the
hallway until she spotted her Mom. SHe was a mess, her hair falling
over face; her once beautiful chestnut eyes had dark circles
underneath them. Her Dad looked paler than the last time she saw him,
and thinner too. As Anna approached her Dad, she noticed that his had
Prepared by Ridwan Abrar
The following response has been written by Syeda and corrected by
Ridwan Abrar where deemed necessary.
Section A
Anna hesitated, wondering if she had made the right decision of
cutting all communication with her parents. But why wouldn’t she? Her
parents had betrayed her feelings and left her hopeless. They didn’t
care for her happiness but for their company Woods & Co, which was
on the verge of bankruptcy. But wait. Why did Anna have to get
involved with this? She was never allowed to poke her nose in business
affairs unless she became well educated and only after she graduated
from her college.
Anna moved into a new apartment with her best friend Cara. This
wasn’t entirely her wish; her own apartment was just twenty minutes
away. However her parents wanted her to start living on her own so
she can start to live life independently under the care of her “motherly”
best friend Cara. Cara was strict when needed, but also treated her
affectionately enough which was almost impossible for her busy
parents. As a result, Anna felt quite well to be distant from them.
Anna woke up quite late the following morning after moving in with
her friend. Her classes started from midday, so she got ample time to
sleep in the morning. She felt like God should wake her up in the
morning, no alarms needed. She made her bed and then strolled into
the bathroom to freshen up. Stripping down and twisting the faucets,
she let the water to rain down upon her. It was the time when she
could be at peace, alone with her thoughts with the soothing
Prepared by Ridwan Abrar
, background music of the pitter-patter sound. This always calmed her
down. At least she didn’t have to listen to her parents arguing over
practical things: the recent stock market crash, horrible employees,
nasty clients or even petty things like the broken coffee machine in the
office pantry. Anna always viewed this as a sort of foolishness and
thought that they should have spent time with their daughter. “Why
bring up such things about office when you are at home?” she always
wondered.
It was one early morning that Anna woke up from her slumber due to
forty five missed calls and voice messages all coming from her Dad and
Mom. If her parents had spent their precious time trying to call her, it
meant that all hell had broken loose.
She bolted out from her bed and headed straight to the washroom.
After taking a quick shower, she slipped into a tank top and some
shorts. She then immediately ran towards the kitchen to eat something
decent and listened to some of the voice messages:
“There’s something we need to tell you”
“Come to the office quickly, Please hurry”
She couldn’t stop herself from having a sickening feeling in her
stomach. On top of that Cara decided to blurt out “Please don’t go, I am
having a bad feeling”. Meanwhile, she stuffed a creamy donut into her
mouth before fleeing her house.
When Anna reached the office, she was given a card to scan on the
elevator which took her to the 38th floor. She walked through the
hallway until she spotted her Mom. SHe was a mess, her hair falling
over face; her once beautiful chestnut eyes had dark circles
underneath them. Her Dad looked paler than the last time she saw him,
and thinner too. As Anna approached her Dad, she noticed that his had
Prepared by Ridwan Abrar
