My biggest issue is the sentence rhythm. Some paragraphs are composed only of long, winding sentences, while most paragraphs contain only short, choppy sentences. There needs to be a bit more variation for it to flow. Another typo (I do it a lot so it sticks out when I see other people do it): Walking to the corner grocery store, Ahraf was struck by how quite the street was. Walking to the corner grocery store, Ahraf was struck by how quiet the street was. Good story idea, and it looks like you'll have an interesting, coherent set of vingettes or short stories. I think a little re-writing for sentence flow would really tighten this up. Cheers!