Asad dragged his tired body to the front door, his fingers impatiently searching for his house keys in his pocket. As he slipped the key into the keyhole and opened the door, he prayed that he did not wake anyone up. He was exhausted. The last couple of weeks had been draining both emotionally and physically: between getting ready for Tamatar's sagai with all the preparations and guests and consequences it entailed to trying to manage a new housing deal. As he closed the door behind him, he prayed he did not run into anyone awake. He was too exhausted to make polite chitchat with the gazillion guests who seemed to have taken up residence in his once-upon-a-time quiet and peaceful house. All he wanted now was a cold shower and his bed.
He was halfway to the staircase when he saw her. The moonlight streaming through the hall windows was softly illuminating her sleeping figure. She was lying on the sofa, turned on her right side, with her right arm tucked under her head while her left was curved protectively around her slightly rounded belly. Her open raven-coloured hair contrasting with the pristine white shalwar kameez that she was wearing. She was breathtaking. And Asad felt himself being pulled towards her, his tiredness and his bed all but forgotten. It was as if she had wound some imaginary rope around him.
He squatted down next to the sofa and looked upon her smiling face. As he looked on, he felt as if someone had poured a warm liquid down his spine, he couldn't help but smile back in response. Motherhood seemed to suit her well. She was radiating, even more so than usual, and nothing it seemed could turn it off or damper it, not even sleep. But the next moment, his smile disappeared as he felt his heart constrict with longing. Shaking his head, Asad turned back to the sleeping figure.
'But what is this woman doing down here at this hour of the night. She should be in bed.'
And that's when Asad noticed that the moonlight was not the only source of light in the hall; the other was the muted TV.
'She must have come down to watch TV.'
And then his eyes fell on the mess that lay next to the sofa: cups of milk and whatnot and bags of chips and biscuits littered the floor.
'And apparently a midnight snack. Miss, when will you change?' Shaking his head slightly, Asad picked up the mess as quietly as he could and headed towards the kitchen.
As he was returning back to the hall, Asad heard the faint shuffling of feet coming from the staircase. Asad stopped and slipped back into the shadows of the kitchen and he watched. He watched as the shadow materialised into human flesh, in fact a man wearing a white t-shirt and dark brown pajamas.
He watched as the man looked around his surroundings uncertainly, and then stopped as the same sight that had taken Asad's breath away a couple of minutes ago met his eyes. And just as Asad had done, the man slowly approached the sleeping figure and crouched next to her and simply stared at her. Asad could no longer see the man's face but he could very much imagine what he would have seen if he could: love, happiness and wonder; Probably the same emotions that Asad had betrayed to the night a couple of minutes ago. And yet, while Asad's had been laced with longing, he knew there would be no such thing on that man's face.
Asad watched still as the man lovingly caressed the woman's face, removing any strand of her silken black hair that covered it. He watched as the man turned off the tv. And gently lifted the woman in his arms. He heard him laugh as the woman mumbled in her sleep:
"Allah miyah, what's wrong with you. Let me sleep for a little while more."
"Shhh… sleep meri jaan (sleep my love). I'm simply taking you to our bedroom. Sleep."
Asad watched from the shadows as the man carried his woman, his wife, his Mrs. Zoya Farroqui Mirza to the guest bedroom in which they were staying in Asad Ahmed Khans' house while attending his little sister's wedding celebrations.
As he heard their door close, Asad stepped out of the shadows. A hollow laugh escaped his lips. For a moment there, he had forgotten himself. It must be because he was exhausted. And as Asad dragged his feet to the staircase, forcing his thoughts once again on a cold shower and his bed, he cast a last look at the sofa where just a couple of minutes ago, he had been granted a glimpse of a life that he had foolishly let slip from from fingers.
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So yah... I really don't know where this came from but after today's episode i was kind of in the mood for angst. Oh who am I kidding, i'm always in the mood for some angst. Anyways, let me know what you guys think. Was it good? bad? horrible?
Kumkum Bhagya
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