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"It's dark out", the veiled man mumbled his words under his niqaab.
"I know", she whispered adjusting the pleats of his salwar. The Afghani cotton sitting pretty on his skin made her heart jump a bit. Even if he wasn't Jalal, he came close to the man at times. Times like tonight- if the light was dim enough and their bodies close to exhaustion, she could close her eyes and imagine Jalal standing in her embrace. She rested her head on his chest and looked up knowingly.
"There's a reason I call you out at dark", her playful fingers were dipping a little too low on his hips. A smile tugging on the corner of his lips, he let have her way; but not before satiating his burning curiosity.
"You still love him. You still long for him. And if Jodha gives him away in khairaat one day, you will be the first beggar at her door. You will plead with your arch nemesis for Jalal. Isn't that right?"
Her lips halted on top of his stubble. Her hot breathing stilled on his neck as contemplated the meaning of his words. Without wincing, she replied within the second, "I am not alone in the ill-fated endevour of love. If your unrequited pains for my eunuch say anything, you feel the same pain as me. Love, no matter for a man, woman, or neither, is the same love. And worse yet, the same hurt".
He had learned long ago that she didn't judge him for being different. How could she when she was known as the woman who willingly let her husband go...into the arms of another woman? Now she was the miserable first wife and he the one-sided lover both fated to be alone. But neither would accept their fate, not without a fight.
"Yes, I still love her", he said referring to Hoshiar as a woman. "and you him. But our loves left us long ago. Now it's just me keeping you warm at night".
As his long arms engulfed her frame snug and tight, she realized life was a little more worth living with a keeper around. The bloodstains of an old flame died underneath his new light. Maybe someday he would be good enough to fill the hole in her heart but for now, his strength covering the one in her bed was good enough.
Short piece on Rukaiya (complete). I sympathize with this woman a whole lot. Just wondering how she would deal with the loneliness once it truly dawns on her that Jalal is long gone. The Hoshiar aspect was something I thought of as I went along. Everyone needs love- all of us.
Anupamaa
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