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A Midsummer Weekend by Malikadoc

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Sometimes you can never truly know a person, even after a lifetime.

Sometimes you only need a weekend.

A summer weekend in the mountains, in the northern part of Pakistan, with family and friends...and a lover unknown.

Farah Asad was 18, Kamran Tanvir was 24. One a new college student, doe eyed and enthusiastic, the other jaded from years of studying. Neither knew the other existed till the night before their two families were to leave for the mountains of Naran and Kaghan. Their only connection, a distant uncle, whose tales of the rolling green hills and blue mountain tops had convinced the elders of the Asad and Tanvir families to join him on his annual summer trip to the magical lands that existed, a day's drive from Islamabad.

"Oh my God Kamran!", Marium Asad exclaimed, "You are so grown up. The last time I saw you was in Karachi, and you spilled juice all over my wedding dress"

"Ah yes, Marium Api. I've heard that tale. I apologize again for my clumsiness at 3 years of age", Kamran said as he stood at his family home's front door.

His long forgotten second cousin's cousin from another city laughed and stepped aside.

"Have you met my daughter?", she pointed to a young woman standing behind her, "This is Farah"

It was dark outside, but that daughter's shy smile and lowered gaze, lit up something inside Kamran. It was like watching a fairy, from the tales his uncle told. Or perhaps she was a delicate butterfly, an alluring sight to be seen, but only from afar.

"No...we haven't met", he stood bewitched, ignoring the fireflies light-up their bodies on that warm night, as if they were in-sync with him.

"Well, I finally convinced her to leave the college textbooks and join us on a vacation", her mother smiled.

"What do you study?", Kamran asked Farah, wondering if her voice would be as melodic as he imagined it to be.

"Medicine", she replied, with her smile widening and her eyes sparkling, even as they looked away from him.

Her mother shook her head, "She thinks she is going to save the world"

Farah's eyes dimmed, but that was before she felt Kamran's warm gaze on her, and heard his voice, husky like a man in front of his lover, but heartfelt like she meant the world to him.

"I think she will...", he smiled at her, catching her by surprise.

And she finally looked up at him, taking in his 6 ft tall frame, his round rimmed glasses, his chocolate brown eyes, his full lips, and then the way he caught his breath when their eyes met.

That conversation ended, as others started to arrive.

The next morning the two drove separately, in their own family's vehicles. But the sparks from the night before were still burning when the caravan of cars reached their mountain top destination.

"Let me help you with that", Kamran reached out and grabbed the bag Farah was struggling with, desperate to carry on the 9-word conversation with the woman who he couldn't seem to get enough of.

"Thank you", there was that shy smile of hers again.

His heart fluttered, her cheeks blushed, their souls enraptured with each other. In that crisp mountain air, in front of a historic inn that others were wowed with, these two were all alone. Experiencing something that few were lucky to do.

He spoke first, there was so much he wanted to know, and there was so little time.

"So, your mother doesn't seem to be too excited about you doing medicine?"

"She thinks no one will want to marry me, if I spend my life serving others", Farah blurted out, because nervous Farah was the most honest Farah.

He nodded and chuckled, "Congratulations! You have a Pakistani mom"

She laughed, and he wondered why poets wrote about the birds singing in the lush green trees, and the views of the mountain valleys, when this woman's laughter surpassed the heavenliness of all that surrounded him.

"Are you two coming in?", a voice called out.

"Yes", Farah replied quickly.

She was not the kind of woman to stand with a man she had never met before, talking about a subject she had no control over: her marriage.

But he was the kind of man who wasn't willing to let go of something so easily. Especially, something like the emotions he felt, and the future he saw.

That weekend Kamran and Farah along with their families hiked the mountains, on paths worn out by those that treaded the grass and the glaciers before them. The others searched for the spectacular beauty of hidden lakes, heard the local folklore from old, wise men, and tasted kebabs so tender they melted in the mouth.

She, however, wouldn't remember any of that. Instead, she would remember how he gave her his roti (bread) when the last of it was eaten at the table. And how he tried to climb up a slippery slope to help her when she got stuck, only to get stuck himself.

He would remember how she snuck a packet of cookies and a carton of milk to the local children who looked on at the rich tourists, eating at expensive restaurants, in a place they themselves called home but couldn't afford its luxuries. And the respect she showed the elders around her, even when they looked down upon her ambitions.

The weekend ended, and they went back to where they came from. But that epoch in their lives, an unplanned weekend in the middle of summer, was enough for their hearts and minds to become entangled.

It was enough for Kamran to tell his mother, five years later, when Farah finished her medical college, "Mama, could you let Farah's parents know, that I want to marry her, even if she spends the rest of her life serving others"