میرے محبوب میرے سنم
شکریہ، مہربانی، کرم
٭

Chapter 22 : Theek

Parked under the leafless tree, it's bony branches spread far apart in riveting sharp angles, the car's roof grazed a few knuckles of dried leaves. It's flaxen bark was a contrast to the night ebony shade of the cruiser, the narrowness of it too awkward against the width of the car's bonnet. It's height though intriguingly a fistful shorter than the bony tree's. The engine purred in a soft silence and the vibrations that stemmed out of it barely hummed against the flesh pressed up against the door. In a slumped defeat.

Man versus slumber.

The driver stood outside the car and watched ahead. His neck frozen with rods of iron — forbidden to turn his head around towards the windscreen of the car. Lest he catch sight of his owner and his wife share intimate moments. He gasped for breath in the outside world and his beard moved in a low grumble as he chewed on the butt of his cigarette. The woman had softened his owner's heart ; though he refused to acknowledge that much. It was a well known fact amongst the worker class in Naazimgarh. A fact that was becoming beloved to them.

The people before them had had an English princess to adore, and now they had someone with their own skin.

Inside the car that smelt of roses and spice from the bowl of gol gappe, roamed inside the cabin of the car. It's sterile clean scent of alcohol wipes had been far removed. Through the gently turned on stereo that played with a softness, was a song they adored. Trickling through the power speakers, the treble was non existent and the tweeters jazzed the air. Amongst their soft chews, Noor Jehan played an important solidifying role as she sung about a lover that had not come to the bridge.

Abandonment had in their own ways kissed the two. Darab with the untimely death of all those he cared for. Golnar with a mother who had despised her father —apparently not his wealth— leaving her. Lover was a person you adored and the two were lost in thoughts of their own. Too far engrossed to even make comments on the funny sight of their expensive car parked between the dingy motorbikes.

Golnar pushed the shell filled with the liquid inside her mouth. Chewing softly she felt it ooze inside her mouth, pressuring against her tastebuds, before the cool water slid down her throat. She hummed in delight, slowly borrowing the shell from Darab's plate, throwing him a soft eye as she took it into her mouth with gentleness. Offering him a cocky grin, raising the threaded bridge of her eyebrow, she challenged him. Licking the corner of her mouth to savour every remnant of flavour.

Darab wiped his hand on the corner of his kameez, the crispness of it explained to him the expensiveness of it. While it had been selected by Golnar with care, he had not cared enough to find out whatever 'amazingly nice thread count' meant. To him it was cotton that did it's job to clothe his figure lest he create a scandal in public with his preferred state of nudeness. Still feeling a light stickiness, he licked on to his fingers before dragging them against his shirt again. Delighted at the wonders it had done.

With his head tipped against the headrest, their driver done with his own plate and the bill paid, Darab turned to stare at Golnar. An increasingly becoming past time of his. A new habit his heart yearned to indulge in, though he knew in two days it would come to an end as they would return to Naazimgarh. Where a handful of undone business remained.

Golnar wiped her bony fingers with a wipe she had pulled out of her purse, it smelt of the lotion his mother used, and she gently rubbed it against the corner of her mouth. Missing a spot that his thumb rose to wipe. Passing her an awkward smile as the car rolled onwards — to her father's home in the city.

"Ustaad ji so jao, tusi kafi deir de uthay huway o." Darab spoke, dropping his voice a few decibels for sake of privacy.
[Miss professor you should sleep, you have been up for quite some time.]

"So jaun gi, aj mein bohat khush hun." She shrugged, staring down at her degree.
[I will sleep, today I am very happy.]

"Hona vi chaiye da. Ki keya si unhay? Vactorian. Meri voti 'versity di vactorian." He grinned, slamming his hand against the flesh of his thigh as he failed to hide his pride.
[As you should be. What did he say? Vactorian. My wife the 'versity's vactorian.]

"Darab vactorian nahi valedictorian, aur 'versity nahi university." She whispered.
[Darab it's not vactorian it's valedictorian, and not 'versity it's university.]

The light inside Darab's eye dimmed, his head nodded as he tilted his face away from hers. Outside the cars whizzed by and the motorcyclists sped on between the lanes, shifting with an unknown grace and power. The engines on the road all purred and a few roared as the owners raised pace, his finger pressed on to the button—the window rolling down and the smoke inside the air instantly hissed inside the car. Receiving the very escape it had searched for.

On the horizon, the colours melted into one big mess. The blue from the skies and the white from the clouds jumbled with the setting sun's purple and orange rays that kissed the grey roads. Shadows of loveliness and loneliness stretched along the vastness, peeking from behind the mountains that rose in the distance. Covered by the thicket of white clouds — a fairness alarmingly pale. Not like the peachy after glow of the woman's skin.

Sunlight dimmed as they arrived back home and the exterior of pure richness gained even more power with the last of sun's light. In the shades of grey, covered in a curtain from the homes that neighboured it, the richly spirit of the front lawn and finely made french doors were not hidden. Instead it stood out on the street with it's almost noble appearance. Something out of a style catalogue that had come out years ago. On the cusp of vintage. The insides matched the opulence of the outside — the owners and their holdings one and the same.

Darab took two steps at a time. The strength of his steps fit his personality and figure as he swallowed up the staircase. His hand dragged against the bannister and the roughness reminded him of his own self. Entering the softly lit bedroom, he ignored the soft mewls of his wife's pet, untying the laces of his shoes he had worn to impress her — though they had seemingly gone unnoticed. Raising his shalwar and legs on to the mattress he pressed himself into the headrest and stared at his feet. Rubbing his hands before himself, tucking them gently into his hands.

"Darab kia huwa?" Golnar inquired entering behind him, her hands softly closing the door.
[Darab what happened?]

Shaking his head he plucked the jug off of the side table, raising it into the air as it fell into his mouth. Quenching his thirst — settling the anger that swam inside his stomach at his own incapability. Taking the rings off of his fingers one at a time he smiled as the unrelenting kitten jumped on to his thigh, nuzzling into his abdomen. Darab stroked it's spotted grey fur, rubbing the crown of her head in loose circles.

Once upon a time he would not have been so kind.
Yet after the kindness shown to him, it would have been cruelty.
And he was trying — really was.

Yet the reminder of his shortcomings was always a painful reminder.

Opening his mouth, he sunk his teeth into his tongue. Looking at Golnar for a short second he stilled his heart, nodding before he spoke to the wall before him, "Dar-badad hon ala mein, nur to paray huway tusi, jor ta nai aye par khuda shukar ae."
[The homeless me, and the full of light you, we do not make a pair but I thank God.]

"Yeh baat eik dum sai kahan sai aagayi?" Golnar spoke, confused.
[Where did this come from all of a sudden?]

"Apni khami vekh kar admi aeho hi sochay ga na ustani ji." He chuckled with desolate hopelessness.
[After seeing his shortcomings a man will think this miss professor.]

"Aisay nahi kahein," Golnar spoke, rounding up to him she sat a few inches away, stroking Maum's fur with him, "ap nai pura Naazimgarh sambhala huwa hai."
[Do not speak like that, you have been handling the entirety of Naazimgarh.]

She rose her hand and brushed a thumb against his jawline, the scruff of his sharp beard stroked the flesh of her warm thumb and with a wave of grave confidence she rubbed it over his lower lip, sliding it up his nose and then soft cheekbones that barely ever stretched into anything more than a small smile. Pressing her forehead into his neck she slid a hand around his shoulder, pressing the flesh of her cheek against his chest she could hear the sharp beats of his heart. With intrigue she slid her palm over it, watching in deafening silence Darab's inaction.

Darab pressed the back of his hand on to her soft skin, stroking the back of her neck he massaged her shoulders before bringing them around to her front. With the tip of his index finger he brushed the tiny bells hanging off of her baalis, running the thumb of his other hand along the fine make of her glass bangles. Touching her bare flesh as his thumb slid into the tiny distances. Turning her palms over he slid his hand into his pockets, pressing a worn out leather palm into her hand he closed her fingers around it.

"Ustaad ji menu samajh nai aayi si tuanu gar'uation," he squeezed his eyes shut as he realised the word had come out wrong once more, "tuanu ki tohfa dawan. Ais liye mein chana aan tusi apay e kuj le lavo."
[Miss professor I could not understand your gar'uation, what to gift you. So I want you to buy yourself something.]

"Ap kuch bhi de detay mein le leti."
[You could have given me anything and I would have accepted.]

"Jinu mana ray honday aan na, asi uday naal apni marzi nai kar sakday."
[You can not have your own way, with the person your appeasing.]

Golnar nodded stiffly, raising his hand she pressed it against her lips in thankfulness.

"Shukriya."
[Thank you.]

"Tuada shukriya tusi menu eik hor mauqa dita ae Golnar. Sari zindagi ais mouqay nu halal karan di koshish karan ga."
[Thank you for giving me another chance Golnar. I will work my entire life to justify this chance.]

"Mujhe koi shaq nahi hai."
[I do not doubt it.]

⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️
Ab mein kia kahun. Pakistani cricket team ko nazar lag jati hai