Ishq Kinara[Love Ashore] Complete

27. Ripple

For a normal twenty two year old, Zonish could say with conviction that there were many normals of a very normal life which weren't normal for her. Not going to the grand scheme of interacting with people and making them your pals, no, even mundane tasks like grocery shopping were also nor that mundane and everyday happening for her. And this, she realized standing right in the middle of the aisle while looking at the different brands and types of cooking oil. Yeah just cooking oil.

She wasn't that detached from the workings of everyday life, but grocery shopping had become another of those things she refrained from indulging in because it reminded her so much of a childhood no sign of which could be seen in her adult life.

Grocery shopping was her and her mother's thing so it was only fitting that she left that memory intact. After her mother's demise, Zonish never showed any interest in this very normal task. And no one forced her to do so anyway.

But she had never, not even in her wildest speculations, thought that her first visit in years to a store with the sole purpose of shopping household goods would be with one particular Hesham Baig. Talk about luck.

They had been visiting Musa's mother quite often and after the first two visits they had concluded even if they couldn't do much for the years of longing and emotional baggage the woman had been carrying on her frail old shoulders, they could at least do something about the sorry state of her living condition. It started with changing the faulty bulbs and tube lights in her small dingy house, followed by a thorough cleaning up of the place with the help of Rukhsana who was looking quite abashed that she hadn't paid attention to this mess before. But Hesham had assured her that she was doing way more than was expected out of her seeing she wasn't a blood relative of Maa Jee, just a neighbour who had been taking care of her for years after Musa's death. Then it was decided that stocking Maa Jee's house with groceries was also important. Maa Jee was still sitting in her corner of the room, for the most part oblivious to what was happening around her. But she was very well aware of the two kids who were visiting her every now and then and that was the most commotion her house had seen for years. It was a welcoming hustle and Maa Jee was more than happy with it. It wasn't difficult to make her happy though. Just sitting down with her talking about the few beautiful years she had spent with her son was all that was needed for her to beam with happiness. Mothers are always just so full of warmth even when you're not even there with them. The halo of love always reaches you no matter if you're six feet under or if they are no longer in your life. It's a bond for a lifetime.

Maa Jee didn't know but somewhere both these kids who had come into her life as angels were deprived of the same motherly love she was so full with. They both hadn't said it out loud in years, but deep down they both missed it, wondering what it must be to have that warm existence of just love and more of it.

Zonish sighed deeply and looked around. Hesham was with her just a moment ago but now he was nowhere to be seen. Picking up what seemed to her the best choice for cooking oil, Zonish put it in her cart and wheeled it around turning the corner in search of her partner, both in crime and debunking it as Hesham had so cheekily announced the other day. Zonish rolled her eyes remembering the mischievous glint in his eyes. God bless his future clients. This lawyer was way too cheery for this business.

She had spotted him at the end of the aisle, close to the snacks section. Her face morphed into a thin line because he wasn't alone. Apparently he was helping out a girl with his choice of snacks and she was laughing along at his pathetic ass jokes.

Zonish stood there with her arms folded on her chest. Her glasses were pretty low on the slope of her nose and the disdain on her face was giving her the look of a strict primary level teacher. Hesham concluded that with a wicked grin on his face.