Glory of the Midnight Sun √

Two

Try not to resist the changes which come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?

- Shams of Tabriz (13th Rule of Love)

Fariya

The scene in front of her robbed her of her breath. Her father was lying on the ground and everybody was encircled around him, everybody including her mother, brother and sister. She ran upto him and knelt beside him, tears making their way to her chin.

Her mind was so blank that she didn't know what to do, what to think. All she could see was her father lying on the floor, his hand on his heart and pain on his face. She started crying hard and calling him, as if calling him will ease his pain.

"Baba! Baba!"

As soon as the words were said, he looked up at her. Their eyes met and his single glance, a weak glace, conveyed so many messages to her. His glance asked her to be strong, to look after her mother and siblings when he is gone, to have faith. A single glance and it took her life away. A single glance and she no longer wanted to live. A single glance....

Her sister's voice brought her in the world and she hurriedly stood up. She rushed towards the phone and called for an ambulance. She won't give up. She won't. She will fight till her last breath. She will not let her father die. As soon as these thoughts entered her mind, courage made its was to her heart and was distributed to her every artery, her every vein, her every nerve.

She turned around and went to her father again, kneeling beside him, she took his hand in hers and statrted massaging it.

"Nothing is going to happen. I won't let anything happen to you. I won't. Please."

Fariya said with pain in her voice, never had she seen her father like that. So weak and vulnerable. She was still crying when her father started closing his eyes. Pain stood there while another feeling erupted and consumed her. Panick. She panicked and started shaking her father.

"Don't.. please.. don't close your eyes. Fo.. for our sake, Baba. Please."

She begged, she pleaded. Maida was on the other side of her father but unlike Fariya, she wasn't crying very hard. She was silently crying, holding her father's other hand and whispering something.

And it was then that she heard a sound, a distant sound of an ambulance. Although the sound was distant, Fariya still felt enery pass through her. The sound became louder and louder until it stopped just outside her house.

She wasn't in a good state so it was Maida who ran outside to call the men. It was only after a few seconds that several men came rushing inside, holding a stretcher in their hands. They ran to her father and asked Fariya to get out of the way. Fariya stood still, her mind not processing anything, her heart too fragile to beat.

She just looked at her father and while she was doing so, Maida made her stand up, quite roughly and pulled her back. She was so weak that she couldn't even resisit Maida however her insides were shouting to get away from Maida and be near her father, her Baba.

The men pulled her father on a stretcher and carried him outside, towards the ambulance. As soon as they stepped outside the house, Maida let go of her and ran outside. Fariya, who was too weak to stand on her own legs and was leaning against Maida, fell to the ground, her legs failing to support her.

As she was sitting on the cold floor, tears were continuously flowing from her eyes and making their way to her chin. It was not her hands which were shaking, it was her whole body which was trembling like a leaf. Tears were not only falling from her eyes, it was her heart which was crying like a child.