Somewhere in 2012
Baig House
The lawn chairs were occupied that particular spring evening. The mild air of Karachi was in between humid and dry, a combination which is perfect to lounge outdoors and have conversations that just flow without much logical basis behind them. Something of that sort was going on there. The laughs of the three best friends were telling of it.
Hesham was doubling over with laughter, Sarim was shaking his head but he was equally amused, and Izaan had a grin set on his face. Hesham had just narrated another hilarious happening of his class, his added details were making the whole thing funnier than it already was.
"Long story short, love is brutal."
He commented, his laugh was just a stretch of his lips now. He had sobered up and was now focusing on the packet of crisps in his hand. Sarim made himself some more comfortable in his seat and nodded.
"But the way your classmates go about it, it looks brutally comical."
"They are a bunch of dumbasses and our laughter stock anyway."
Izaan took his phone from the table to check the time, which earned him a scowl from Hesham. Izaan Shoaib and the never ending curfew he had to follow, not imposed by his family, but by his studies. He had to reach home before his night reading hours rolled in. This was a habit both of his best friends were aware of and had never objected to. They just demanded him to not think about his medical books when he was with them. He tried his best not to. He was successful for the most part.
"It's easy to laugh at others' failure at the tries and cries of romance. I wonder what we will do when it happens to us."
Trust Hesham to always bring up something thought provoking after he had given them the right quota to laugh on. Sarim looked at him with a thoughtful expression on his face while Izaan shrugged.
"You tell us. Let's get your views on it first."
Hesham was thinking. He never had to do that when it came to the notion of having someone in his life. These days he was seriously considering asking Safwa out because his notion of love was easy. Something not very complicated and with someone he was comfortable with. Safwa was his childhood friend and both knew each other like the back of their hands.
"I think I can't do complicated. That's not for me."
"Emotions are supposed to be complicated."
Izaan put in.
"Easy is good but when you are in deep, things can't always go according to a plan or on a set trajectory. Bumps and twists are bound to be there so even though you'd like it this way, it can't always be easy and familiar."
Always the one with sense.
"What about you?"
Hesham asked. No one could say that just a few minutes back the three of them were laughing about something bizarre which wasn't that funny as well but they didn't need to see the reason why they couldn't laugh at it.
"I'm not opposed to the idea but it's not something I'm looking forward to either."
"Why not?"
"I don't have time first and foremost."
"You take time out for us."
"Don't make it sound like this. I will start ignoring you both."
"Ha. You will D I E without us."
"Seeing the number of times you threw open a tissue or two of yours and he had to patch you up, the opposite has more chances of happening."
"You are one lousy asshole, Sarim Haider. Don't wish ill for your handsome and people pulling magnet of a friend. I'm the face value of our trio."
"You are also the reason why we are saving face most of the time."
Izaan rolled his eyes. These two and their annoying ability of starting a meaningless banter with their whole chest as if it's the most intellectual debate going on.
"Sarim, why don't you tell us what your idea of love is?"
Izaan tried bringing them back to the topic.
"Might as well tell us to shut our trap."
Hesham was offended.
"Shut your trap then."
Izaan was unfazed and very precise. Sarim clapped Hesham on the back and picked up his packet of crisps. Hesham was double offended now.
"I can't fall in love. Not right now. There's a long way to go for me. Have to get independent fully, build a career, get out of my father's dictatorship and stabilize myself first. Then only I can think about anything remotely romantic."
"Just say you are going to go for an arranged marriage when you will be in your early thirties, practically an uncle with a knob very prominent."
Hesham pointed towards Sarim's stomach. He was fit, owing to the fact that he was a regular jogger but Hesham was mostly taking his frustration out on him because Sarim still had his packet of crisps in his hand and had no plans of returning it anytime soon.
"Maybe. It's life and it's unpredictable."
They were silent for a while.
"Damn, it means all three of us have no grand notions of love and romance. Such a shame seeing we are such catches."
"Can you tone down your self confidence? Some of us like to be humble."
"Not my fault that you don't have confidence in your own face, Izaan Shoaib."
"Yours is enough to fill up for both of us."
Sarim smirked and Hesham was ready to bombard him with another string of comebacks now. Izaan was already cursing the fact that he'd have to sit through another baseless debate. Just his luck.
It was a regular spring evening.
*
Present
Driving with one hand on the steering and the other enclosed around a much smaller and colder one, Sarim kept his focus on the road ahead. The last of the winter was fading away and spring was right there peeking through the seams. It was almost Ten at night and Sarim wanted to get home as soon as possible. He was fine, but the person whose hand he was holding right now needed the rest more than anyone at the moment.
"I'm fine. You are worrying unnecessarily."
Elaf assured him and he nodded as well, but his hold on her hand hadn't loosened. She didn't try to pry it away. They were just around their block.
It was a long week.
Sarim glanced at her side profile momentarily. She was calm and now very much relieved. Not that she had lost her composure at all during the whole week when things weren't looking too bright but he could tell that right now she was finally at peace.
Daud had another angina attack the previous week. Yusra had called Elaf in the middle of the night and both Sarim and Elaf rushed to their place and from there on it was a continuous juggle between Cardiology emergency, tests and lab reports, ECGs and medications. It was a close call but Daud had dodged another heart attack narrowly.
He was fine now and at home. Elaf had stayed at her parents' place for the whole week and Sarim was also there after his office hours. The family had helped each other out with everything. Farwa, Irma and Nauman were helpful in every aspect.
The difficult part was over.
But Sarim wasn't still over the way he had seen the woman sitting next to him dealing with everything.
Since the call had come from Yusra in the dead of the night, Elaf was on her toes but never for once did she even crumble. She knew on her fingertips how to go about the whole procedure, as if she had been through this many times before. It was a drill she was so familiar with.
During their stay at the hospital, she was handling those matters impeccably which Sarim tried getting done for her. Sarim had been there when Daud had had his first arrival of the heart disease he was now living with and Sarim knew how torn and broken Elaf was then. She was literally in pieces when Sarim had found her in the hospital corridor and hugged her. That was many years back but it left a mark on Sarim's memory.
But this Elaf, she had no semblance of the girl from the hospital corridor. She was so in control, so practical about this whole ordeal.
And it hurt Sarim. Seeing her strong hurt him for the first time.
It spoke of how she had managed through her father's permanent illness all on her own. The precise learned practicality of hers and the way she wouldn't faze even for a second told him this was nothing new for her.
But even in those moments when she was so collected, whenever he extended his hand towards her, she took it eagerly.
She had endured through so much all alone. Just because she never asked for a hand to hold hers then, didn't mean she didn't need one.
How utterly lonely she must be all those years. Surviving through every curveball life threw her way and life threw quite a lot. Sarim didn't need her to verbally tell him that. He could sense it.
They were inside their home now. Sarim switched on the lights and both wordlessly freshened up. Elaf changed into her comfy clothes, which were her baggy trousers and his hoodie. And when they lay down on the bed, she had rolled to his side, hugging him.
Sarim caressed her hair. She had her eyes wide open and was drawing circles on his arm that was around her.
"It wasn't so bad this time."
She whispered. Sarim looked at her and she gave him a small smile.
"I'm used to the worst. It was the first time Baba got sick after we moved back to Karachi. I see the difference. There it wasn't this easy. I had to stand in long queues to get entry tokens for checkups and in ER sometimes had to plead to the doctor on duty to examine Baba. Going to the pharmacy in the middle of the night was another story. Big city does make a difference."
She was talking very slowly.
"But I think it has more to do with the fact that this time around I have people with me."
"You are never doing this alone again. This is something I'm very certain about."
He held her hand in his. Her fingers were small, his were long, and somehow when he intertwined those together, the difference was the beauty of it. He pulled her even closer and dropped a chaste kiss on the top of her head. Elaf melted into him. She closed her eyes. She wouldn't ever be able to verbalize it that his presence and the mere thought that he was with her through this all was something that kept her together. That in the corridors of the hospital, how his shoulder where she could rest her head was as comforting now as it was back then when he had held her year back in a similar setting.
Sarim had a plan. Since the beginning. He had goals to achieve and a life to make. But Elaf had come into his life as a plot twist and through her he realized that plans sometimes needed to be kept at bay. Life is unpredictable and how it snatched both of them from each other was proof enough. They were still making up for the time lost and they'd keep on doing it for a long time. Together and hand in hand.
He pulled the duvet on both of them. Elaf had already slept. Her head was on his arm and hand was enclosed with his. Just like it was supposed to be. Always supposed to be.
*
The opened window to the room was letting the soothing early Spring air inside. Whispers of bloom, smiles of a promised beginning. But Izaan wasn't attuned to the romanticism of it all. The grand notion of looking through the details of life and finding beauty in it. It was more of his wife's area of expertise because between the two of them, she was the reader and he was mostly a keen listener. Right then he was playing the same role. She was talking and he was just listening.
She had lots to tell him. He was away for two days because of a seminar. Two days aren't long, especially when nothing monumental had happened during those, but Safwa had stories she was narrating to him. She was beaming. Izaan would've attributed it to the pregnancy glow but she always glowed. It was just an added detail.
There comes a point in a couple's life where they steer away from their usual. It is usually said to be the pregnancy period. But for Izaan and Safwa, this had also come with the same ease which was a part of their love story. They fit into this routine so easily, so beautifully. Safwa was ever loving, Izaan was ever understanding and that made this experience the most beautiful reality of their lives.
"You aren't getting tired listening to me?"
She asked, as he held her from her side and settled her more comfortably in his lap. Her back was to him and his head was resting on her shoulder. It was his own sanctuary. His whole world in his arms, both literally and physically.
"Never."
He whispered and Safwa giggled the way his voice sounded in her ear.
"Good. Because I have another incident to report."
"I'm all ears."
And he was. Her talks were his favourite music.
At one point in his life, Izaan Shoaib didn't think falling in love was suitable for him. But that was before Safwa Kirmani walked through all his barriers and made a place for herself. She changed his perception. His reservations. His inhibitions.
Love was worth everything.
Because love was her.
*
The couch in the living room had always been Zonish and Hesham's safe haven. They had countless memories attached to it of their married life. And Hesham wanted to make lots more. They had a long way to go. An eternity of their own.
But Hesham didn't prepare himself for seeing what he was now seeing almost everyday.
Which was, his wife sharing their place with someone else.
"You love tummy rubs, don't you, you big tantrum throwing fur-ball."
Zonish cooed. Hesham wanted to gag.
Zonish was a cat person, he knew this fact for a long time. Taimoor was allergic to pets of any kind and this was the reason she couldn't keep one at her father's place. But Hesham had no such limitation to him so, one fine day, Zonish came home with a cute cat with the attitude of a queen right in her arms.
And since then Hesham was feeling he was an outsider in his own home.
Well, yeah he was being dramatic but he was being sidelined. He had a right to show how this was unfair.
"That's gross."
Hesham muttered. Zonish looked up from a sleeping Shay in her lap. Yeah, the cat was named Shay. Even her name suggested she was a badass. She was breaking Hesham's house apart so he was very much in favour of this vibe she gave off.
"Are you by any chance jealous?"
"Of a cat? Don't be ridiculous."
"Her name is Shay."
"I'm aware. That's all you can say these days. Even our neighbors know what her name is."
"We don't have any neighbors. The apartment next to ours is vacant for months now."
"Not for long. I'm shifting there if the unfair treatment keeps on going."
"What unfair treatment? Oh! You are so jealous!"
"And if I'm?"
Zonish was exasperated. He was so shameless to even admit it. He was jealous of a cat? Give her a break.
"You are one unique piece, Hesham."
"So are you. You are shit at handling kids but look at you being the best cat mom. Your priorities make me question all my life choices."
"Shut it. I can handle everything. I'm handling you quite fine."
"I wouldn't be too confident if I were you. Handling? We haven't even sat together since you brought home this cranky-pants!"
"She's a bit moody. Don't be mean to her."
She raised Shay up and looked expectantly at Hesham.
"See, can you say no to this face?"
Shay was eyeing Hesham and then she meowed in her cute cat voice. Zonish almost melted. Hesham did too. She was cute. But he wasn't going to tell this to Zonish.
"Yeah, whatever."
He got up but with a smile on his face. Zonish watched him go and then shook her head.
Everyday Hesham Baig was left to wonder how unpredictable his wife was. She never showed any desire of having a pet but once she got her eye on one, she immediately brought the cat home.
His idea of love was once familiarity. Something he knew beforehand. But Zonish was nothing he had seen coming when she flipped him off in the parking lot of IST all those years back. And since then she was giving him something new on every given chance to work through.
He liked it this way though. He liked it a lot.
Scratch that, he loved it.
*
It was the all too familiar lawn of Baig House. The same way the chairs and table were set, only their number had increased because right there, lounging in the evening of a beautiful Spring day, weren't just the three friends.
Safwa and Elaf were busily discussing some best friends' matters. Zonish was sitting close by listening to them and occasionally giving her input. Shay was in Elaf's lap and she was caressing her soft fur. Sarim, Izaan and Hesham were also seated there right with the ladies lost in their own banter.
The scene in the lawn of Baig House had changed over the years. So had the definition of love for the three best friends. They knew better now.
And what they had gotten was the best.
*