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Chapter 25
ELZA
Scheduling 9 a.m. alarm time on my phone, I flip on his side to curl myself out of chills. He is one good of a husband and a father to be. Despite fatigue, he remains vigilant almost whole night to keep an intact hold around me so that I may not end sleeping on my stomach or in any position which may harm the baby or it's direction inside my womb.
Sniffing his special woody and animalic jasmin cologne, I begin to drift into a deep slumber, smiling about our moments. He kissed me... there. He... Wallah! He really did that. I hope we have not committed anything wrong or... a sin?
It was such a sweet gesture from his side. I might would take time in reciprocation or maybe never compose myself to carry out this act.
His love, his passion and tenderness has set me at a highly crowned place, designating me a real Queen of my King's heart.
"Bohat, Bohat Mohabbat karta Hoon Tum se."
His confession repeats in my mind, and a gleeful blush clambers my skin, especially the cheeks, mounds and down where he has kissed. Not that, it was the first time he confessed. The truth is his exceptionally pure love brings blithe to my whole existence.
My mouth naturally parts, as my defense system is currently unable to regulate the sentimental storm feeling the neck bite under my fingertips. I am sure it won't go for months. He has been an animal tonight.
How opposite is my present condition from the one assumed by the people? My own mother and elder sister was used to point my high held head as a barrier for me being accepted by any family or loved by husband.
"Ya Allah, please give me a healthy and beautiful baby because it will be a gift to my husband." I pray for a fine fettle piece because gifts should be perfect while drifting into a sleep, nuzzling more into his fragrant pillow.
The ring tone startles my half sleep. The next instant, I am intrigue of the call. Hope so Baba is okay. Rousing up my siesta head, I instantly pick the call from the unknown number, feeling my heart thudding faster in apprehension.
It can be a wrong-number too.
"Hello, Mrs. Haroon?" The sickness kicks in when I am addressed in formal yet cryptic tone at the quarter to four of morning.
"Y... Yes?" I answer, groggily, removing the hair curl from mouth.
"Elza..." Now, I am dreaming Airab's call of my name.
"Your husband has met an accident. He is being taken to the CMH. Very critical and perilous condition." The man on the other side keeps on with his informing duty. But he has no idea that his so called duty has crushed my peace, my happiness. Not only the cognition but also my vocal cords are jammed.
"Ma'am there?" The man calls out to get some reply.
Airab is hurt.
I merely hmm taking larger intakes of oxygen as shock is bombarded onto my nerves. My lips are desiccated with the chills inside and outside.
My Airab. My...
Oh my God...
Keeping a hand on my lunatic heart, I swiftly wear frock with my already worn night trousers. I do not have time or sanity to consider my dressing.
He has been taken to CMH. Baba is also there. He will be devastated seeing his most beloved son in such condition.
After asking the guard to inform Sahil Bhai of Airab's acc... accident, I step onto the stair in rush but guess the staff here is so sincere. "Ma'am, elevator, please." The guard requests me, understanding that my reasoning is on doze.
I nod, drown in my own grief, and take the elevator to reach the parking lot.
Before my car could even start, I spot Sahil Bhai in his sleepy state; messy hairs, crumpled trousers but smoothed t-shirt.
He notions me to stop and wait for him. Was not he sleeping?
"Elza... What? Is this true?" I simply blink and my heart shallows more as I imagine my husband suffering from dreadful pain. It has not been a long tenure since our accident and now this... "I am coming, too."
When he opens the backseat door to get in, the guard comes running behind him., carrying his hoodie. Taking his hoodie, he thanks him while quickly settling inside.
Please, be quick! I want to reach to my Airab.
I gesture the same guard. "Yes, ma'am?"
"Keep the house under surveillance and must inform my parents."
"Don't worry about that, ma'am. We surely will."
The car ride begins and I stare accusingly at the driver after three minutes of drive on road.
"Are you on stroll order?" I cannot bite back the iciness and shout at the driver to speed up and make me reach there in hospital in least possible time. But who would listen to me when they are strictly warned by my husband about the speed when his pregnant wife is inside the vehicle. 'Wow'
"Increase it up, please." Understanding my condition, Sahil Bhai asks the driver to drive a car not cart.
My phone rings indicating the call from Rabiha.
"Ezu... Bhai..." She is wailing, dreadfully. "Ezu, Nazar lag gai hamare ghar ko." Her mourn tells me that her self-control is lost, drowning my heart some more in fear. She must have seen the blood-drenched Airab.
"Give me the phone." Shaina asks from her.
"Elza, don't panic, Okay? Take it easy." She tries to placate her pregnant sister in law before breaking the news to me. Alas, I already know. I cut the call without a word.
No one can understand what I am going through. There is my husband, my protector, fighting for his life. How can I be okay???
The shock's assault has my tears under control along ensuing the agonizing heart contractions and out setting the biting pain in my lower back. It's becoming hell arduous for me to not go with the breathing.
"Thankfully, I was up." Sahil Bhai sighs at his speedy fellowship.
I do not account back. What should I reply to him or to anyone?
***
There was no time to look out for my unruly hair. All I had and still have in my mind is to rush to my husband.
Only a maroon shawl is draped loosely around me, keeping me warm. Yes, he gifted it to me a week earlier while making attempts to handle my fake mood swing. I was loving his efforts to make me calm and happy.
Please Airab, don't you dare leave me. I will not irritate you anymore.
Seeing a perplexed woman who probably has her most precious accessory here, in hospital, the receptionists calls out for me.
"Yes, ma'am, what is your patient's name?" The voice is sober but not too much non-professional. I turn towards and recognizing me, she parrots out, "Floor 2, left side, OP." The grief expressions of her vivid me of my spouse's critical situation.
I nod and take strong steps to reach my husband.
The lobby, elevator, corridor, turn point... Despite my ambition to keep the gift safe for my husband, I was about to fall four times till reaching outside the Operation Theatre. Thankfully, Sahil Bhai was with me all the while.
Biyah rushes to seize my lost being in a protective hug. She is crying buckets.
"Ezu..." Her sore, red eyes are raining the tears on her already sodden cheeks depicting her true self.
"He has to be okay, Biyah. Abhi tou Itni Mohabbat se Baat Kar k Aaye Thay..." I somehow speak after ages knowing my heart will burst out otherwise. The emotional stab is so harsh.
People say right, this love ruins you completely. The other person swaps your authority from your own organs.
"How bad?" I ask with a stern face, telling them I need truth.
"Come here." Mom opens her arms for me, and I hug her.
"I now realize your condition, mama. Rightly said, we realize only when we feel. Yes, I was upset about Baba. But Airab..."
"I understand." She nods in confirmation. "For wives, their husbands are precious... more than anything. And if the husbands are as good as yours and mine, then these emotions get intensified." She vindicates in broken voice, moving my messy hair away from my face.
How true her words are!
"Elza, weep a little." She begs me, knowing my dry eyes can cause me internal damages.
"Mama, he..." I wail out but without tears. "He... his child." I have my face resting against her chest, enjoying her motherly pats on my back.
"Why you are not wearing any sweater? It's January honey..." She goes all concerned about me while I shiver taking Airab's name again and again. I care the least that I am in trousers, frock and shawl. What matters to me is the safety news of my husband.
"I bring it." I hear Biyah say as Mom makes me sit on the hospital chair. Once I am sit, she herself takes the seat beside me.
"Stay here, Biyah." Shaina forbids her, breaking a small chat with her husband and advances towards me. Airab's long black coat is resting over her arm. I immediately go restless, spotting the belongingness of my love.
"Wear this, Ezu." She gives me Airab's one of favorite coats. I waste no time in covering myself in his dark coat while remembering the time how I blushed at him when he had worn this before exiting the room.
How good of a husband he is; currently skirmishing with his life in ICU but still shielding his wife from the half past four chills of morning.
Way to keep promises!
And by him, I realize no one has yet filled me in about how accident happened and in which state he was brought...
"Please, I request to know about him." I plead in low tone, massacring my ego for my beloved man.
Knowing no other can fill me in, I gawp towards Biyah. She would never disappoint me.
Holding my hands in hers, she goes on her toes. "Ezu, he needs our prayers."
"Biyah!" I cringe for the truth.
"He over sped I guess; police are saying this for now. Not any confirmation."
"And he?"
"Terrible... Fight...ing to breathe... for you, his love lady, his wife."
I swiftly stood up, nearly tumbling off on my feet.
"Ezu..." All breaths are caught in trepidation as they surround me, shortening the supply of oxygen. Fifth time... it's the fifth time I am saved from falling over in previous thirty minutes.
I still wish it all to be an illusion, a part of negative and meaningless dreams.
Maybe it is?
"Bhabhi..." She calls me with the relation bringing the first tear in my eyes.
"Only because of him." Yes, only because of him, I am in relation with the whole family standing here. "Biyah, you pray, please. We..." I trail off not finding words to speak as another tear falls down from my eye.
"Come, his operation will take time." Biyah holds my hand. "Shaina take care of mama." She instructs Shaina and leads me to... Prayer hall.
I do ablution and step inside after draping my shawl around me in a typical style, envisaging it a crown of my husband's name.
We don't remember Him for months until we face some problems. How ironical this fact is! May Allah does not disappoint me.
"My Allah, he is my husband, the only man I have ever loved with all my heart and soul. I cannot afford to lose him. He is in pain, my Allah. Please, take away his pain and give him a long, wholesome life. You know, he never ruminates bad for others. Do upright with him, too, please? Please, Ya Allah, I beseech to you for his life. I know you are the real owner of his life, all of our lives. But please, he is my husband, my love. Give him back to me, in healthy state. What would I do without him, what would my unborn baby do without his father? He is my cool shade in the scorching heat of summers and warmth in the harsh chills of winters. He is the color of my life. I am nothing but of him. I beg you to give him health. I pray to you to forgive our sins." My lips are exceedingly quaking while making a Duaa in Sajdah.
"Our sins are long listed, never ending, but yes, we are selfish, my Allah. We are extremely self-centered. Please for the sake of any good work done by him, forgive him, forgive us, forgive our family. Spread the sheet of your REHMAT over my family. First Baba and now, my Airab, this serious test might fail my heart, my Creator. You are Magnificent and Forgiving, please forgive us. Please don't test us much. I love my whole family very much. Keep me his wife till I breathe my last. This is the only wish I currently want to make. Please, fulfill it."
Taking my head up from the Sajdah, I let Biyah hold my hand who helps me in getting up from the carpeted floor and leads me in visit to Baba. Its morning now. He must be up.
He narrows eyes at us, judging our faces and worries.
"What happened, sweet...hearts? And where (is your) mother?"
The truth can't be hidden for long. So leaving a try of it, I step closer to him and sits on the stool near his bed. Unable to voice out my grief, I lower my head onto his legs covered under the thick duvet.
"Elza, bacha, why are you weeping? And where is that idiot? He (had) promised me to never let... tears fall from your eyes."
"I.C.U..." My whole body trembles as I speak the three simple but assassinated alphabets.
He gasps hard, looking up, must be towards Biyah.
"Accident... he over sped according to the current information." Rabiha sits beside him, taking his paralyzed shoulder to weep. A responsible father still acts as a pillar to the children even in his hospitalized state.
"Why my Elza dear is weeping? I always saw you as a... strong woman. You know, the high-head quality of yours... Airab loves it." He pats my head still draped in shawl.
The condition of Baba was not very serious, therefore, the anxiety level was low but the situation with Airab is awfully solemn and Baba also has gotten an idea of it.
"Biyah, please do something, I want to see him." He requests earning a straight denial.
"First, he is still in ICU even after five hours. Second, you need rest." Airab's operation is still going on from past five hours which is generating my deepest fears of a life without my husband.
I would not be able to take even a single step.
"Rest..." He mocks at his luck.
"Baba, please. We have come to give you your medicine. Then, you will rest. Once he opens his eyes after the operation, we will take you to him." I try to calm him down. It's not good for him to speak much.
"Yes, yes, he will." I know the medicine today won't put him to sleep. His son's life is at stake. Leaving the nurse and a security guard with him inside, we reach the second floor.
My parents are there. Thankfully, they have not brought Zee. She would had been so depressed otherwise.
However, my one relief crushes hearing Zee's laments. My mother right out hugs me, shedding some tears. I tightly hug her back, forgetting my own created limit of never going closer to her.
"It's good you have been praying. Pray more for him." She caresses my head.
"Mama, he... is in pain. He is pain." I chant, seizing her hard and then everything goes black momentarily.
***
I know there are problems, big problems knowing the two men of the family are hospitalized, but the pregnant lady cannot be ignored.
I hear the Doctor... what is her name? Ha, written on her badge, nicely pinned over the beautiful Saree. Brig. Farwa Riaz... I hear her harsh tone with my mother in law.
"She is carrying twins in this age and there is no vitamin intake from hours. The tension has fatigued her." She announces making all pairs of eyes go wider with disbelief.
Twins.
Twins.
Twins.
I am to give twins to my husband. Ya Allah, is this a notion you will grant life to my husband for his children?
By the way, what a timing to get this news!
My eyes take no time to get moisten and receive hugs.
"Now, he is going to be the father of two, he has to be okay to be a shade over their heads." Sahil Bhai brings some positivity to me supporting my non vocalized feelings.
"Bring her juice and some healthy food." Shaina notions to her husband.
I sit up from the patient bed. We had a midday sonography appointment from my gynecologists here. She said it's safe to know and we wanted to know the gender to do the shopping and choose designs baby's room. Guess, it was written to know about this without my husband.
"Now, no carelessness." Mom cups my cheeks, bringing some life in me.
"Mom, Airab???" I have no idea how long I was unconsciousness or what is the current timing now.
"His operation is done, critical. He needs to get into consciousness, only then doctors can entail us about accident's after effects." She explains the whole scenario. "His posture, speaking, metal ability... all."
I look around for Zee. God forbidden if she is lost in my chaos.
"Zee?"
"With your father in law." My mother replies from behind Zee and I sigh for a mini second until the urge to see my husband kicks in me, harshly.
"I want to see him." I wear my casual sandals and stand up.
"No one is allowed." Shaina informs, suppressing my hope of getting a look of him.
"Doctors can go to hell. He has just called me. He needs me." His call of my name when I had picked the call from an unknown number is still ringing in my ears.
I scream out my spasm. Why do they not get we love each other? Our hearts, our heart beats, our breaths are united.
Ignoring the protests and refuses from others, I make no attempt to halt my feet. I allow them to take me where my husband is.
Biyah is coming behind me.
As I pause outside the I.C.U to catch some breaths, the doctor exits out. He narrows eyes at me with stern expressions, realizing I was to go inside to meet the patient.
"Mrs. Haroon." He addresses me in a highly professional tone.
"Please, let me see him. He needs me." Rather beating around the bush, I come straight to the point and beg him. Wow! Elza Haroon is pleading.
The doctors are always coldhearted here. They would not let you meet the patient in critical situations. Glad, this one is little less and nods, allowing only me.
Stepping inside, I realize, it is glass-covered and I would need to pass through another door to touch my husband, which is as assumed locked. That's why the idiot doctor permitted me.
He is more of a patient right now. White, thick bandages on head, neck and leg, syringes in his both hands, and the worst part is he is breathing through some kind of oxygen pipe in his mouth.
My chest cuts at the sight and I instantly sit down on the cold floor seeing him from distance. Some tears finally make their ways down my eyes as I admire my husband.
"I saw your WhatsApp Display Picture. Anyone can feel to die over it."
"I had gone to balcony because you are due to take bath. Tomorrow, right?"
"You satisfy me with your mere presence."
"Every can guess today that Airab has been blessed a lot by his wife."
"But I have eyes only for my intoxicated wife."
"Bohat, Bohat Mohabbat kara Hoon Tum se."
His words are swimming in my mind like a real film. I remember his accent, his face expressions, his feelings.
"See, your wife is carrying twins and sitting on a cold floor. Won't you get up to carry her in your arms and give her the warmth?" I talk to him from far, knowing very well he cannot listen to my voice.
Listen to me, Airab. Listen to me!
I mentally shout at him, bringing my legs closer to me, playing with the wrist button of his coat. This accident has made me realize the already bare fact – he is my whole world.
***
Duaa... It was long. I don't know but my fingers kept typing that at the quarter past 2 of night.
Anyways, keep your love and support high!
Tears? Did you get that?
And about my Blog project – well, I got the best compliments that mine was best amongst whole class.