Chapter Three – Plan to forget
“Saba my dear! What’s wrong with your feet? Why are you walking like that?” the old man came out of the house with his eyes fixed on Saba who closed the car door behind her. The black old man looked a few inches shorter than Zayaan with a thin layer of hair and a long beard, both gray. His eyes remained on Saba until he noticed that there was someone standing there.
“Who are you young man? Saba?” the man looked from Zayaan to Saba in search of an explanation.
“Dad, I had a cut on my foot while I was away from the camp and this man helped me.” Saba said.
“Oh! Are you okay my dear? You better get in and take some rest. And…..thank you…thank you so much for bringing my daughter home safely. Would you like to come and have dinner with us? We can’t leave you empty-handed.” the father said as he held Zayaan’s hand. Zayaan’s phone rang right when he reciprocated the old man’s kind smile. He was disturbed by the fact that his phone rang in such a moment. Yet he took out the phone instinctively to see Laaiq’s name on the screen which made him shudder with the realization that he had abandoned his friend in the forest. He immediately answered the call but Laaiq spoke before he could get a word out.
“Where the heck are you?! I’ve made a dozen rounds here looking for you and your car!” Laaiq shouted out.
“I’m sorry dude…..something came up and I had to go. I’m on my way now I promise. Will be there within 10 minutes.” Zayaan said before hanging up and looking at the old man and Saba who still stood there perhaps because her father was still there.
“I’m really sorry uncle. I need to get going to pick up my friend who is still there in the forest. Maybe I could drop by some other time to visit you.” Zayaan added the last line simply because he did not have the heart to turn down the old man’s offer. At the same time, he could not help but check out Saba’s reaction to those words of his. She had looked down to the ground with a poker face that was hard to comprehend.
Saba’s father nodded at Zayaan’s words and thanked him once again. He then told Saba to get in as he walked in her direction while Zayaan turned back to open the door of his car. Just when he opened the car, he heard Saba’s father telling her to be careful. He could not help but look at Saba who was trying to be strong standing on her own saying that she was fine. He smiled unknowingly and got in the car one’s she was out of sight.
Saba was in the middle of the porch when she heard Zayaan’s car drive away from right in front of her house. She’d looked back because of the sound of the gear but stared at the space from which the car went a few extra seconds before walking with her father again.
**
It was half past 11 when Zayaan lay down to sleep that night. He unlocked his phone and got on instagram with a plan of dozing off while scrolling through it as usual. But he could not concentrate on the movie unlike other nights. He kept replaying the scenes of the day’s evening in his head. He could not help but picture Saba’s smile. He could not help but remember her voice when she asked the question about Jannah. He could not help but think about how strong and independent she looked, despite how he thought she must have been abused. He simply could not bring himself to stop thinking about her.
But why? Zayaan thought to himself. It was then that it occurred to him how he was close to assuming that she was his soul mate. Zayaan laughed at that thought. He remembered his teenage years when he was into the 90s movies and he thought of every other girl he found beautiful as his soul mate. There was no such thing, Zayaan had concluded as he grew older. He doubted the love that was pictured in those movies ever existed. He could find a girl attractive and that is all there is to it. There would never come a day where he would favour a girl over his own self. No way!
Hence Zayaan settled that he wasn’t able to stop thinking about her just because he found her beautiful and attractive. A few days would go by and he would find someone even more attractive and he would have completely forgotten about her. With that thought, Zayaan was finally able get into his deep sleep as the Avengers on the TV screen were having a fierce fight with the villians around the city.
**
Around the same time that night, Saba was tending to a little boy who lay on a small bed in the middle sized room. He had a thermometer in his mouth when Saba took the wet cloth off his forehead. Saba took it out when it beeped and checked his temperature.
“It’s going down now Alhamdhulillah! How are you feeling Hamadh?” Saba asked, caressing through his hair.
“Better than before, sissy.” he said with a smile.
“Great! Try to get some sleep then….sissy will sleep right here since you aren’t fully well yet. If you feel anything, make sure to wake sissy up ok?” Saba said. 10 year old Hamadh nodded before he dozed off to sleep.
Saba ran her hand through Hamadh’s thick hair one last time and then got up to go to the couch on the other side of the room. Saba went and laid down on the couch and let out a tiresome sigh. This was always the case whenever Hamadh got ill.
Hamadh was a Pakistani orphan boy who Saba’s father had brought to the house about a year ago. Her father Sameer had said that he found the boy near a supermarket. Saba thought that it was odd to find an orphan boy near a supermarket in a country like New Zealand. She’d never found one before. Especially near the mall that they usually go to. But she didn’t ask her father much since she was happy to have an orphan to take care of. She thought of that as a chance to gain more rewards and was more than happy to take care of Hamadh like a little brother. Especially since her blood brothers were no longer in her sight. They were alive. But they were pretty much dead to her and her father. Her 3 older brothers are into all kinds of crimes. Sameer tried quite hard to advise them and keep them with him but at the end of the day, they decided to go separate ways from their father. The youngest of the brothers had actually offered Saba a chance to go with them but Saba decided in all good conscience that she would stay with her father. And so the split happened.
Saba sighed even as she remembered that day. The shouting and screaming of her brothers. The pleading and tears of her father. The pain in her chest due to all that was happening. But with time, all of that has faded away. 6 years later, Saba has now stood up to her feet. She worked as a librarian in part-time while studying in the university. Her father, who used to work as a janitor at a large company has now retired and makes small money by working on his vegetable garden in the backyard of the house. They were not crazy rich. But they had all they needed and Saba had always been thankful for that. She hoped to work in the forensics after completing her studies in the university and build a better life that she thought her father deserved.
Saba bent one of her legs while getting lost in thoughts. Just then, she felt a sharp pain from underneath her left foot. She lifted her head to see the band aid that she had put on the small cut. The cut wasn’t so big but she bled so much because thin blood runs within her family. Saba remembered the man who helped her as she thought of how she had gotten the cut. Creepy guy, she had thought as she realized he took her picture. She got startled because she normally doesn’t get her pictures taken. And she wanted to disappear from there because she was too disturbed from the look she was getting from that man. She doesn’t like to be in the center of attention of anyone. Especially not of a man. And hence did she got the cut on her foot as she tried to make a dash out of there.
At first she’d thought the man would be indecent in his behavior. But she realized that he wasn’t so, when he didn’t force her to be helped by him. He maintained his distance, though he kept giving glances. He was handsome too, Saba thought as she remembered his face. Was he a muslim? What must be his name? Where was he from? A number of questions came to her mind all at once. But she shook her head as her heart gave her a warning of attachment. She’d swore to herself that she would not get attached to any man about 2 years ago. Because of a painful experience she had to go through due to an attachment. Men aren’t worth the pain, she had concluded. So she better not be thinking about the man he saw today.
He was just someone who appeared in her life for a moment. She is going to forget him after a few days. She is probably not going to see him again. Little had she known.
