Besabriyan

12|TWELVE

"Mama, Zavi mamu ki car aa gayi hai."

He heard little Hala yell to her mother the minute his car entered into the garage, making him squint his eyes even though he had idea of what it was going to be. He smiled faintly at the evident excitement in his niece's voice as she jumped up and down while standing at the door frame of the garage. That little girl was the one who made his time in his own place bearable at times when his father would eat at him and when his mother would pester him to get married. A mother who was seemingly so desperate to arrange her son's wedding when he hadn't even yet consented.

"Aap meri raah dekh rahin thi, haan Zavi mamu ki jaan?" He cooed at the little girl, bending forward to carry her in his arms- throwing her a little higher in the air.

"Woh Hala hamesha karti hai, aaj mama ke liye khari hon." She slapped him on his biceps repeatedly telling him to put her down and when her soles touched the ground, her hands went to rest on her waist as she looked up at her Zavi mamu and smiled ear to ear.

"Mama ke liye kyon?"

"Worried thi na isliye." And when he looked above his niece, he found Ahlah standing near the door and taking the place where her daughter stood only a couple of minutes ago. Ahlah twitched the right corner of her mouth in displeasure as she watched her brother look away from her.

Ahlah had been trying to get him to talk. She did everything she could do to bring him outside of his little bubble but he was hiding. From her and himself. She waited for him at nights, thinking he would return at his usual time only to get disappointed for two consequent nights. She attempted to catch him in the mornings but she was somehow caught up with her daughter. She needed to talk to him but not to demand reasons from him because she wasn't a child and she had seen the world longer than he had so it didn't take a minute for her to understand his inner wreck. She, too, had once fought for love exactly like how he was doing it now.

Zaviyar let little Hala down and she ran to her mother, hugging her legs. Ahlah bent down to meet her daughter in the eye and pushed her hair away from her face, "Hala jaan, do your homework, mama will come to you after a while, okay?"

The little girl's smile fell at the mention of homework, shook her head nonetheless and ran to her room to do what she was told. Ahlah turned to her younger brother to find him scratching his eyebrow in dismay, knowing there was no way to avoid or dodge her and her questions anymore. He was now a dead meat. He cleared his throat as he walked to her sister, forcing a small smile on his face. He put his keys inside his trouser pockets and patted her head as if she was younger than him.

"Wash up. I'll get your dinner ready." Nodding hesitantly at her, Zaviyar marched to his bedroom to wash up and changed into a black pathani kurta pajama while replaying answers to her possible questions in his mind. He needed to have it perfectly sorted out so Maheen wouldn't have to clean up his mess later.

As he got down to the dining table, he saw his sister fiddling with her phone absentmindedly as though she waited for something. He sat on the chair on the left to the head chair- sitting across from Ahlah. Looking at the plate and seeing his favorite food, he knew she was about to bring him to knees so he wouldn't go around resenting it later in his life. Not that he would resent or regret fighting for the woman he loved but this was the night he was going to break it to his sister- the first person in his family who went against her family tradition, broke generational curse and fought for love only to live under their mercy after a few years.

"I'm not going to ask for an explanation but I need to know what is this doing in your room, in your wardrobe?" Her tone stiff that he knew she was burnt out beyond limits and it had only been a couple of times when her last nerve was pushed. And then she pulled it out and put it on the top of the table- a little out of his reach. He looked down only to gape at it. It was Rayyan's ring that he took from Maheen three nights ago, "Why do you have this, little brother?" Her tone now authoritative. She knew it was Maheen's ring because she was there when Rayyan's mother slid it in her finger. Though forcibly and unannounced.