Besabriyan

35|THIRTY FIVE

Maheen stretched lazily on the couch as she sucked in the stale air of the old haveli that felt old and dirty even though it was properly maintained by a hired team, waiting for her husband to return from Meraki's where he had to leave for the meeting from before. A little later after he dropped her, she had received a text from him saying he wouldn't be home before eleven and to make sure everything worked out in the company, Maheen decided to stay back in the living room after dinner until his return.

The haveli was old enough that it could have witnessed generations and generations of prosperity, love and money- so old that it would have cost a fortune if it were to be built in the current economy. Maheen put everything she had studied all these university years to judge the palace bit by bit, rendering a new aspect of it. She loved the idea of living in such a big house and as a part of a big family- bigger than the one she had married into. She loved the idea of having to sit in the canopied sitting area and drink chai in the late evenings with the women in the family. Her mind was just picturing the serene life, had her family lived like that in the old days when a creaking of the door took her by surprise and jolted Maheen on her feet.

The creaking continued as if someone had purposely let the door hang loose without opening or closing it properly. Fear rooted in her at the thought of someone breaking into the house, for the house had been locked for almost a year. Gulping down the fear and letting it flush down, did Maheen begin to walk to where the noise was coming from only to realize that it was the room, she had seen having two doorways, at the end of the hallway- the room that was situated at the end of the hallway as well as the way to the lawn and the door to the other room was open. Maheen didn't mean to come off nosy to anyone who opened the door so she had just turned on her heel when she heard a muffled wailing.

It was Noorul Ain curled up in the middle of her mother's canopy bed and sobbed, remembering her mother or so she thought. Seeing her in that state, Maheen couldn't leave her alone nor wanted to disturb her grieving so she stood there and waited in case the other woman needed help. Her heart wrenched to see her in so much pain. She might not know how it felt like to lose a parent but she did know how it was like to grow up without a parent and so her heart cried with Noorul Ain.

And then the other lady got up, walking to one of her mother's portraits that were hung in the wall- the one where her mother smiled the brightest and her eyes shone. It had been a little over fourteen years since her mother passed and it had been fourteen birthdays and many other important events in her life that she missed, one of which was her daughter falling in love with her nephew. Her mother would have been so proud to see her nephew all grown up to be what they called the best of the best.

Noorul Ain traced her mother's cheeks and the tears she had managed to confide broke out and flowed down her cheeks. Fourteen years ago, on this day her mother was dressed in a beautiful white dress- her eyes lined with kohl and her hair pulled up in a low, loose bun. It was one of the days when her mother shone like the moon, bright and blinding. She didn't know it was going to be the last time seeing her mother so happy. She didn't know it was going to be the last time seeing her mother dressed to her grace and walking around the house like a queen but when she went back into her room after calling it a day, the mother never came out, only her lifeless body did. The doctors noted the cause of her death as cardiac arrest, she was only thirty eight at the time of death.

"Have you been sleeping well?" Noorul Ain asked the portrait, grazing the glass as if it was her mother's skin. Maheen could say that Noorul Ain took her eyes from her mother. Noorul Ain's recurring sob put her in a place of unrelenting misery and her heart ached so much that she feared anyone could hear the sound of its crack while guilt ate at her. The knots in her guts twisted and pulled when Noorul Ain sobbed- her skin paled only to be stained by tears.