A flame in the Storm

Chapter 20

I opened my eyes to see mom leaning over me.

"Is he gone?" I asked getting up.

"Who?"

"He had come here again to hurt me," I said clutching mom's dress.

"It was inspector Prakash," mom said pointing to a heavy built man with dark skin and mustache wearing khaki uniform standing near the door.

I hid behind mom to cover myself from the man's eyes.

He moved forward.

"Don't come near me," I said moving further back of my mother.

"I am not here to hurt you" he assured "I just want to talk"

"No I don't want to talk", I grumbled, "go away."

"Listen," he said "I want to know what happened who did this to you?|

I didn't answer.

"What's his name? How did he look?"

I was never going to take his name in front of anyone, more than hate, it was fear. Fear of seeing him again.

I brought my mother's drape in front of my face covering it completely. I wanted to hide away forever from any man's gaze.

"Let it be inspector", mom said, "I will let you know if she says something."

For the next week whoever asked what happened I started sweating and trembling from foot to toe, not a word was coming out of my mouth. How could I describe what happened, there were so many things, one more horrible and cruel than others. 

"I want to take back the FIR" mom was speaking to the inspector and dad outside my hospital room teary-eyed after my last panic attack. "I don't want to make her suffer more, I am just grateful that I got my daughter back."

"Don't you want to punish him whoever has done this to your daughter?" Inspector Prakash asked. "If she talks we can start a manhunt based on her description."

"Allah will punish him in more severe ways than we ever can," mom said wiping her tears. "I want my daughter to forget it if we keep asking her she is never going to come back from the trauma."

"But Ayesha we can't leave it. That bastard ruined my daughter's life." dad shouted.

"I know," mom said, "but I can't ruin it more."

Dad and the inspector failed to convince mom to let me answer their questions. But they were not going to back down from searching him. Dad didn't take the FIR back.

I was brought back to my room from the hospital the following week.

The days of my torture were on repeat mode in my head, I couldn't forget even a single minute from the time I woke in that dark room to the moment he threw me in the lake. When anyone tried to talk to me, it was either silent tears or blank stares. I had lost my voice and most of the time I couldn't comprehend what someone was saying to me. I recognized their faces but I couldn't care.

I glanced at Farah who had come to see me. She was now heavily pregnant wearing plain Punjabi dress. She sat beside me on the bed.

"Hey, how are you?" Farah asked.

"I missed you", she held my hand in hers trying to fight back the tears in her eyes. "I am sorry," she said "I left you alone that day, I shouldn't have. This is my fault." Now she couldn't control and started sobbing. "Please forgive me."