“Daaxsaab will go shopping for junk?”
His mouth opened in a chuckle, an adorable crinkle denting the cheekbone below his left eye.
“What?” Amaal pushed.
“Daaxsaab is extinct.”
“He is right here in front of me.”
Their eyes collided again. And this time, the momentary mirth seeped away, leaving something painful behind.
“We are even now,” she said, breaking through that pain.
“Even for what?”
“You brought me hot water bag and took me to eat carbs, I brought you…” she held up her bottle, “regular water and…”
“Junk.” He held the bag of bhujiya up. Amaal nodded.
“So, now I will have to do something back or we are done?”
She shrugged, enjoying this way too much.Step back, don’t banter, don’t make him talk.
Learn to live without him. Hold yourself back.
“Why did you ask if I was in Hajan?”
“Because of the typhoid breakout.”
He stopped eating. “What typhoid breakout?”
“KDP is gathering medical supplies and doctors to go. There is a paucity of doctors. I thought you had already gone.”
He shook his head.
“Do you think you can go? The entire town is being locked down and they don’t have enough medical staff…”
Samar left the fistful in his hand and folded the pack. He got to his feet, depositing everything on his chair.
“Where?”
“Hajan.”
“Samar.” She caught his elbow. He looked at her. She began to ask him what was wrong last night, but shook her head. Amaal left his elbow.
He gazed at her for a long moment. Then said — “Let it be.”
He reached for his specs in the neck of his T-shirt, put them on, and walked away.
30. Samar couldn’t imagine a typhoid breakout could break this stalemate…
Samar couldn’t imagine a typhoid breakout could break this stalemate. But it had.
He had gone to Hajan with no expectation but to treat patients. But the Mayor of the town, an Awaami biggie, had made his work difficult. Atharva had landed there, and like alpha to beta, they had again slipped into the good cop-bad cop game they had mastered over the years, handled the Mayor, and if looks were anything to go by, turned him too.
That momentary camaraderie, even if in the midst of an emergency, had given him hope. If tempers were cooled, he would get a chance to explain himself better to Atharva. He just needed time, and Atharva’s patience to get through it until tempers calmed.
Samar trudged around the outhouse, rubbing at his jaw. It still smarted from Atharva’s punch yesterday. The night had fallen, but the outhouse was empty. Almost everyone was at the main house or Boulevard Road. Samar stared at the structure. It had once been just like this — dark, silent, lonely. Long before KDP members had come and made this home.
