Samar stopped at the threshold. “What is happening?”
Atharva’s face turned to him. Stoic. Hard. Final.
It’s confirmed, Daaxsaab, her body has been identified.
“I am marrying Iram.”
32. He was back in the swamp…
He was back in the swamp. Flying 42,000 feet above sea level, clouds beneath him, the sky bright blue and clean, Samar had never felt more trapped.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Please fasten your seatbelts. We will be landing at the Sheikh ul-Alam International Airport of Srinagar shortly. The local time is 8.43 am, the temperature is a pleasant 21 degrees Celsius, a marked improvement from Jammu’s 31 degrees…”
Samar fastened his seatbelt, and his eyes glazed over the clouds. He didn’t want to come back to Srinagar. The last weeks in Jammu had been better. Quieter. Peaceful.
Atharva had made sure to keep him mostly away in the days leading up to his wedding. Jammu had needed him to oversee everything for the upcoming campaign, and as the founder who owned Jammu’s working, Samar hadn’t minded the grunt work one bit.
He had stayed away happily this time, travelling to and fro when needed, having given up on Atharva.
He could not wake a man who was pretending to sleep.
He would have chosen to stay away even today, on his wedding day, if it hadn’t been for the optics.
The plane dipped, and his eyes hit the city of Srinagar. A city he had adopted out of his kinship to Atharva, Adil and the SFF. A city he had given his prime years to. A city where he had raised a militia from the ground up, sniffed and inhaled and imbibed every nook and cranny, known without really ‘knowing’ every family, elder, child, mother, protected what could be protected and healed what couldn’t be; only for it all to be snatched away in the blink of an eye. A city where he had met Amaal… his mind stuttered.
Samar huffed, a strange thrill taking over his hard-earned calm. The plane touched ground, and as if all the mud and marsh had fallen away from around him, Amaal’s name did something strange to his being. The thought of seeing her again after long days… thrilled him.
As the plane taxied, he took his mobile off airplane mode. And a horde of notifications fell through his screen. His eyes, though, zeroed in on only one.
AMAAL
When are you landing?
His fingers didn’t even hesitate as he clicked to reply.
SAMAR
Landed
Her reply was instant.
AMAAL
The safa people are waiting for you, quick
His eyes squeezed shut. The drama that awaited him on the other side. He hoped they weren’t going crazy with this wedding.
SAMAR
You work for a political party, not a wedding planning company
AMAAL
:D
Even you can’t irritate me today
SAMAR
