“Oops,” Adil joked. “Family profession over father’s profession.”
“Father wasn’t good with knives anyway,” Samar muttered dryly, throwing the men into their old banter. More jokes were cracked, more barbs traded. Amaal chuckled at the right moments, fixated on the back of Samar’s brown wool pheran. It covered all of him, from the edges of his wrists to the high points of his neck. Nobody could figure out that he hid scars underneath. But he wasn’t really hiding them, not from the world at least.
“Shishu gyaani banega[138]…” the priest announced amid a round of applause as Arth hid his face in his father’s chest. Amaal blinked at the scene, and then she looked at how Iram couldn’t stop smiling at that sight. Amaal’s heart thudded. She was so happy for her, so happy to see her asheragain. Despite everything Iram had lost, she had gotten this back. Amaal knew that the road hadn’t been easy. Iram still struggled with postpartum, and the remnants of her traumas. But this end scene, like some credits of a romance thriller, made Amaal’s heart ache.
Her gaze went to Samar. Was there a future like this for them?
————————————————————
Samar parked the car outside their building and they got out. He had started driving this week and still struggled with long distances. Amaal saw him lock and unlock his knee as they opened the building gate and stepped inside. She tucked her saree pallu around her hip, holding up her pleats with her clutch purse in her hand.
“Give it here.” He opened his palm.
“You’ll need to hold the banister to climb…”
“I’m fine.” He took the clutch from her hands and they ran into an old lady from the first floor. She was in her burqa, the niqab thrown back over her head. Amaal smiled at her as she grinned at them both, waddling down the last few stairs.
“Salamvalaikum,” she wheezed.
“Valaikumassalam.” Amaal returned, holding her hand until she was safely walking down the compound. Samar began climbing the stairs and she followed at her own pace. The silence between them wasn’t new. It was not uncomfortable for him. For her… her thoughts in this silence became uncomfortable.
“Oh!” She gasped. “I forgot the return gift bags in the car.”
Samar turned, eyeing her struggling to climb in her saree pleats.
“You go up,” he began to descend back down. “I’ll get it.”
“No,” she held his elbow. “Your knee is hurting. Give me the key, I’ll get it.”
He eyed her pleats.
“I can run in this saree. Should I show you?”
His mouth curved, amused. But he pulled out the key from his pocket and handed it to her. Amaal turned, pulled her pleats tight and descended the stairs. Just as she walked out of the dark alley into the bright sun, her breath came easy. She walked to the car outside and unlocked it. She pulled herself into the driver’s seat to reach into the backseat for the bags, grabbed them, and sat there for a second.
Amaal stared at the street in front of her, not knowing what to do. She could call up Mom and talk to her. If she asked Dad, he would instantly ask her to just up and leave Samar. They had been kept apprised of this relationship ever since the explosion. And where her mother had not said a word against Samar or this relationship, her father had been dropping hints to leave him the moment he had recovered. For two reasons — first, because of all the reasons that Samar had listed to her — the age, the physical limitations, the complexity, and second, because Samar meant a forever in Kashmir.
Dad would definitely tell her to leave Samar.
But it wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t bad at all. And yet it was.
She huffed. Maybe it was a phase, maybe she was exhausted. The last six months had not been the easiest, at home or at work.Yes, it was that.
She got out of the car and shut the door, pressing the lock to hear the satisfying beep. Amaal walked towards the gate and ran into the old lady again on the sidewalk, carrying a plastic bag of baqerkhani. They exchanged smiles.
“Shaadi se aa rahe hai?[139]” She eyed her saree.
“Ji nahi, Annaparashan se.[140]”
“Aapke shauhar zyada baat nahi karte, na?[141]”
Amaal’s smile fell. “Ji…?[142]”
“Zyada bahar bhi nahi nikalte… aaj kal hi nikalne lage hai.[143]”
“Actually… woh ek accident mein the, toh abhi abhi recover hue hai.”[144]
“Allah ne baksh diya.[145]” She patted her back. Amaal nodded, walking slowly through the gate with her.
