A shutter rattled above him. He froze.
Samar got to his feet just as the window was thrown open. Amaal was there, the room dark behind her.
“What happened?!” She pushed half out of the window.
“Nothing.” He began to take her shutters in his hand and close them, but she pushed them open. Samar startled.
“Either an animal was mating or you were yelling.”
He stared at her, her hair messed up, her face rumpled from sleep. “You were not out?” He croaked, his voice now hoarse.
“What?” She squinted. “Do I look like I was out?” She pinched the top of her wool top, smothering a yawn. “What is happening here? When did you come?”
He began to push her window shutters close, but she shoved herself out of her window frame — “Don’t.”
Samar stepped back, at the end of his limit to act courteous tonight. He was going to tear into her. And not care. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
He still gave her another chance to move back in.
“Are you ok?”
You chose this,he thought cruelly, stepping forward until his face was close to hers — “I told you years ago to stop, don’t start.”
Her face changed. The sleep vanished. And just as he had anticipated, she pulled her face back, grabbed the handles of her shutters and slammed them shut.
He began to turn and walk away when the shutters snapped open again, hitting him in the shoulder. He stumbled but caught himself in time as her head popped back out.
“You are a cruel, unhinged man and I regret every single day that I told you that three years ago but that was the first and the last where you are concerned. It stopped the moment you walked. I am over it. It’s tragic you are not. I am after you asking if you are ok because as it turns out, it is my job to ensure that you and your three partners look good and behave well in public. You have failed miserably at both since February. So either man the fuck up, buck up and start acting like a responsible leader fighting a serious election to form government in Jammu & Kashmir or give me in writing that I am not responsible for your media management. Now go yell somewhere else. Some of us have to sleep, then wake up, then work.”
She shut the window in his face again.
Samar gaped at it.
What just happened?
He stepped forward and knocked on her window. “Come out.”
“No.” Came her yell.
“I said, come out.”
“I said, no.”
“Amaal come out.”
“Fuck off.”
Samar stared at the window in front of him. His mind had gone quiet. He did not tempt the animal inside him, or fate. With that quiet mind, he turned on his heels and walked back to his room, ready to sleep.
19. A Trojan Horse always came as a harmless gift…
A Trojan Horse always came as a harmless gift. Simple, subtle, a gesture of peace. It got doors to open. It made people happy. And then, quietly, the soldiers hiding inside would start spilling out. And before you knew it, they opened the gates from the inside, and your fort was breached.
Iram Haider was doing just that, Samar thought, then found those thoughts arrested as he saw Amaal, hunched over the weeds growing on the threshold of the outhouse. He ran a hand through his damp hair and walked down the surprisingly empty hall this morning. If she heard his footsteps, she did not give it away as she kept digging into the soil and pulling dry weeds out. The snow had left everything a mess. He remembered lilies had grown in this patch before winter.
She had grown them.
In fact, now that he noted, she had grown a whole lot of flowers around. They were all either dead or dried now. But spring was coming. And she was going at it with a single-minded vengeance.
