Zameer: No Man's Land

15.

The not so silent hustling and bustling of the airport was keeping my subconscious partially conscious while my body and eyes were ready to drop any second with the sleep I was high-ed up with. There were barely anyone staying for as long as 18 hours in the waiting lounge. Everybody kept moving after some time according to their flight timings. I literally cocooned the bag in my lap and rested my head on the handle of the suitcase. It was hard and poking my cheeks probably making its mark on my face. What an amazing tattoo would that be - the small lock of suitcase engraved right on my face.

My eyes kept shutting, as the eyelids were so heavy, and I kept loosing my sense withing fraction of seconds causing my face to fall upfront every now and then and waking me up again. It was getting really frustrating and I kept cussing Baaji for dieing this soon, without finding his girl.
With all this running in my mind and the sleep overpowering again and again like I was some toy getting keyed up by some young brat, suddenly I felt comfort beneath my cheeks and the poking hard handle was replaced by something really soft like a pillow. I felt relieved and marking my territory over that soft pillow, as I assumed, yawned a big one and just about to shut my mind off when suddenly it striked me- PILLOW?? How the hell?

I jerked myself up and immediately wiped my eyes to see better and I found a muffler, it wasn't a pillow but a really soft maroon colored muffler kept on my suitcase. I looked on my right and found a pair of legs standing right beside me. I looked up immediately only to find this gentleman smiling at me. He was wearing a baggy jeans and a red black check shirt with its buttons flung open, inside was a white t-shirt. His hands were in pocket. His smile was illuminating. For a moment I thought he might know me or something but then again, no one knew about my trip to Pakistan.
I raised above putting the bag in my lap aside and came face to face with him, he wasn't THAT tall.

"Do I know you?" I asked confusingly as his smile wasn't ready to fade.

"No, I'm sorry." He said. His voice was sweet and mannered. His happy delighted face was giving me creeps and confusions.

"Then.....why are you smiling like that?" I snapped as I couldn't stop but think he knew me or something.

"Oh that...I'm sorry if that's......ummm bothering you? Actually........ actually let's tell you the truth. I saw you sleeping in discomfort so I put the muffler as a pillow beneath your face and it did bring you comfort so I'm just...happy."

That man was weird, I knew it. I smiled awkwardly as I still couldn't digest his weirdness. He was still smiling but little less this time. He had a charming face, as now I noticed, his refined jawline and those well trimmed stubbles on the periphery of his face...it was all making a handsome face. He even had a sunglass hung from his t-shirt neckline. Typical swag of our era.

He forwarded his hand towards me for a shake and that was the moment when I was brought back from checking him out.

"Let's introduce better way" he said.

I had a strong feeling stopping me from conversing with him, so I followed my instincts and just smiled saying a small THANK YOU and gave him his muffler back. He was taken aback of course from my somehow rude behaviour. It took him almost a minute to take the muffler back. The moment he did, I turned around and took my luggage to walk off to somewhere else. My peace was disturbed here, despite the fact that there was no peace at first hand...but let's just say it otherwise.

I started walking off when I heard him following me.
"Excuse me...are suniye to mohatarma..." And that's when it striked me that he was a Muslim. A Muslim I needed to walk down the whole country of Muslims and find the one Muslim I came here for. I stopped and turned around where I found him holding his muffler out offering me.