Short Serene Tales [A Collection Of Desi Short Stories]

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The beautiful blue sky outside had turned grey with clouds, sharp wind was blowing, thunder was rumbling, lightening would strike every now and then. There was bustling of car horns and people, some were taking shelter and some were rushing to their destinations before it started raining.

But he was away from all that, he was lying down on his bed with his eyes closed and an arm resting on his eyes. After years, he came to this room, his old bedroom in Khan Villa. Nothing covered his body other than his brown shalwar kameez. The windows in his room were open creating a chilly atmosphere but he still laid there like he was immune to all that.

A numbing feeling was coursing through his body as he kept his eyes closed even though sleep was far away.

He rushed inside the ICU room where Gaitee was laid covered in bandaids, a white blanket rested on her, tubes and wires were attached to her body and her now burned short hair reached below her jaw line. An oxygen mask rested on her mouth and nose to help her breathe as her eyes ever so slowly blinked in pain and torment as she stared ahead on an empty white wall.

His heart painfully throbbed in his chest as he looked at his frail wife covered in bandaids. After twenty hours of waiting and constantly praying for her with Gaitee in OT, he was finally allowed to see her.

"Gaitee..." Her name rolled off his tongue in a whisper and her eyes turned towards him and they got filled with tears yet again.

"Haider... Bohat dard ho raha hai." She sobbed looking at him. He walked towards her and rested his trembling palm on her forehead.

"Mujhe pta hai..." He could only whisper that and sat on a stool beside her bed.

"Haider, Amaad? Mujhe koi nahin bta raha Amaad kahan hai. Mera beta kahan hai, Haider?" Even in her critical condition despite all that pain, she only cried for her three years old son.

Haider looked away for a few seconds and then looked back at her, "woh... Woh dusre kamre mein sou raha. Tum bhi relax karo... Sab In Sha Allah theek ho jy ga."

Gaitee's tears knew no stop after seeing Haider so defeated, like nothing was in his hands anymore, he was their hero and right now he looked like he couldn't do anything anymore for them. His eyes were bloodshot red, his hair was a mess, his clothes were wrinkled. Sitting there he looked way older than his actual age.

"Haider, mujhe Ammi ke paas jana hai." She cried like a baby and he stayed quiet.

Why is it always like that when a person is in pain he only calls for his mother? When that mother is no doctor, that mother doesn't have any magical power to take away that pain then why?

"Mene... Mene unhe call ki hai. Woh keh rahin thi woh tumhare paas aa jayein gi kuch der mein. Tum rou nahin Gaitee, sab theek ho jy ga. Allah sab theek kar dein ge tum sou jao mein yahin hun tumhare paas." That was a lie. He did call them but none of them were going to be here except Raafay, Raza, Mohammad Ali Khan and Nadia Begum because Phupho Bakhtawar didn't have a passport and the process was far too long and Gaitee's father had passed away when she was little.

Everything was way tougher and difficult for Haider alone to manage. He was already far from home and family which made him too emotional and his eyes were filling with tears again and again but he would quickly wipe them away before they even fell.

Doctors had given her sedatives and she fell asleep not long after. Haider just sat beside her bed and covered his face with his hands as his body trembled. "Ya Allah, yeh sab kese ho gya?" A whimper escaped his lips and his resolve broke.