SHATTERED HEARTS

Ch.24.A heartbroken mother's wish....!

Dedicated to my beloved friend Zarahfarooq,for if it were not for her I would have never written Shattered hearts ;)

    
                   The wild, winter winds blew across the sea shore of Sundarnagar scattering the sand particles in the air making it difficult to gaze at the majestic waves. There was hardly anyone on the beach it being a harsh, winter morning.Yet a few people were sitting in the ice cream parlour near the beach, enjoying the coldness of the ice cream on the cold, chilly day! But there was one exception.

            Afzal Shaykh was sitting on one of the chairs, glaring at the harsh sea waves. A deep frown was settled on his handsome face and his hands were clenched into fists on the table.
The cool breeze swayed around him making his silky hair to fall on his forehead.A few strands even disturbed his hazel eyes yet he didn't bother to remove them neither did the power of his glare reduce a bit.
The young, handsome guy was fuming with rage and his jaw was clenched in anger.

           Just two days before everything had been quite well. Especially the day her family had come for dinner.
The next day he had woken up with a smile on his usually stern face much to his brother's surprise. Everything was perfect until yesterday evening when he went to visit one of his family friends with his mother.

           Afzal and Arhaan never liked to visit anyone in town; not because they were too proud or too reserved but fate itself had made things turn out to be so for them. People would talk about their mother in ways that were extremely inappropriate and false. Just because she was a divorcee!  Only Allah knew how much she had been through but society doesn't see that, it's like they have the God given rights to speak whatever they want about someone they barely know. This was the very reason the Shaykh brothers didn't come to their town for many years.

           Yet their visit now, had been full of excitement and joy, until yesterday evening when the Shaykh brothers went to one of their family friends' house due to their mother's insistence. They never refused her, never disobeyed any word she uttered because the sons had witnessed their mother hurting all her life for mistakes she never made!
  
            Afzal clenched his fists tighter as the scene came to his mind. He and his brother were sitting in the hall and their mom had went in to greet the lady of the house. The Shaykh brothers were talking to their grandfather's friend when all of a sudden their Phuppi (Paternal aunt or father's sister) entered the house.
She had close relations with that family and often went to visit them.
Afzal and Arhaan couldn't recall her face since it had been years they last saw her so they kept their gaze down.
But the woman created a scene saying that they deliberately avoided her and that their mother had created an evil image of their paternal family in their minds. The Shaykh brothers however couldn't bear to hear ill of their mother and Afzal told her a bit sternly that she shouldn't say anything about his mother which only made her say more ill things.

        Mrs.Shaykh however had instantly walked out in the hall and apologised for Afzal knew not what!
The woman had insulted her for something which wasn't her fault, and his mother had yet apologised!
It was only his mom who could bear every thing with so much patience which he severely lacked!

          Arhaan was enraged too but he knew better to contain himself than his brother who had returned home only to break half of the things in his room in fury! He was up all night sitting on the prayer mat and begging his Creator to grant him patience.

        The cool, winter breeze rushed to him, and swayed around his enraged form trying to soothe his shattered heart! How much more could he take now? There was nothing left in those shattered pieces of his heart to break anymore! Afzal shut his eyes and sighed, rubbing his temples.