Dilbar (دلبر) -
Lover
*****
Samaira Baksh has sworn off love. The emotion in itself brought memories that were synonymous with a weak nightmare. For her, love was a forgotten feeling and farthest away from what could be considered...
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*****
Samaira owed her body and mind enough for her to take a vacation of a week. Here she was, in the cabin that had become her home in just mere days. The early mornings when looked past from the windows of the little wooden home were almost surreal to look at.
Fog clouded the place from all sides, only giving way for her to see the top of canopies high in the sky. The chirrupings of birds were a never-ending song sung in harmony every morning which Samaira listened to like a ritual.
Her normal routine was as simple as it could be. Wake up early- even though she didn't like it- have a tasty breakfast and then laze around the whole day with a book in her hands or sometimes, just her constructing small funny monuments with rocks and twigs.
"Come on!"
She whispered cautiously as she tried putting the small stone atop the many others that she had piled. With full bound concentration, she tipped it at the top and held her breath when it stumbled only to come to rest atop it and complete the pillar she was trying to create.
A giddy smile took over her lips as she sighed in bliss, falling back on the comfortable ground covered with a warm fuzzy carpet.
A few beats of silence passed as she lay peacefully with her eyes closed. It'd have lasted longer if not for her phone that blared like a never-ending alarm on the couch not far away.
With an exaggerated breath, Samaira pushed herself up and took hold of her phone. A smile pulled on her lips seeing her mother's number and she quickly accepted the call, hoping to hear words of alarming concern but instead, she was met with a highly nervous tone, one that promised trouble.
"Sami, jaldi ghar aao."
(Get home soon.)
"Mama, kya-"
(Mom, what-)
"Sami, not now. Get home. Quick."
The call was cut while she sat there on the floor, looking equal bits of puzzled and worried.
Not bothering to change the hoodie and joggers she had on, Samaira locked the cabin as she drove to her family home. Her heart sped as seconds passed while her fingers tapped anxiously on the steering wheel. Like always, her paranoid mind created a whole lot of scenarios, each worse than the other.
Quickly reaching home, she all but raced to the doorway, panting heavily as she stood in the living room with her hand on her heart.
"Ya Allah, I'm so unfit."
(Oh God,)
She mumbled to herself. Her eyes found her mother's. The older woman was looking troubled, so much so, that Samaira ignored the protest from her lungs and took a seat beside her mother.
