paradise comes with a Price

Chapter three

Be kind, but be kind to yourself first
_salamatullah

 

Chapter three

It was cloudy and it might rain any moment, kulthum was by her window as usual admiring the view, their house premises was greenish due to the grass carpets and flowers and there was a little green garden that she and Haleem created, not only her but also her mom loves flowers whereas their father is somehow the opposite. She’s been by the window for half an hour when her phone rang, it rang and rang then cutted, rang and rang then cutted, till she got tired of the tune and jump down her bed to grab it.

It was hammad, and her heart skipped a beat to his call. He never calls thrice or more than that, he knows she hates phone calls and he would only call once or twice but today was different, it was somehow scary or I should say suspicious.

Innalillahi 27 missed calls, oh lord something’s wrong” her heart kept beating so rapidly. She called and no answer, call again yet no answer, she then decided to call his NDA friend attahir and the moment the call enters he picked “hello”  she said calmly “hey kulthum how are you? it’s been long” he asked through the phone “well yeah it’s been long, how’s works” she answered even though she’s in a haste to asked for Hammad’s whereabouts but what to do since she doesn’t want him to sniffed anything fishy. Before she asked attahir for hammad, hammad's call came through and she lied to attahir saying that she just call to say hi since it’s been long.

Actually it been two good weeks since kulthum set her eyes on hammad, sithen when they went for a ham burger outing and they haven’t talked since that day.

She cutted the call with attahir and slide the green call line for hammad. “Hey” he called with his voice as though he cried his vocal cord out “hammad what’s wrong? Are you crying? Did someone died?” she randomly asked, so curious to know what’s going on

“kulthum I am dead, kulthum I sinned” he then broke down to tears. Kulthum became dumbfounded, she couldn’t even focus on asking him a single question, she started to think maybe he killed someone by accident and instantly she shakes her head sideways pushing away all those negative thoughts

“Where are you now?”  she asked  “I am on my way to your house” he murmured  “wait! You are back?” “but why didn’t you tell me” “kulthum now is not the perfect time for this please” he sounded so low and down “yeah I know… are you the one driving?” she asked and he just nodded as if she’s seeing him   “please drive safe and make sure to shove all that’s you’re dead thoughts until you reached here, okay?” he hmmed her and then dropped the call.

She kept on going back and forth in her room waiting for his call to came through and as expected he called. She took a deep breath and exhale another then answered the call “I am here” he said and hanged up the call  “oh my Allah, I hope it’s not something huge” she whispered and grabbed her grey hijjab

She was already at the corridor when she saw Haleem and amma watching fast x in the parlor. She reversed back to the parlor and sat beside Haleem. “Amma? Hammad came back from lagos yesterday and will be going back tomorrow, so he came to say goodbye”    “oh yes, aii kuwa ya kirani last week Friday, allah sarki dan albarka (he called me last week Friday, allah is the greatest, such a good boy)” amma spieled fixing her gaze on kulthum then back to the television “well, he’s at the gate now let me go to him”   “okay dear” amma granted her permission. She’s almost at the doorstep when amma called and she turned