With You

Chapter 7

"Eat something, Ryan."

Ryan looked at the small plate in front of him from which they both had to share the food because it was all they had. Three weeks had been passed since his parents died and Hamida was doing everything to bring back their own lives on track. She was four years older than him and now had started taking tuitions with her high school studies.

"I'm not hungry. You eat." He said shoving the plate a little away from him, there was no way that amount of food could satisfy their hunger so it would be better if only Hamida could have it. He knew she showed herself chirpy, relaxed, and energetic but Hamida had been broken after their parents' death. He used to hear her muffled sobs at night when she would think that Ryan was sleeping but little did she know, her sobs were like haunting screams for him which didn't let him sleep the whole night.

He sat in his car putting sleeping Maira on the backseat. He rested his forehead on the steering wheel as his tears slowly got absorbed by the fabric of his trousers. His throat felt clogged with the number of tears Ryan had gathered there. He was in his sister's shoes, how she had muffled her sobs over their parents' death, he was doing the same to kill his sobs so as not to wake up Maira.

Ryan rubbed his palms over his face to move away from the feeling of sadness, but in vain. He just wanted to cry loudly, he wanted to vent out every pain that had come back with his sister's death, he just wanted to undo his whole life. Or more like end his life! Yes. Ryan was getting fed up with everything around him, not a single day passed in his life where there was peace and he was at ease. Problems and more problems. This world was feeling like a congested cage to him with every passing day and to move out of this cage Ryan had only one option, death!

Ryan opened the car door and as he was about to leave it, he heard a mumble from the back seat. 'Mum'. His niece was mumbling in her sleep. That was her first word. He just stared at her sleeping form as his tears blinded his view. Maira's first word was 'Mum'. If Hamida would be here she would have thrown a party over this achievement while bragging about her own greatness as a mother. But that was where the reality hit him again. That 'if' was more painful than any other thing.

His thoughts got disturbed by the loud commotion which got followed by loud crying, yelling, and breaking sounds as Ryan saw a large mob coming towards the place where his car was. He quickly started his car taking it on the reverse to move it away from there. The minister's son who had been badly injured in the road accident died this evening, that was why the supporters of the minister were making the life of the people in Amroha a living hell. Ryan gulped in worry as he saw people burning the parked cars around them while chanting some slogans which he didn't bother to hear.

He again got where he had come from. The empty and silent streets, due to the curfew he couldn't drive home. What he should do? If he would be alone there wasn't any problem but here Ryan had to think about Maira. He exited the car and took Maira in his arms, she was now getting awake and he had to make some arrangements for her food and all.

***

"Calm down, Zari." Zarah rubbed her nose with a tissue as a new set of tears began to run from her eyes. She still couldn't believe that someone could become so ignorant of the people around them. There was turmoil running inside her mind. Firstly that man's sister's face which was drenched in blood and then that sleeping kid who was so young to lose anything, least her mother. Sometimes destiny is very cruel!

"But that kid, Faiza. You know she was sleeping so peacefully in my arms when I came to know about her mother's death and that man wasn't even thinking about her. Didn't know how she is?" Zarah again mumbled the same words which she was uttering for half an hour. It felt as if her heart had been stuck at that place where she had given that kid back to that man.