The Ayham's Ramadan

Chapter 02

CHAPTER 02: ORCHESTRATED OCCASIONS

"Aap meri baat sunn bhi rahay hain, Nabeel?" Ayna was exasperated. She was trying to spark a conversation with her husband, but was miserably failing by the minute.

Main itni buri thodi houn jo banda mujhay ghaas bhi naa daalay?

"Haan, bataao," Nabeel mumbled, still engrossed in the document on his laptop.

"Kam-as-kam humein mithaai hi laana chahiye thaa," she said, disappointed.

"Haan," he repeated.

"Turns out, bacchoun ko pasand hai."

"Haan."

"Mainay aapko kaha bhi thaa ke mujhay bazaar le jaaein."

"Haan."

Mujhay aapka galaa ghount dayna hai.

'Haan.'

"Aapsay to baat karnay ka fayda hi nahin hai. Yaa tou mera dimagh kharaab hou gayaa hai, ya main patthar pe sar maar rahi houn," she blabbered as she stood up, switching off the television and going to bed.

~

Time crawled by the second.

Ayna stared in the dark. She was droopy and her chin collapsed on her upright hand every now and then, but when she went to the bed and tried to fall asleep, she just couldn't. She sat up from the bed and walked to the chair again. This cycle repeated for a few times. In the end, she was aimlessly pacing around the room.

It was 2 a.m. now. Suhoor was in two hours, and she had not slept properly in the last week; first with excitement, then with adjustment, and now with this weird somniphobia. Pacing around in the room was giving her no benefit, so she swathed up herself in her dupatta and walked out of the room.

The entire house was divided into ten portions, each for one family. There were five portions on each floor, and connecting upper and lower halls. Each individual portion had a separate kitchen, a small hall, and two bedrooms. The lower hall had a large dining so that at least one meal could be a joint one with all the families together.

Ayna liked the design. While it was connecting and there was a sense of company, there was also an understanding of privacy in the right manner. Her father-in-law was smart man, she thought. Was he like Nabeel? Reserved and obsessed with work? Maybe.

She sat on the sofa and looked at the french windows before her eyes. The leaves oscillated in an unsteady rhythm, and the netted windows let through a gentle breeze. In due time, Ayna had drifted off to the clouds, her thoughts encircling a rude, yet handsome gentleman.

~

The buzzing alarm was back. And this time, it was ringing right inside her brain. Ayna wanted to throw the damn phone to the ground and hit it with all the pairs of jootis that she had. But right now, she simply wanted more sleep.

Nevertheless, she opened her eyes. The room was dimly lit. And where was she? On the sofa? How? Right then, it all came to her head. She clasped her throbbing head with her hands and sat up on the sofa. Looking at the phone lying beside her, she checked the time. 3:34 a.m. Then, she shut off the alarm and slammed her husband's phone back into the sofa.

Nabeel switched off the washroom light and walked out. He peered at the sofa in the sitting where he had left his phone. She was not there. Thank God. As he walked into the room, he saw that her khimaar was gone, and so was the prayer mat. He opened the cupboard and got another one for himself. Then, he walked out of his room and looked around in the sitting, but she was not there.