Kaabil

27. Surprise

Update: a bit of unholiness...

Meerab

Laughing, giggling, choking on air, I entered my parent's home. Dad had called Mom old for back pain, to which she replied and countered him with his muscle aches. Those two bickered until they finally reached a consensus: They are not young anymore.

Yeah. It took them forever.

"Surprise." An obnoxious scream reached my ears, and then a pop happened. My body erupted into goosebumps, but seeing the little glittery papers made me smile.

"Saba." I rolled my eyes. She was the first to crash into me, leaving me no choice- okay, I missed her too- but to wrap my arms around her. We hugged for a long while.

Like the whole afternoon we spent catching up, she bugged me about my relationship with Murtasim, even at lunchtime. Of course, I was forced to share snippets without many details. I wanted to keep our privacy. Even though Saba and Maryam are my best friends, I did not feel like sharing much more with them. It would've been like giving a part of me away, which I am solely safekeeping for my husband.

Then, his words from our first night rang in my ears. "It's just us. You and Me." My man. God, I can't thank you enough for bringing him into my life.

Saba and I decided to watch our favorite Harry Potter movies in the evening. What we didn't track was the time. It went from six to one am soon. In between, I might've sent my husband a text by the fourth movie, Goblet of Fire. Something along the lines of I miss you. Seeing Hermione descending the stairs, my heart sank in. I needed Murtasim. I couldn't survive a few hours without him. How was I going to spend days here?

I yawned and looked at Saba, dozing off. I was glad we asked her mom for a sleepover. Shaking her a little, I whispered. "Saba, get up. Let's go to our room." No reply; however, she snuggled more in the blanket.

I sighed and moved the blanket away from her. "Meerab." She whined. "Please, let me sleep."

Shaking my head, I forced her to sit straight. "You can sleep once we go to our room." Groaning, she got up. I had to wrap my arms around her to keep her steady, making our way upstairs. She almost tripped on the staircase, but I quickly caught her. "God, Saba. You almost died."

That bitch laughed. Or I think she laughed. Either she was too sleepy to make my words. As soon as I threw her on the bed, I fixed her posture. She snuggled into herself.

Then, for the first time, I glanced around my room. Nothing changed. I held up a portrait of me and my parents at my graduation. My mind drifted to that day. As soon as I reached home, I printed this photo and placed it on my dresser along with other pictures of my parents and me, Saba, and our university friends with Maryam and me in our nappies.

The most significant people in my life. However, this table was missing only one person—my husband.

Since the whole house was sleeping, I tiptoed to my Dad's office. I changed the regular paper to glossier paper in the printer, and it's setting to 5x7. Scrolling through my phone, I picked at least seven photos from my wedding album. I swear to God, I did pick up after getting lost in the memory for an hour.

First, Murtasim and I are on our Barat in our wedding dresses, looking as regal as possible—the second one, at our reception. A few of them are with our whole family. The last one was on our mehndi, where He was bowling my henna and feeding me sweets.

I spent the next hour cutting each photograph and replacing the ones in the room. Now, everything was perfect. It was time to bed; I yawned and stretched my arms.