A Mazed Heart

07. Maze of Darakhshan

Salaam!

And a quick question! How do you pronounce Darakhshan?

With or without the n?

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A Mazed Heart (Rifa Fathma)

07. Maze of Darakhshan

The pitter patter of the raindrops against her casement was music to her ears. But she was not gazing out the window.

She eyed her art supplies that were scattered on the floor of her room. Palette, sketch pad, pencils, kneadable erasers, sharpener, paint brushes, watercolors, acrylic paint. Her gaze skidded to each one of them with love and excitement.

She placed the steaming mug of tea aside and sat down.

She bid farewell to her final exams yesterday and desparately welcomed her summer break with open arms.

The moment she saw the rain drops silently gliding down the windows of their home, she knew what she had to do. It was the perfect weather to get started with her painting. She had been itching to start sketching it for a long time now.

She quickly got hold of her art supplies and asked her mother to make some hot and sweet tea for her. Grabbing the mug from her mother, she had now skidded up to her room.

She folded her legs and flicked open her sketch pad. She turned the thick papers that had her sketches until her hands ceased at a fresh one.

It had been a while!

She rubbed her hands and scanned her art supplies once again. She had four pencils with different types of leads. She picked out the one with the most lighter shade. It always made her easy to erase out her errors.

As she ran her hand over the thick, cotton paper, a pang of nostalgia hit her. She always found a way to satiate her excitement through sketching and colouring. If only Baba could let her be, she would confine herself in her room and bring out all the images from her mind. Day in and day out.

Right now, she has a sparkling, vivid image in her mind. She had been cocooning this picture for as long as she could remember. It was something special. But every speciality is tagged with a price. And the price of this painting was its protection. Protection from her brother.

"Lo! There I was wondering what is keeping you well out of our hair."

Her heart came to her throat when she heard his voice from behind. She thought of the devil and she didn't even make sure to lock the door? Giving a smack to her head mentally, she snapped her sketch pad shut.

She shut her eyes and desperately hoped that he hadn't seen anything.

"Tell, why do I smell some sizzling conspiracy cooking in your room?"

There. She caught a tinge of suspicion there in his voice. She had to throw him out of her room as soon as possible.

She leaped to her feet, swirled around, and stretched her arms out to the side. She couldn't possibly scoop her tall brother in her arms and throw him out of her room now, could she? No, right? Right! She was going to explain this to her brother as calmly as possible. "Yahoo! For the next few weeks, I don't want to see even your shadow looming across my room." She moved a finger around in the air to emphasis her point.