Retrouvailles

In B/W 5 (VI)

Karachi 2:17 am

When her eyes adjusted to the dark room lit only by the streetlight crossing their window and her body was fully awake yet having no sign of any trouble, Annie contemplated whether it was only a bad dream, but then she was sure there was something, a sound of something heavy that fell somewhere. It was what broke her sleep. Yes, she was sure about that.

Gathering her not-so-long hair now in a bun and securing it with the clip she kept at her bedside, she searched for her phone that was not on the bed beside Anaya but kept neatly along with Anaya's doll on the same side table that she was sure her husband's doing. The thought made her curious about where he was. A glance at the lit phone screen told her it was not that late for him to join them, but even working or doing whatever he did late at night, he was found on his / her table now or on the sofa.

"Why should I worry about him, he could be on the terrace, talking with someone or chatting." she winced at the thought but could not convince herself of it so she decided to look for him after securing Anaya.

Her face was still wet when she went onto the balcony, so the cool winds at this hour of the night touched her, and she shivered slightly, but the chairs were empty, no sign of him.

Closing the door and wrapping her body with one of her thicker cotton dupatta she walked outside towards the terrace. The place which once used to be theirs, Faiza, his and her special place, a witness to so many funny and sad moments, their very own conference hall for plotting and planning. The memory curled her lips with a bittersweet smile as she stepped up, trying not to be discreet, yet not making her arrival known. She would peep out and if he was there and busy with something she would come back without a word.

It was not the well-lit but deserted terrace area she expected to find after finding the terrace door open, but he was there wherever he was now. She got the hint from his laptop with an open screen on the table and a water bottle near one of its feet. She walked around the table and then the corners of the terrace, but he wasn't there.

"Maybe he was downstairs only..." Aware of his late-night snacking habits, she rolled her eyes and made her way towards the door when suddenly she thought to check something and turned her neck to check the table, lazily walking ahead, and then it happened in seconds, maybe microseconds.

"Watch it ..." he tried to warn her.

"Allah..." a terrified shrill left her throat when something splashed in front of her, barely touching her thanks to the strong reflexes the otherwise inattentive people gave, Fakhir and her.

"You didn't get burned...?" Fakhir asked her, closing the distance between them hastily after keeping the now empty cup away on one of the railings nearby.

"Yeah, I am okay...um, yeah." a little shaken by the incident, she tried to smile and assure him to brush away any of the splatters that did touch her, but she was okay.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, looking up.

"Yeah, I think...maybe I'll need to soak these." pointing towards the ends of his trousers which had taken the brunt of the splatter, he took a step back to not overstep the fallen tea.

"Sorry... I didn't see," she knew it was her mistake, she was not looking ahead. "Go change, I'll bring another cup for you." she offered.

"Not just you, I was also not looking ahead and Amma does say one day this phone is going to bring us down...thank god it was just the tea today," he told her seriously, but then his eyes smiled and the moment she got his humour she could not stop the grin as well.

"What happened? Could not sleep?" he asked her after they recovered from the small moment of joy.

"Yes... I mean no, I think there was some sound... nothing..." She tried to tell him about the noise she heard downstairs but then thought it was not necessary when his sheepish eyes warned her she had heard a sound, and perhaps he was involved.