ROUHI

fifteen

Maryam Khala had taken Hafsa to the local clinic and she returned with the report very late one night. "Congratulations, child! You are pregnant!" Khala didn't forget to smile.

To say that Saaqib was relieved and ecstatic would be an understatement. But soon the thought about how he would support a third person, that too a baby, worried him.

But that worry didn't last long. Hafsa lost her child.

It was one cold midnight that Saaqib returned home shivering in the hour before the snow started to fall. Hafsa took way too long to open the door. Saaqib was almost sure she had fainted because of her state. But no. She was healthy, almost fine. Except her fluffy cheeks were too badly stained by tears to go unnoticed.

"Hafsa, what happened?" Saaqib didn't panick at first. It could be one of those mood swings pregnant women were famous for. But Hafsa was.. off. He didn't understand. He waited for her response. "Hafsa." His tone became very soft.

"Saaqib," Hafsa barely whispered out. "Saaqib, I-I... I lost it." The breakdown was bound to come.

This news hit Saaqib like a train. He had thought this over several hundreds of times every night in bed after Hafsa went to sleep. The fact that he would be a father hadn't make him feel all that excited. He had never been fond of children either. But now, now that they lost their baby, it feels much more different. He had been too ungrateful to have realised what a happy blessing this child was to them.

Well now, it was too late.