His Land Called

10] Contribution

10] Contribution

"Baaabaaa! Baaabaaa!"

"Hai-"

"Baaabaaa! Baba kay pass jana hai(1) ! Baaabaaa!"

"Bus(2), baby, bus!"

"Mama gandi(3)! Baaabaaa!"

"Bus, meri jaan. Idhar aa jao na(4)!"

"Naaaiii(5)!"

All hell had broken loose. I had no idea about what I was going to do.

It was your bed time. You had noticed that Faaris had not arrived back from his office and you were throwing a tantrum. A horrible tantrum.

Wearing only your diaper, you were running all around the house, calling for 'Baba'. When I had tried to grab you, you had struggled, repeatedly slapped me on my face, pulled my hair and screamed at the top of your lungs. I was on the verge of crying too.

I grabbed my cell phone from the coffee table in the living room and called Faaris.

"Aap ka matlooba number is waqt band hai. Barah e Meherbani kuch der baad koshish kijiye. Shukariya. The number you have dialed has been switched off. Please try again later. Thank you." The recorded message was played.

This had happened about 10 times in the past two hours. I had assumed that Faaris was in a conference or something.

Forcing my tears of frustration back for you, I once again approached you.

By now, you had gone back to my room and had lied down in the carpet, still crying your heart out. I sat down beside you.

"We will talk to Baba in the morning, Haider. Come to Mama." I told you and picked you up.

Although you struggled a bit, but you had no more energy left to squirm away. I rocked you back and forth in my arms.

"Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah." I kept repeating in a tune.

Finally your cries started to cease. You had lost all your energy in running away from me. You fell asleep a little while later and I heaved a sigh of relief.

I leaned against the wall. I don't know when I fell asleep with you in my arms.

Only when I heard my cell phone ring, I woke up. It was blaring beside me. I didn't bother looking at the called ID as I was in a hurry to receive the call so that I could stop the phone from ringing as it had started to disrupt your sleep.

"Assalam o Alykum." I said softly.

"Walykum Assalam, Falak? Ya Allah! Is everything alright?" He asked in a worried tone.

My tears fell out of my eyes as soon as I heard the voice that I was desperate to hear. I was finding it hard to talk because I was weeping.

"Falak? Wait. Are you crying? Are you okay? Is Haider okay? Falak, please tell me!" Faaris's voice held panic in it. I took a deep breath.

"W-We're fi-fine." I said.

"Oh Shukar hai! I became so worried when I saw 11 missed calls!" I heard him exclaim, "Why are you crying?''

I sniffed.

"No. It is nothing. Just tired. I was calling you because Haider was missing you and was throwing a tantrum. He is finally asleep." I whispered.

"Oh dear. Was it bad?" He asked, referring to the tantrum. Your tantrums were rare, but they were horrible.

"The worst." Faaris sighed.