With her mother gone, Aida felt as lonely as ever for Rameen was already spending time with her newfound friend, Maheen. Aida felt happy that Rameen was taking their mother’s going away very well for she knew it was their mother who had spoiled her in the first place. Rameen was quite young to understand the tragedy that had befallen them at the time of their father’s death and her mother had made sure, she got the love of both father and mother from her therefore, Rameen turned out to be the spoiled brat. For Aida, she was way too close to her father, her every decision, her every thought was discussed with him before she did something and with him gone, Aida had retrieved into a world of inner seclusion, where nobody was allowed except her. She liked it that way and even her mother tried to talk it out with her, she failed for Aida had been lost.
Her mother had tried to talk to her, reach out to her, although Aida was the one taking care of their small business but she was a very private and reserved person. With time, Salma had taught her how to cope with her grief, how to reign in her strength and fight for her right and Aida had been thankful to have a mother like her. She used to share with her but insignificant things about her and this was what she missed. Her mother had called almost every day since she had been gone and it was almost one week now. Haashir left her alone for he understood that she wanted her own time and space and whenever she encountered him, he was either reading something on his laptop and on phone with someone.
That day, she sat outside in the garden, her journal opened in her lap when she looked up to see Haashir standing there, observing her. She looked him up and down, he was wearing black jeans, white shirt which was as usual open at his neck and she could almost see his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down and he wore matching loafers. Today, his hair had a windblown style and that made her heartbeat quicken and her breathing stop. Get a grip on your emotions, Aida, she mentally chided herself, don’t step into unknown territory that would end badly.
Haashir walked down the steps leading to the garden and dropped beside her, biting a big apple.
“What are you doing?” He asked.
“What do you think I am doing?” She counter questioned him.
“Ummm... let me see.” He said. “You have a pen and tablet in your hand, so naturally you are writing something.”
“How very observant you are.” Aida said sarcastically and returned to the tablet in her hand.
“So, what are you writing about?”
“She must be crying her heart out to her diary. It’s a habit of hers when she is feeling lonely.” It was Rameen who answered him from the right. Haashir turned around and saw her, just returning from their shopping excursion with Maheen and his mother. Rameen grinned and waved at him.
“In case, you want to get decent,” she looked meaningfully at Haashir, who was sprawled near Aida, “Your mother is coming this way.” Rameen said and run inside, snickering. Haashir sat up and straight and minutes later, his mother entered laden with shopping bags. He ran forward to take them from her and put them inside.
Aida stood up too and greeted his mother. His mother hugged her and accompanied her to the garden where she was sitting.
“What were you doing, Aida beta?” she asked.
“I was just writing aunt, it’s for a column I write weekly in a magazine.”
“That’s wonderful. I remember when you used to be just a little girl, you would climb on my lap and say, I’m going to be a writer when I grow up.” Her aunt told her the story fondly which made Aida smile. She remembered that vaguely and many things more, many dreams that she had wanted to fulfill, many things that she wanted to do in her life, things that she had always told her father and now he wasn’t here.
