Tera Zikr

Chapter - 7

"No beach, no beer. What happened?", she asked and stood in front of me with her hands folded in front of her chest. "Why the same place everyday? There should be more options", I said. "Oh, so what's so happening in this hotel gate that you gave up on beach for this?", she asked. "This gate doesn't has anything but now where I'll take you, it surely has all it takes to leave beach and beer", I said. "Okay but what's it?", she asked. I went behind her and kept my hands on her eyes. "Now just keep walking", I said. "But you've closed my eyes. How would I see?", she complained. "Use my eyes", I softly said near her ears. "Stop being cheesy", she said. "I'm not being cheesy", I said. "Is it?", she asked. "Yeah, I'm there with you, I'll guid you. Just keep walking", I said. "You are there with me, that's why I'm here", she said and I don't know why, but I smiled, widely. I took her to a beautiful garden which was near the hotel. It was on a kind of elevated land so while standing at the extreme end of the garden, we could see the beach under us. I made her stand at the extreme end and removed my hands from her eyes. She slowly opened her eyes and looked straight towards the sky. "Beautiful", she softly said. I pointed down at the sea under our feet making her look towards it and I saw her eyes widening. "That's beautiful", she said and looked towards me. Her eyes were shining brightly. I looked straight into her eyes. I could look at them till an eternity. They were beautiful. I found a home in them, I found my escape. "That's amazing", she said and looked away making me come out of my thoughts. "So, is it worth giving up beach and beer?", I asked with a smile. "Definitely yes", she excitedly answered. "I can give up literally everything for this", she added. We sat down on the grass and continuously stared at the sea beneath us. I don't know what she was thinking, but my mind was confused about how to ask for to go to the church. After a few minutes of complete silence, I looked towards Malhaar. She had tears in her eyes. "Malhaar", I called out and she suddenly wiped off her tears. "What happened?", I asked. She didn't reply just shook her head. I don't know when my hand reached out for her hand and held it. She looked towards me. "What happened?", I asked with more concern in my voice and my grip around her hand tighter. She pressed her lips together and looked down at our hands for a moment. "This is not the first time I came here", she said again looking towards me and gulped hard. "I was 4 when we shifted from Jaipur to Goa because of bad's work. When I was 10, one night, when my parents were sleeping but my brother and I couldn't, he brought me here. I remember this was the exact place where we sat. We sat here for some time and I remember that the whole time I kept on fighting with him asking him to go back home before mom dad finds out that we weren't there. B..but I wouldn't have fought with him if I had known that it was my last night with him", she narrated and tears rolled down from her eyes. "Last night?", I asked.