The Leaves of November | Complete✔

Chapter 6

*Flashbacks are in bold*

The trash bag landed on top of the pile of other trash in the garbage can. People in their neighborhood almost always threw out some junk or the other. Old furniture, worn out clothes, rotten vegetables. Their busy life had made them appreciate things a lot less. It was saddening, but it was very much the reality of today.

Maimoona wondered how much helpful these old things would've been if they were recycled and given to the homeless. She has seen poverty up close in India, how people suffered, living without a lot of the basic necessities. She thought she won't see it as much in New York, but even in a prosperous city like this, there were countless people sleeping on the streets. There were many things about the city she disliked. The one thing that kept her attached to it despite that was that it provided her with an escape, allowed her to be herself. Free and unquestioned.

It was not like she did not want to get married, but marriage for her was something easier said than done. Ever since she became close to Shayan and Geeta, there was an underlying set of expectations she had unconsciously started to look for in potential partners. To her, and probably to everyone that knew them, they were the quintessence of a happily married couple. Maimoona admired their friendship and astonishing level of understanding. It was a little far fetched, to think she would find such love. But the heart does not understand the language of logic.

When she turned around to walk back home after discarding the trash, her eyes fell on a silhouette sitting on the front porch stairs at a distance. There wasn't much light on the street, but it was enough for her to figure out who it was.

From afar, no one could tell that there was storm brewing inside this man. He was calm, but his face had an emptiness which she could not miss. There was anguish of enormous magnitude that he held, but he never let it show. It had been almost five months since Geeta's accident, but Shayan didn't cry a tear. He put up such a great front of strength that it left her amazed. Losing the person you love the most hurts in the most extreme manner. Letting go is not easy, but here he did not even know if he was to let go. The only woman he ever loved was hanging in between life and death, it was worse.

Maimoona's heart went out to him. He did not deserve this. In all the years that she had known him, not once did she see him be anything but kind. Anger, dominance, ego and all other predisposed attributes she had previously associated with men, he possessed none of that. It was awfully unfair, how life had treated him. But he wasn't here for sympathy, nor was she going to give it to him. He had made a promise to himself, that he will fight against all adversities, until they bend it to his will. And it was then that she had made an unspoken promise to him too, that she will stand by him in this fight.

"I thought counting stars was a silly thing to do, and you'd agree." Shayan chuckled at the comment. She sat down on the brick steps beside him. It was cold, but bearable.

"It is. But we all have to do silly things sometimes to pass time."

She pouted in agreement and nodded her head.

"Did you think about going back to work then?"

"I'd love to go back. It keeps me distracted at the very least. But I also don't want to leave Pihu alone. Maa's here but she doesn't have that energy anymore either. After baba passed away, I had to beg her to come here and live with me. She did not want to leave her house and the familiar mohalla where she spent all her life. But I wanted her to come here so that she could spend time with her family. What kind of a person would it make me if I hand over my daughter's responsibility to her at this age?"