Is This Okay?

Chapter 1

It had been four hours and Uzair still hadn't moved from the window. It felt to him as though his mood had started to affect the weather too. The sky that had been clear blue just minutes ago, had now turned dark grey as clouds hovered above Mustafa Town, Lahore. For the hundredth time in the past four hours, Uzair was once again struck by a memory from his childhood.

                                                                                            ~

"Now just keep moving your finger in twirls to make the background", Father directed Uzair's navy blue index finger on the canvas. Navy blue, because they were trying to paint the Starry Night by Van Gogh with acrylics.

"Keep on doing that until the sky is ready" he said.

"And then?", Uzair asked, eyes glued to the canvas in sheer determination.

Father turned to his own canvas beside Uzair's to continue his painting and replied,

"Then we sprinkle the stars".

                                                                                              ~

It was torture. Pure torture, what his mind was doing. Ever since he had retaliated to his Father's accusation in the living room (of him making friends with the ill-mannered boys in the neighborhood), he had been sitting on this windowsill while his mind wandered back to all the times he and Father had spent in each other's company sharing jokes, theories, painting techniques, science facts and love. He couldn't bear the fact that today was the first time he had raised his voice to Father. The first time that Usama hadn't stood up for his younger brother.

It was the first time that Uzair felt caged in this house.

A tear races down Uzair's cheek, and it is as though the sky had been waiting for this permission. Outside, the sky tears open with a roar and big, round droplets of water make their way to the ground.