Chapter 8

Vintage Flow

@Vintage_flow

Chapter 8

Mere samne wali khidki main…ik chaand ka tukda rehta hai

He tried to concentrate on his breathing, marshalling his wayward thoughts. His Ammi’s words played on a loop in the back of his brain.

‘Dulhe se milo’… he instinctively looked at his dazed reflection…

… ‘Haan Kehdi’…

Haan Kehdi?... HAAN KEHDI?

“Zoya ne haan kehdi” he blurted out.

“Oh ho! Why are you shouting?” she said as she plugged her ear with her finger.

“Did you tell her that it was…it was…I mean”

Dilshad sighed “Yes Asad, I told her it was you” she answered putting a little too much weight on you.

He was such a boy sometimes!

“Par Ammi…” he stopped again; his mind unable to form an articulate response.

“Par var nahi Asad, don’t you trust me?”

It was slowly seeping in. Her reaction upon exiting Ammi’s room. He had tried to stop her, ask her, but she had fled away not sparing a glance in his direction. He thought she was upset but now he wasn’t so sure.

Was she being shy? He harrumphed at his own thoughts, there was no way Miss New Yo…

Asad stopped his inner monologue as his gaze fell upon his highly amused Ammi.

Great! Now he was talking to himself and being a total joker in front of his mom.

But he failed to notice how the contours of his face had relaxed; the tranquil that ran through his veins. The first thing he registered out of the conversation was – no other man was going anywhere near her. It was between him and his Zoya.

His Zoya?!…okay, you need to calm down Asad Ahm…

This time Dilshad just outright laughed. “Asad, kya kar rahe ho. Buzurgo ki tarah akele main kya badbada rahe ho?... acha baitho”

“Ammi”

“Baitho bhi”

She then took his bandaged hand in her own and started.

“Do you want Zoya to become someone else’s wife?” she asked but before he could say something, she interrupted again raising her finger up at him.

“Don’t even think about lying to me. Yaad rahe main tumhari Ammi hoon. I only want a yes or a no. Nothing more, nothing less… do you want Zoya to become someone else’s wife?”

He looked into her waiting eyes and answered truthfully, unable to lie to his Ammi…and himself

“No”

She smiled.

“Now, do you want her to be your wife?”

“Ammi” he muttered awkwardly, staring at the floor

“Asad” she chided. “Sach bolo Asad, kam se kam apni Ammi se toh sach bolo”

 “Yes” he replied firmly after a full minute.

Dilshad did a quick mental dance. Almost there!

“Then what is stopping you?” she pressed

Asad released a pent-up breath noisily “You already know, we’re…we’re too different”

“That didn’t stop you from loving her”

He finally looked up half surprised half embarrassed. This was the last thing he had thought of when he woke up this morning.

“Let me tell you something, you love her because she is honest, brave, beautiful, strong, and above all a good woman…

… And not just you, we all love her for the same reasons. Stop being so afraid beta… stop being so afraid of loving and being loved in return.” She continued in her soothing motherly voice “you both have lived through, sadly, not so great examples of marriage, so I understand you being reluctant to take this step… par Asad…you are not your parents” she finished as she patted his head.

Asad looked into his Ammi’s eyes trying to find the trace of sadness that he knew echoed in her heart. But he couldn’t find it, all he saw was strength and hope…hope for him.

Was he that strong? Could they really do this? Would he be able to give Zoya the fairy tale romance she always gushed about?

“She only said yes because her Aapi wanted her to” he finally verbalized one of his biggest worry. Crazy how the tables have turned. How he wished it wasn’t because of her Aapi.

“How could you be sure?”

xx

A week had gone by since that fateful morning and Asad had come to a conclusion. When Ammi, Aapi and Najma came together, nothing under the sun could stop them. How they had managed to pull together the preparations for all the festivities in under a week he didn’t know or understand. Basically, him and Jeeju were as useless as the glittering décor.

But none of that mattered because a very important person was missing from the mix.

His Zoya…his bride.

Yes! He had finally come to terms with it, his Zoya. It had taken him a minute to accept it – say yes as readily as she had.

But the taunting visions of her leaving his side were too much to bear.

The nightmares had changed too. Morphed into brand new ones. This time there were no wires or water…it was something much worse…an unknown face taking her away from him. He kept running, stumbling down the hallway but she never stopped, never looked back at him.

He had known it the day he had seen her packed suitcase. He wanted to burn it, throw it, hide it, destroy it!

Annihilate anything that implied distance from her.

The only reason Tanveer scoured streets freely was because that woman was pregnant. Even still, he had people keeping an eye on her. Their lives had undergone extreme turmoil and disarray because his father had chosen money. It made people all kinds of desperate. He won’t ever let that happen to them again.

He feared that Zoya had sensed his madness – he knew his Ammi did. But he just couldn’t let her step out of the house alone anymore, especially when they were going to every nook and cranny of Bhopal to shop. He was either with her or texting the person with her every five minutes. The paranoia was still fresh in his system.

All in all, he had come to another conclusion, he was simply incapable of letting her go. His answer–not that his Ammi cared since the shopping started way before– had come after three days, but it came out as yes, nonetheless.

It was crucial –a must, that he see his ring on her finger. There was no other way, he loved her too much.

He looked at her door longingly from the moonlit garden now.

She had broken down completely when she first saw her Aapi and Jeeju. He knew she missed them but seeing her just disintegrate like that in her Aapi’s arms made his heart ache in ways he couldn’t fathom.

Please tell me you want this too!

His Ammi had convinced him that it was. If Zoya was strong enough to step up and make a decision about her marriage before, why wouldn’t she do so again?

But his heart didn’t agree.

It had been seven days… seven days of her deafening silence …the only treacherous thing that didn’t change before and after his yes–which quite frankly was largely the part of reason it took him so long to admit it…finalize it.

She wouldn’t look at him anymore. He had tried to ask her about it, confirm in any way that it wasn’t her obligations making her decisions. But she only answered in monosyllables and in general acted just so…so… weird.

Not Zoya weird, weird weird!

Were they making a mistake? Was she planning to run away from him?

“Just say something dammit!”

xx

I know it's a little more on the descriptive side but felt like writing from Asad's Pov.