Scene 2
As the flight took off, Zain looked down at the lights of Mumbai city...growing smaller and smaller till there were no more lights to see. As he turned around from the window, the lady sitting next to him, smiled to say hi..Zain looked at her from the corner of his eye and with a slight nod of his head ...offered an indifferent smile. He put his headphones on before she could start a conversation; tuned to some random playlist on his phone, closed his eyes and took a deep breath... he didn't care to speak with anyone...neither did he care if he was being rude.
A myriad thoughts ran through his head, the voices...the screaming...the sobbing...it was unbearably loud in there. He kept turning up the volume hoping the voices would go away...but was suddenly startled out of his oblivion his co passenger yet again. This time Zain was annoyed... She had tapped him on the shoulder gently asking him to turn it down...As he glared at her, Zain quickly realized that the music was playing so loud that even the people in the back row could hear...
...then how come he didn't...he could only still hear the sobs...him pleading..saying "please...please don't" ...
He turned his music off ...and this time sincerely apologized "sorry about that ...not my day today it seems". She looked on... as he ran his fingers through his hair...put his head back and grunted in frustration. He was trying to hold back his tears, the utter helplessness...it was just brutal...how had he gotten here...just how! Just around then, the flight attendant walked over and asked if they'd like some wine ...as she ran down the list of beverages they had on board. His co passenger suggested "Try the cab..smells good, I'm going to have some. Get drunk...won't fix what's past...but then you'll have an excuse for playing such awful music"
That brought a smile to Zain's face, he agreed and got a good sized glass of the cabernet sauvignon...why not? As he took a sip he turned around and apologized again...and introduced himself as Zain Abdullah. She smiled and said she was Samia; she'd heard his name before.."was he someone rather important in Mumbai or was that a different Zain"? She was flying back to London after a short trip to Mumbai working with the hospital group there. She was studying to be a doctor, and it was hard work and emotionally draining. As she chattered away Zain realized the voices in his head were not so loud anymore.
He could still hear this girl too... "hospital,studying...OMG...books...classes...that horrible professor...he flunked me...he actually flunked ME!" Zain was reminded of his professor in London and was amused. He shared his incident with the prof and his time studying in London. Oh! the sheer number of times he had failed his tests... what a brat he was! She seemed surprised and rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief...Zain smiled again and said "..long time ago...Samia...a different person perhaps"...even as he told himself it wasn't actually that long ago...two years wasn't actually that far back...but it seemed like he had battled on for a lifetime since.
Few hours passed and Samia was asleep after what was a nice conversation ... Zain found himself smiling after quite sometime...months perhaps...maybe not completely heartfelt but sincere nevertheless. "That works" he thought out loud. They were already close to landing at Heathrow as the flight attendant made the announcement...which woke Samia up. Don't know why but Zain told Samia..."Maybe moving to London was not a bad idea after all, I hadn't actually processed how this would work. But maybe it will..."... Samia nodded her head in agreement...had already added him on Facebook and sent him a friend request which he promised to accept whenever he logged in next...They could meet up at the university in case he wanted to walk around there for ol' times...for ol' friends..
Zain grabbed his laptop and stepped out of the aircraft after giving Samia a warm hug goodbye...he was back in London after long...this city had always been good to him...he took his phone out again to make some calls as he stepped into line to complete the formality of customs and immigration...
Edited by qhid - 9 years ago
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