Chimera

He walked his father from parking lot to the hospital. They entered a large room where a few doctors were in meeting; everyone turned heads upon their entering. “I am alright let’s go back.” His father said terrorized looking at all the doctors.

“Wait we need to see you.” Said one of the doctors and rose from his seat. He took them to the examination room and asked the lady doctor to check the patient’s blood pressure. His father lying on the examination table seemed delirious.

“Are you alright?” He asked his father in a terrified tone.

“Yes, son.” He murmured.

The lady checked his BP once and then again with another apparatus.

“Why are you checking again?” He inquired.

“Just to make sure, I guess the first apparatus wasn’t working properly.”

Now his father was breathing heavily and it looked as if he was about to slip into coma.

“Go get the pillow.” Yelled the lady, panicked.

He brought one from the adjoining room and put it under his father’s neck.

There was no sound in the room other than his father’s rough breathing. A while later he clamed down and said to his son regretfully, “I am not taking Digoxin these days.”

The shock was written across his face, “Don’t miss any dose please”, he requested and lovingly settled his shimmering grey hair.



The bare branch of the tree was rhythmically brushing against his room’s window. The clock on the side table showed 3:00 AM. He was breathless and his torso was drenched in sweat when he woke up.

“A nightmare!” He sighed. It had been three years since his father’s passing and he was still seeing nightmares… vivid, tantalizing and horrifying.

He turned around and there he was sleeping peacefully next to him. He wrapped his arm around his waist, his chin touching his broad shoulders.

“What?” He asked.

“I had a nightmare again.” He whispered in a hoarse, petrified voice.

He didn’t reply; they lie like that until he went to sleep again. It was already nine in the morning when he woke up. The room was bathed in the bright sunlight and he was standing next to his bed smiling. “It’s your big day today, don’t be late.” He reminded and left.

Khalid came out of the bed. He put on black jeans and the red and maroon checkered cotton shirt. She had always loved him in this attire. He knew she would be taken aback to see him like this in her city.

Within an hour he was standing in front of her house. He was mesmerized to see it just as the pilgrim enchants on seeing the Kaa’ba for the first time. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and gently knocked at the door. He didn’t have to wait for too long; she answered the door and was astounded to see him after so many years. For a moment none of them knew what to say then he mustered courage and said, “Hi!” He felt his voice coming from inside the deep well.

“Hi!” She replied quickly with widened eyes.

“I… I wanted to have a talk with you.” He said hesitantly, “Can we meet somewhere for a coffee?”

“Hmm, well… coffee… she was clearly lost. Tomorrow at 11:00 at Lazy Daisy.” She said.

“I’ll wait for you.” And then mumbled, “Just as I have been waiting for the last four years.”


The next day he reached the cafe well before scheduled time. He was counting each and every second. “She may not come.” He thought in despair and then rubbished his concern… “She has never said no to me. She will come.” He crossed his fingers. At five past eleven she entered the cafe. He sprang up from his chair and beckoned her. “Am I late?” She asked. “Yes, five minutes.”

She smiled. Her smile rejuvenated him. He thought for that one smile I can wait for hundred more years. They remained silent for a few minutes avoiding each other’s gazes, looking out of the big window. “How is your father?” She asked breaking the awkward silence.

“He passed away… soon after you left.”

“I am sorry.” She said lowering her eyes.

“I couldn’t give him anything… any happiness.” He said with teary eyes.

“Don’t think like that you were there with him in his last moments.”

“If it makes any difference.” He sighed.

“It does… look at me I couldn’t even see my mother’s face.”

“She too…”

“Yes, last year.”

They sipped the coffee quietly then she asked, “So what brings you here?”

“You know very well.” He replied looking straight into her eyes. She took her eyes off his face suddenly.

“His piercing eyes will kill me.” She thought and then replied somewhat sarcastically, “I am no clairvoyant.”

“Don’t pretend that you don’t know how much I love you… still.” He said with a weak smile.

“Love is just a faded memory…” She sighed.

“It’s eternal.” He argued.

“Knowing that I am married…”

He cut her off, “Your soul is mine, the best of the moments we spent together and the memories we made are mine.” And then continued excitedly, “Do you remember that evening when you and I were lost in the splendid view of sunset at River Kabul, talking in silence, measuring the depth of the river with our eyes? That was love.”

“Are you here to talk about memories and dig up the buried past?”

“We did nothing wrong to hide our past… but something went wrong between us. You left me with thousands of questions. Why did you do that?”

“Moby was already in my life Khalid… and besides I was never committed to you.”

“Moby…” He repeated his name and a wave of jealousy engulfed him. He clenched his fists, a voice in his mind said, “Don’t mess up things… just ignore it.”

“I don’t know why I keep coming back to you?” He asked smiling.

“Perhaps you are not ready to let me go.”

“Love is brief: forgetting lasts so long.”

“Ah! Neruda.” She exclaimed.

“Do you still read him?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“It takes me back into those days that I want to forget.”

“Why?”

“You ask too many questions, you haven’t changed a bit.”

“I am here to find the answers of the questions that have been bothering me for so many years.”

“Memories prick me.”

“Because I live in those memories?”

“She looked at him with indignation.”

“I know that look of yours, I meant no offence, sorry.” He retreated.

They came out of the café and started walking. The thick dark clouds were looming. He looked at the vastness of the sky above the city skyline and then said, “Do you remember those walks on the campus. The classes we bunked just to spend extra time with each other and…” He deliberately left the sentence unfinished and said, “Life could have been a little more adventurous and interesting if we would have held hands… forever.”

She said nothing. Her silence was tormenting. “I know she would never admit it.” He thought and then muttered, “Stubborn as ever.”

They took a ride in the bus till her home. “Your neighborhood is quite serene.” He said entering upon her street.

She remained silent. He frowned a bit. Although it was an afternoon but it was getting dark. “It’s going to rain I think.” He said.

“Rain!” She smiled and added, “It rains here everyday, so much so that it has lost its charm.”

He was relieved to hear her voice. “You know when it rains back home, I miss you so much.” He said.

“You expect me to say that I miss you more since it rains here everyday.” She quipped.

“Why don’t you admit it if you feel so…” He said looking straight ahead.

“When you know why you keep asking the same thing over and over again.” She said dryly.

He hated this coldness between them. He clutched her arm, drew her closer and said, “Close your eyes and enter the realm that I have created just for us… can you see the first rains of monsoon soaking the dry land and that fragrance of soil. Look around someone’s waiting for you, yearning as ever…” He said and touched the fine curve of her neck with his fingers.

With the cold touch of his fingers she opened her eyes at once and pushed him away. He tried to grab her hand but she moved forward. “Wareesha, I love you.” He said loudly. She turned and shot a glance; the kind of glance where a person keeps thinking does she really love or she doesn’t…

His head was whirling; everything came to a standstill; she dissolved before his eyes leaving behind the trail of red color of her leather jacket mixed with the colors of fading afternoon.



He opened eyes, shutting his mind’s eye with the pounding heart. He, his alter ego, put his hand on his shoulder and asked, “What happened?”

“Nothing… she left me wondering…”

He smiled, “don’t worry she’ll come back to you just as she always does.” And left.