Their Last Season

The sun rose again in his full glory,

Cascading lights replacing dusk with bright morning.

Sumaiyya was the first to stir , she glanced at her side saw Hamza sleeping peacefully.

Flashback of last night played in front of her eyes.

Her heart grew heavy for him.

She realised, How much pain a person can carry behind their beaming smile?

Without disturbing his sleep and she rose up from bed and went for her morning routines.

Sumaiyya was descending the stairs, when she saw a familiar red dupatta,

"Amina aunty is back?"

The thought popped up in her mind.

She hurriedly descended the stairs and reached near aunty who was going inside the kitchen.

Sumaiyya abruptly stopped on the threshold of kitchen,

"Does she know how to console a grieving mother?"

"Does she has words which can act as a balm on the wounds inflicted on Aunty's heart?"

"What she has to offer a mother, who had bid farewell to her daughter for forever?"

She had no words.

Her eyes welled up with tears, she gulped the lump forming in her throat.

She didn't know what came in her mind she started walking slowly towards her, she stopped inches away from her, mustering up the courage she put her hand on her shoulder.

Amina aunty turned towards her,

"Is the woman standing in front of her is really Amina aunty?"

Her mind wandered.

She is anything but a woman whom she saw 16 days ago,

She was someone else, a woman grew more older than her age,

A woman who is tired in a way as if she hasn't taken rest since a decade.

Amina aunty's orbs met with her black orbs and the world stilled for Sumaiyya.

Once radiant eyes, nothing but an abandoned canvas.

Eyes singing the same song of melancholy which she heard when she saw the woman who kissed her forehead.

Same tiredness.

Same grief.

Same helplessness.

Sumaiyya felt as if she is hallucinating Amina's eyes were replaced with the eyes of woman with envelope.

"Choti Bahu, you want something?"

Amina's aunty's voice snapped her out of the world she was in.

She just hugged aunty, neither she said something nor aunty.

Just two woman one consoling other for what she didn't even know.

Other just being consoled and was offered no one offered her.

Sumaiyya pulled away.

She took Hamza's and her breakfast and went towards their room.

She slowly opened the door saw an empty bed, and heard water running in the bathroom.

She put their breakfast on the table and sat down on the sofa.

Simply waiting.

The bathroom door creaked announcing his presence,

Hamza stopped, meeting her eyes searching for any pity but there he saw a warmth.

A woman who was smiling,

His eyes telling it's ok to grieve.

He smiled.

He went towards her and sat down beside her on the sofa.

She took out two plates but he held her hand, her brows furrowed, then she saw him only serving food in one plate.

Later on he took the morsel first forwarded towards her, she blushed, oh Sumaiyya and her blush Hamza's favourite.

He never understood a fiercely bold lady.

Who can shut people's mouth with one glare can blush on these small gestures.

But he doesn't know the woman in love becomes white palette who shows different colours when the lover's frequency matching her heart's symphony.

He fed her then himself.

They completed their breakfast on silence.

Hamza has to leave for some work.

He bid her farewell.

Sumaiyya's heart was strangely heavy today.

She made an ablution and performed two rakah of nafl( a voluntary prayer).

The heart can only find solace when the soul surrendered to its creator.

She uplifted her hands for dua,

" Ya rabb , please forgive for the sins I do intentionally and the one I did or do unintentionally.

I am very weak servant of yours who may lost in her path, but please guide me.

Ya Allah make me something which can change the lives of people associated with me and mine too in a positive way.

Ya rabb, please forgive Shanaya and grant her Jannat.

Ya Rabb give Amina aunty and that woman solace.

Ya Rabb give Hamza the peace he deserves.

And may his all sorrows be mine.

Ya rab for Hamza and I be it" Fi Dunya wal Akhirah."

(In this world and the hereafter)

Ameen.

Concluding her prayer, feeling weight had been lifted upon her.

She decided to spend some time with her grand mother in law.

She reached there, knocked on the door.

"Come", was the elder woman's reply.

She went inside.

"Assalamualaikum Bi jaan", she greeted her.

"Walaiqumasalam choti Bahu" Bijaan replied warmly.

They talked for a while.

"How is Hamza doing?" asked bijaan.

"He is good." Sumaiyya shrugged.

"Bitiya, I mean to ask how is he doing after Shanaya's death?" Bijaan reframed the question.

It clicked Sumaiyya.

"He has his good and bad moments both ,he is grieving Bijaan, the old stitches on wounds has also reopened so.."Sumaiyya said with warm tone.

Bijaan nodded.

The silence of the room could be cut with knife.

Sumaiyya looked at Bijaan she was lost,

In which thought she didn't know.

"Did he talk about Ayla?"Bijaan asked in a slow voice.

It clicked her that by old wounds stiches what did Sumaiyya meant.

Sumaiyya nodded.

Bijaan was lost again.

Seeing her silence Sumaiyya began," Are you also missing Aapi?"

Bijaan looked at Sumaiyya and for a second again,it was not Bijaan's eyes.

It was Amina aunty's. The woman with envelope's eyes.

The same song of Melancholy.

"Sumaiyya" BIjaan called her breaking the spell.

She gulped the lump in her throat.

"Yes"

"I have been calling for a minute, where were you lost bitiya?" Bijaan asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Nowhere",She shrugged.

" You were saying something", Sumaiyya asked to change the topic.

"Yes, I miss her, I miss her daily when she was newborn I dressed her up for her Aqeeqah, and when she was grown up I dressed her up in white clothes kafan."

Bijaan smiled sadly.

The irony of life.

The one we raise with all our love.

The one whose voice echoes in the house.

The same person one day sleep silently forever.

Sumaiyya bit her lip.

"Hamza was her world and she was his" reminisces Bijaan.

"When she slept for forever, her Hamza couldn't sleep for while,

It took him 2 years to accept Ayla isn't anymore."

"Her illness was not diagnosed earlier"Enquired Sumaiyya she has this question when she heard of appendix burst.

Bijaan stilled.

Sumaiyya saw the stillness.

The clenched fist was tightened when she asked the question.

The unclench one grabbing the bedsheet.

A shadow came on Bijaan's face.

"Gall bladder stone was not common back then."She heard Bijaan speaking.

Gall bladder stone?

Wasn't it appendix?

Sumaiyya wondered.

"Bijaan are you sure about her illness." She asked carefully.

"Yes bitiya."she heard Bijaan replying but her face was monotonous as if she was not convinced about what she was saying.

"Ok bitiya I need rest, we will talk later. bijaan said warmly.

Sumaiyya nodded

But despite the warmth in Bijaan's tone she felt shivers. She didnt know why she felt as if Bijaan wanted her to be gone.

And that unsettled with her.