Once In A Blue Moon

11 Daggers

Know that if people are impressed with you, in reality they are impressed with the beauty of God's covering of your sins.

— Ibn Jawzi

☾

She sits lost in her thoughts by the closed balcony doors in Zoraiz's small apartment. Through the glass, she watches the sky raging as it has been for the last few days, alternating between storms and rain. Her feet rest on the chair opposite to her and she nurses a tea cup in her hands. The weather has been upset lately.

A streak of lightning cracks the gray clouds with neon blue for a flicker of a second before disappearing, but enough for her to hang onto the blue of it until she drifts somewhere far away. To Mikael. It reminds her of his eyes, and she doesn't know why. But she doesn't try shaking him off her mind. Something in her head keeps humming, thoughts of him that are keeping her occupied unknowingly.

The sound of the door opening and closing interrupts her musings and she cranes her neck to see Zoraiz walking out of his room towards the open kitchen. He's only in his trousers, shirt absent, and hair damp from the shower, a towel resting around his shoulders. Banafsha knits her eyebrows disapprovingly.

"It's cold. You want to get sick?"

He grunts dismissively and pours himself a glass of orange juice from the fridge.

"Mr. No-Brains," she mutters under her breath before announcing loudly, "If you do get sick, God forbid, I'm not tending to you."

"I expect no less," he mocks.

She scowls at him. "Quit being nasty. I told you already that I went to check on your professor's daughter."

He takes his glass and walks towards her, nudging her feet gently with his knee off the chair and sitting in front of her. He holds his earlobe apologetically.

"Thank you for that, and I'm sorry for my misbehavior."

She rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her tea. "The good news is that the child's condition is diagnosed early and has excellent prognosis since she hasn't developed any complications so far with it. She can live normal and healthy life with treatment. The bad news? The shunt size is big enough that it requires surgery and her father is reluctant to the option. Waiting to see if the defect closes on its own with time is risky as the symptoms have already started to manifest."

"But it's not fatal and she'll be okay, right?"

"Yes, with surgery."

"That's a relief." Zoraiz gulps down half of his juice before smiling ruefully. "Although I understand professor's trouble. He lost his wife on the OT table. He's afraid of putting his daughter on that table too."

Curious, Banafsha leans towards to him, the photograph of his wife flashing in her mind. "What happened to her? To his wife, I mean."

"A car hit her." He takes another gulp of the juice, continuing, "They got her to the hospital but she died during the operation. He saw it all firsthand: the accident and her taking her last breaths in his arms."

"That's tragic," she comments passively with only a tinge of sorrow and empathy for him, having dealt with such tragedies for many years now to adapt.

Zoraiz shrugs one shoulder. "That's life, Afsha."

"How long has it been?"

"Seven years."

"So long and yet he's unable to move on from her," she remarks, recalling Mikael carrying his late wife's photo all three times she has run into him.