A Midsummer Weekend (The Extended Version)

2. Six Months After that Weekend

Kamran

It had been six months since I left Pakistan and moved to Seattle for my postgraduate degree in Computer Engineering. If you need to know anything about Seattle, it is this: it rains literally 10 months out of the year. With June and July being the only months that one can enjoy the sun. 

I reached here in August, now it was December. So you can imagine how much I was missing the sun. 

Well, I was missing the sun and another source of sunshine in my life. But she was too busy to chat or email etc. Not that I expected anything different from a first year medical student. I had hoped she would post something at least on instagram, so I could get a minuscule insight into her life, just to satisfy my craving. But there was nothing on any of her social media accounts. 

And I hesitated to contact her after I had tried once over email. That virtual conversation went something like this. 

'Hi Farah, just checking in to see how you were doing. Hope med school isn't sucking the life out of you. Take care. Kamran'

'Hello. Still alive. But v. v. busy. Farah'

When I told my sister, she chided me for bothering her in the first place. And rightly pointed out that there was nothing I could get out of conversing with her, other than making her uncomfortable and the wrath of my dad if he found out. My dad wasn't very religious, but talking to girls, or interacting with them in anyway without parental approval was strictly forbidden in our house. 

So, I focused on my work and my studies, just as I knew she was. 

And I tried to settle into my new life in the US, which came with a many challenges, none greater than having to share an apartment with two other desi students. Neither of whom had lived alone before. 

Today was a weekend, and after looking at the dwindling funds in our bank accounts, Safdar and I had decided that we needed to stop eating out and try to cook something ourselves. Safdar was the roommate I got along with. Javed was the other roommate that neither Safdar, nor I, got along with. 

I had just returned from grocery shopping when I rang the bell for a full 30 seconds before attempting to unlock my front door, despite my hands being full of grocery bags. Though, I wish I hadn't entered my apartment at all as the smell of rotten eggs and burnt metal hit me in the face as soon as I entered.

"Sorry man, couldn't open the door", Safdar called out to me. 

"What the heck happened here? And what are you doing?"

For someone reason he was standing on a high stool with a screwdriver doing something to the screws in the hinges of Javed's bedroom door 

"That idiot doesn't even know how to boil eggs. He put three eggs in 1 cup of water and left it to boil while he locked himself up in his room, doing God knows what!", Safdar fumed, and wrinkled his nose at the disgusting smell, "And now our rooms stink, while his is fine. And he just locked his door and walked out of here, leaving me to deal with everything"

This wasn't the first time Javed had burnt something and then left us to deal with the smell, while he conveniently locked his own room. 

"So you're taking his door off its hinges?"

Despite the feeling of nausea that smell was inducing in me, I couldn't help but grin at my gutsy friend. 

"You have a better idea to make him pay?"

I honestly didn't, so I put down the groceries and helped him. Needless to say, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant that day, while our phones continuously pinged with angry messages from Javed who was a worse handyman than he was a cook.