A Midsummer Weekend (The Extended Version)

10. The Swat Trip

Farah

Clickety-clank

Bumpity-bump

Honk honk

So went the van that Komal, Ahad and I were riding in on our way to the school that we had promised to donate supplies to. The school itself was at a short but treacherous distance from the main Swat valley. A beautiful valley among snow-capped mountains, that is also affectionately called the Switzerland of Pakistan.

"Who thought renting this khatara van was a good idea? It doesn't even have a freaking AC", Ahad muttered under his breath. (Old broken down)

Of course neither Komal or I owned up to it, and just shrugged our shoulders as we hung on for dear life. 

"We're almost there. Stop complaining", Komal snapped back at her brother who had been quietly cursing his decision to join us. 

"You could have been more specific when you said the roads were bad. There are better ways to die than being thrown off a cliff in the middle of nowhere"

Ahad and Komal kept taking jibes at each other while I sat quietly in the backseat holding on to the boxes of school supplies, wondering how Kamran put up with this constant sibling rivalry. 

Or maybe they didn't even notice him when they started bickering, a feeling of sadness descended upon me remembering my conversation with Komal from the day before. And I wished that instead of Ahad, the seat in front of me was occupied by his younger brother. For I knew exactly what his younger brother would have been saying at that time, and a smile played on my lips while I gazed outside thinking about a conversation I had with him. 

**Flashback**

"So, you think you can save the world, huh?", he asked me with a coy smile on his handsome face, as we sat next to each other at the expansive table that seated the rest of our family on the first night of our trip to Naran. 

"I never claimed I could save the world. Just that I wanted to help as many people as I could", I answered, wondering yet again how it was that we always seemed to end up next to each other. 

"An honest doctor who knows her limits...", he laughed, "I like that"

"Just because I know my limits doesn't mean I won't keep trying to push them"

He paused midway while putting a piece of kabab and bread into his mouth and glanced at me. Even though I kept my gaze on the food in front of me, it was impossible to miss the look of amusement in his eyes. 

"You have an answer for everything, don't you?"

"How could I not? You keep asking me such easy questions", I shrugged, stifling a laugh. 

To be honest, I had surprised myself as well. I wasn't the kind of girl who talked with men so freely, or talked at all really. But there was something so comfortable and natural about being with Kamran that my brain just kept regurgitating words without giving me any time to even think about them. 

"Ok. Here is a hard one then", he whispered, leaning into me slightly. The scent of his cologne tickled my senses, making me giddy for a moment.

"Name something that everyone thinks is important, but is actually not"

Just before then I had been thinking about how everyone blamed the dilapidated condition of some of the local infrastructure on politicians in power, and so my immediate answer was, "Power. You don't need to be in power to get work done. You need guts and determination"