Sapno Ka Shaher

47. Relevance of Dreams

"Nainaa..!! Nainaa...!!!"

Naina jolted in sleep and snapped open her eyes, finding her husband's worried face in front of her with his hand on her shoulder.

"Tumhe itna paseena kyu aa raha hai?" Sameer asked her, sitting on his knees beside her.

He wiped the sweat beads on her forehead with his thumb, tucking the wet hair strands on her cheek behind her ear. He had let Naina sleep, who was cocooned in his embrace, as it was a lazy Sunday morning. But a need to use the bathroom surged and he had to slowly separate himself from her.

Naina let out deep breaths, shifting her gaze from Sameer to the surroundings, finding herself disoriented about the place and time. Wasn't she on the streets of Mumbai?

"Tum theek ho Naina?" Sameer asked her, seeing her inability to respond. Scooting closer to her, he helped her sit seeing her attempts to get up.

Naina leaned back on the wall, resting her head on it as she cleaned the sweat on her face. Shutting her eyes, she let herself relax first, convincing her panicked mind that she was in her house, in the present moment. Not somewhere else.

After feeling Sameer's warm palm on her cheek, she opened her eyes. His soothing demeanor was enough to calm her racing heartbeats down, and his extended hand enabled her to submit herself in his arms. She locked her hands on his midriff, resting her head on his collarbone, she let the rhythm of his heartbeat sink in her system.

"Kya baat hai Naina? Tum itni pareshan kyu ho?" Sameer asked gently after a while, rubbing her arm.

Naina sighed, tucking her hair behind and tightening her hold on him. After resolving both their issues with one another, she had thought that the dreams she was seeing in her half asleep state would stop showing up. They did for a week, but she continued to see them again since last week.

"Sameer, mujhe kafi dino se ek sapna aa raha hai..." she shared it with him, frustrated with the repetition of its occurrence.

Her serious tone put a frown on Sameer's face. He looked at her worried. "Kaunsa sapna?"

"Koi mera pichha kar raha hai sapne mein... aur... mai bass bhag rahi hu usse... sadkon par... lekin jab bhi mai pichhe mudkar dekhti hu toh sirf andhera nazar aata hai... aur kuchh nahi..."

Sameer's frown deepened. He hadn't heard such a tale from Naina before. He caressed her cheek, "tumne kaha kafi dinon se... matlab?"

Naina looked into his deep eyes. Was it right to include Sameer in her misery of these nightmares? She could have kept him away from it, couldn't she? But they both had promised not to hide things from one another. And she desperately needed a kind of solution for this.

"Matlab... mujhe kafi dinon se yeh ek hi sapna dikh raha hai... roz roz nahi aata... lekin aksar dikh jata hai."

Sameer turned pensive seeing Naina's expressions. He was immediately reminded of his own nightmare a few months back... the nightmare he saw of a railway platform.

Does Naina's dream too have a relevance to something?

But what could it be about?

"Naina, tum periods ko lekar pareshan ho?" He took her hands in his, stroking her knuckles with his thumb, "tum please tension mat lo... aa jayenge... ya dopahar ko doctor ke paas jana hai?" he asked subtly.

It had been close to two weeks past Naina's due date, but her periods hadn't come yet. She had ignored it for the initial 2-3 days, but then she started worrying. Her periods could come early in a case, but they were hardly delayed.