Syrene had now started to visit ‘Hannah’ and her mother. But when time came for them to exchange words Hannah and Syrene maintained their silence. They both wanted to ask and exchange, a lot of things between each other but somehow they remained quiet.
Inside the class room also they continued as strangers and haters.
One evening, while Hannah was walking back to her home, she heard someone calling her name.
“Hannah”
She turned and found Siyad
“Oh, hi.”
“Long time no see?”
“Haha….. Yes”
“How is your mom?”
“Feeling better”
Hannah was actually looking like a hooligan. Her shirt was buttoned uneven. Hair loose, stockings one up and one down. No earrings or bracelets. Nothing girlish. Siyad just observed her.
“When is the last time you took a shower ?” He asked curiously.
“The last time, when it rained, I guess”.
He never expected such an answer from her, so he laughed in surprise.
“So how are things going on between you and Syerene?” He asked her warmly.
“What should happen between us?”
She got annoyed.
“Okay – A silent war is still on, I guess.”
She replied nothing but ignored him and looked away
“Are you always like this?” He continued
“Like what?”
“Arrogant, shabby……….” He really wanted to comment on her appearance, but he may offend her badly. He thought.
“What’s your problem?” She turned nasty
“Cool, chill…..”
“If you don’t like the air around me, then why can’t you just avoid me in the first place?”
She burst out
He just observed her, quietly and smiled. Hannah noticed his attitude.
“What are you looking at?”
“Just checking, how beautiful you are?” He winked and said
“What?” Suddenly, she felt odd
“What did he mean by the word beautiful?” She thought
“Okay let me challenge you on something?” He said boldly
“Challenge me?”
“The next time you see me, you will wear this, around your neck”.
Siyad extended a silver chain from his pocket.
“Don’t worry it’s free”
“Why should I wear it?”
“I don’t know, but you will wear it”
Hannah was not ready to accept his gift, so he forcefully placed it inside her palm.
Then without a word he walked away.
………………….
“So that’s what kept you busy?
Annie smiled and questioned Hannah.
It was snowing around them. Both of them were covered in woolen mittens, coats and stockings. Muffler scarfs and boots. On a park bench they sat. The rivers frozen, trees and meadows covered in snow.
“Not only that Annie… my mom is sick too.”
“Are you afraid of losing her?”
“Of course I am”
“My Haffy also lost his mother, but I am now protecting him like a Mom. May be someone else will fill in your mothers shoes too.”
“I don’t want to replace my Mom.”
Annie understood her emotions.
“So how is this Siyad?” Annie asked Hannah.
“Normal”
“Oh…. Ho…. How is he? Is he stunning?”
“Who knows?”
“So you won’t wear his gift?”
“Why should I?”
“Because for the last two days, you talked only about Siyad and not about your mother”
Hannah turned silent.
Her cheeks turned red.
“Are you blushing Hannah?”
“I don’t know. This is something very new for me”. After a pause Hannah continued “Have you ever felt something strange like this before?”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning…..” Hannah searched for words to cover up her emotions.
“I think yes.”
“Yes !” Hannah responded excitedly
“To my Haffy”
“What?” Hannah felt it absurd.
“Haha…. I love Haffy, just as you love your Siyad”
“What? I don’t love him”
“Okay, then you care about him”
“Care about him? No way….”
“Okay then you forget about that silver chain”
“Oh please…. I sure can”
“Then leave it in this world for me.”
Hannah checked at her silver chain.
………………..
Next day at school, Hannah came late as usual. The class was listening to a serious law in metaphysics. Like always the teacher ignored her as she found her way towards her seat. It was raining outside. Before opening her notes, she just touched her neck, to see if her chain is safely tied around her neck or not. For some reason she smiled to herself. Then she slowly opened her book. Just out of curiosity, she checked for the presence of Syrene in the class. There she is sitting right in front of her.
Syrene was sitting, as if she is unaware about the world around her. She was stooping and studiously jotting down lectures in her note book. Her ponytailed hair swayed as per her writing progressed. Then Hannah noticed something around her neck two. A silver chain just like hers. Hannah’s heart skipped a beat for some unknown reason. She felt a pain
“Oh my God, Siyad……. Had gifted her too”
Even if her brain tried to explain something to her, her heart was not ready to accept it. Getting disturbed, is an easy task especially when your brain is filled with nothing but a single emotion called infatuation or in other words ‘lust’. Rest of her day went like a silent movie.
“Why should I get upset?” She thought as she sat alone in the corner of the Cafeteria.
“Your Mom is Okay?” Suddenly Syrene appeared before her.
“Yes”. She replied in a normal way. As Syrene was about to walk away from her, Hannah called out.
“Syrene.”
“Yes” she replied anxiously.
“If you are not busy, care to join me for few minutes?”
Syrene felt as if Hannah need to discuss something with her. Syrene took a set opposite to her, and waited patiently for Hannah to open up. Hannah straight away wanted to question about her silver chain.
“How is your Mom?”
“Oh, she wants to go personal” Syrene thought. So with a smile she said.
“Tired and sleepless”
“Next, what can be asked?” Hannah thought.
“You know Hannah, my Mamma loves music, so at nights, I sing to her.”
“Thank God, Syrene is helping. She started to talk about herself.” Hannah felt relieved “so I just need to be a silent listener”.
For Hannah, she never wanted to intrude into anyone’s private life. Nor did she like anyone peeping in hers. Only Annie had the license of intrude into her Personal issues. Hannah tried hard to act attentive to Syrene’s anecdotes. For minutes she had talked only about her mother and no one else. Especially not a word about Siyad.
“How boring! Even I have got a mother who is sick too. Why should we keep on talking about someone’s illness?” Hannah’s arrogance kept on muttering these lines inside her brain.
“Hannah, few days back, when I came back from the school, Mamma was sitting in her armchair.”
“Oh God kill me, before she finish off me like this.” Hannah’s intolerance had reached its heights.
“Then Mamma extended a box towards me. You wanted to know what was inside it Hannah.”
“A gun, I guess.” She wanted to answer back, but she zipped her mouth.
“My favourite club sandwiches. She made it for me, in spite of her illness”.
“You idiot, your mom is lying. She might have purchased it from an expensive bake house, just to make her extremely pampered daughters happy.” Hannah felt like hitting Syrene with her coffee mug. But she controlled her temper.
So Syrene continued “Mamma was about to feed me then that Siyad snatched it away into his mouth.”
“Wait a minute, now since that Siyad had entered into her conversations, asking about her silver chain would be easier.” Hannah thought as she became a bit more attentive to Syrene’s nonsense.
“Siyad was always like this.” Syrene continued.
“How are you related to Siyad? Is he your brother?” Hannah made a direct hit.
“No! You dummy. He is my best friend, actually my childhood sweet heart. There is not a single day that went on, without us chatting to each other. I gives him a wakeup call every morning, then breakfast call, lunch, snack, dinner”.
“Poor Siyad. What a shitty time piece he got? “Hannah thought.
“If I miss a call, then he won’t talk to me. He won’t pick my call for a while. Then I had to call him again and again, until he picks my call.
“Poor thing” She pitied Siyad. “Is it jealousy?” Hannah then asked to herself.
“What about that silver chain? It is so pretty Syrene.” Hannah finally managed to ask her.
“Oh, it was gifted by him. It represents his association”.
“Association?”
“He is a part of a charitable association that rescues sexually abused kids and adults. They Provides shelter, education, clothes and safety.”
Hannah silently admired this piece of information somehow.
“There is something more to this chain”.
“What?” Hannah got surprised.
“It has a GPS locator. It allows to locate me, if I got lost, kidnapped or misplaced somehow” Syrene turned into laughs, at her own jokes.
“I think Hannah, he would also gift you one, sooner or later.”
Hannah then slowly exposed her silver chain to Syrene.
“Oh, there it is.” On seeing Hannah’s silver chain Syrene merrily expressed her excitement. “See, how caring Siyad is towards the helpless and underprivileged ones?”
“Should I consider that as a complement or as an Insult” Hannah thought “Oh God… enough! I can’t tolerate her anymore.”
“Okay Syrene, had a nice time with you. Thank you”.
So without, further words Hannah pulled out her back pack and walked away from Syerene.
………….
“Oh God! How foolish I was?”
“Having a crush is not a big deal Hannah.”
Annie tried to console her friend. “Don’t worry dear, no one had come to know about it, apart from you and me”.
“That’s true still”.
“Still what?” Annie sounded rough
“Still nothing”.
“I think you still got something for him”.
“No dear. May be because the way her helped my mom had got some impact in me. That’s all.” Hannah tried to justify her feelings towards him.
“Bullshit, then you should feel more attached to Syrene than that Siyad”.
“That’s true… But…..”
“But What? Siyad is a boy and Syrene is a girl, she is not just a girl but Siyad’s girlfriend. Get real”
After giving it a thought Hannah nodded ‘Yes’ to her friend. She then pulled out the chain from her neck.
“Now what to do with it?”
“Leave it here.” Annie suggested.
It was spring around them. They were seated near garden window frilled with daisies. The sky was green too. But the sun shined with all its brightness, giving a golden tinge to the entire background. Annie then continued with Haffy’s anecdotes.
“My God Hannah, he is really naughty. But without him, I can’t stay alive now”.
“Mm”
“Last time…. he hide my books inside a tree trunk. Then when I acted as if I was crying. Haffy rushed towards me, with those books”.
It may be childish, but Hannah loved to listen on Haffy’s playfulness.
…….
In the morning, when Hannah woke up, she seemed happy. Then thoughts of Siyad automatically rushed into her brains. She checked the presence of the silver chain around her neck. But it was missing there. Hannah was about to panic then suddenly it came to her mind.
“Oh, last night I left it with Annie.”
Hannah smiled and went to brush her teeth.
Mumtaz followed her
“My oh My, What happened to you?”
“What Mom?” With tooth paste in her mouth, Hannah answered.
“You are brushing your teeth. Do you think it as normal?”
Hannah knew about her mother’s itchy nature.
“Well…. From this moment onwards, I am a different person. You can locate me…….”
There! Hannah suddenly stopped her conversation.
“Locate you?” Mumtaz wanted to hear, rest of her conversations. But without a word Hannah moved around, she packed her school bag, got dressed and rushed towards the school.
Mumtaz, like always, stood wondering.
“What might have got into her brains?”
