Madawa

15

Saman woke up late today. It was a Saturday and her day off so she slept in. It was around noon when she was woken up by various sounds coming from outside her room. She quickly sat up and picked up her dupatta from the chair next to her bed. Placing the dupatta on her head she walked out of her room. The sounds were coming from the kitchen so she followed them. She was surprised to see her brother with Majid in the kitchen. Saim was instructing Majid with something. After listening for a while, she realized that the instructions were actually their mother's chickpea curry recipe. His eyes fell on her and he smiled.

"Assalam o Alaikum," he greeted her with the fullest, most genuine smile she'd seen on his face in a long time. The last time he had smiled so full was when their parents were alive and Saman's eyes pooled up.

"Walaikum Assalam... Kya horaha hai?" She asked, grabbing the tea pot from the cabinet.

"I have some good, in fact great news!" Saim was beaming with excitement. "Main koi disappointment nahi chah raha tha, isliye final hone se pehle tumhe kuch nahi bataya," he said.

"Kaisi good news?" Saman asked him.

"I got a job," he said. Saman didn't know how to react. Saim continued, "remember the project Asher and I had been working on?" He asked excitedly. Saman remembered.

Asher is Saim's best friend and they'd been working together to start an e-commerce business. It was a lot of work to set it up and they began working on it for almost five years but when the accident happened, it came to a stop. With all the surgeries and the tragedy, Saim went into depression and didn't talk to friends or family for months. It wasn't until a few months ago that he got in touch with Asher again and they started looking into this. He told Saman that the business went live this morning and he would be working remotely.

"Bhai this is great news!" Saman hugged her brother.

"This business has great potential! We're gonna be making money very soon," Saim told her and paused for a while. "Please job chhor do, aur apna Masters complete karo," he added. "I'm sorry I neglected you. Tum bhi us qarb se guzar rahi thi but I made it all about myself. Please let me take care of you, let me do what I'm supposed to do," he said, teary-eyed now. Saman placed her hand over his and smiled.

"Aapko shayad iss baat ka ehsaas nahi hai but you've done a lot for me. I'm very happy for you." She told him pressing his hand lightly. "Humari aazmaesh ke din khatam horahay hain, bhai," she added and he nodded. The siblings shared an emotional moment and continued to have breakfast together.

Ten months later

The beat up two-bedroom apartment looked strange, vacant. The siblings' belongings were packed up in boxes. Saim was right. Their business had tons of potential and within a couple of months, he was earning enough to enroll Saman in a prestigious law program in the city and move to a better locality. They rented a house in an excellent neighborhood and things were perfect. Saman quit her job a few months ago after months of insisting of Saim. This was the first time in years that good things were happening to the siblings so Saman just didn't want to get over in her head. She kept her job until she came to terms with the fact that Saim and her, they were going to be okay.

He sat in opposite Dr. Leonard; a renowned neurologist from California. He was hearing the doctor's voice but his brain couldn't make sense of the words. He blocked out any and every sound and all he could hear was muffles; as if he were underwater... and that's exactly how he felt like. The same words kept repeating over and over.

There's no cure

Don't lose hope

Manageable