Sleep had vanished that night. Her countenance was silent and dead. The unstoppable clock was the only sound in her room. It was 2am and 80°c in Kashmir and there was not a single shred of a sweater or a shawl covering her tender body which had a silky off-white blouse and a long skirt.
She closed her eyes for a moment and rose to do what her heart had always wished for. She went near her husband and felt his breath as she kissed his forehead.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
She did the same to her young child. Without making any sound, she opened the door and the milky fog covered her. She turned, took a final look and left…to be his forever.
8years ago:- (Pehalgam,Kashmir)
Sabreen was the youngest in the Ashfaque family, one of the most respected ones in the paradise.
With an interesting medley of beauty, innocence, and intelligence, the twenty-two-year old girl was the most loved in her neighbourhood.
However, the only thing she hated was the period between December to March when the air would turn into chilled ice-creams and snow would be the new jacket.
It was one such evening on 14th January, when she was shivering in spite of being stuffed in three layers of clothing and sipping kahwah(strong tea).
That’s when a voice called her, ‘Excuse me!’
‘Huuuuhhhh, yeah!’
‘Can I click your picture?’
‘Why?’ she asked, shivering. ‘Who are you?’
‘Hi,’ he stepped further and offered a handshake. ‘I’m Shiraz Hakim, a photographer from Iran. I usually visit Kashmir in winters to capture the scenic beauty of this heaven. Everyone seems to enjoy these winds except you, so I thought of clicking a contrasting picture.’
His blue eyes, sharp eyebrows, straight face, slightly crooked nose and pinkish red lips,nothing escaped from her eyes while his introduction was on.
As if the winters had stopped troubling her for a moment. She knew something happened inside her when she heard his husky voice.
‘May I?’ he asked again. Finding it hard to reveal her affection, she simply nodded.
Shiraz went ahead and explained her the pose and captured the moment. He thanked her and left, but she knew that something had still not left her heart and maybe it will be there for a while.
Sabreen visited the same venue for a week, but Shiraz had disappeared. She tried looking for him at all the places possible, but she didn’t find him. He was gone.
2years later:- (SriNagar, Kashmir)
Sabreen started working as an assistant professor in Amar Singh College. Her life was pretty simple, until one day when she saw Shiraz Hakim in the campus, identification didn’t take a second and the excited soul ran to catch up with him.
‘Hey!’ she called. The blue-eyed boy turned and she went red…again.
‘You remember me?’ she continued.
‘How couldn’t I?’ he paused for a moment and said, ‘Sabreen!’
And then there was no looking back. The two advanced from strangers to acquaintances to friends pretty fast. Shiraz made sure they would go out at night only, in 10°c, so that every time she vibrated, he would give his coat.
The two would stay out whole night eating dum aloos (spicy fried potato with curry) and drinking sheer chai. His mere presence would make Sabreen forget about the cold.
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Coffee Time Slurps
Short Story#8 in short stories #1 in micro tales. Not every idea that pops up in my mind can be cultivated into a novel (full length or short). Some are just made for one shots only and some are just for letters. So this book is the compilation of all those l...
