Dear Shumail..

Chapter 5

25th September, 2018

Shumail felt he was missing on something when he walked in his empty house after he had dropped off Eram. He felt a little sting in his heart when he entered his home. In his huge mansion he felt himself lonely for the very first time that night. His gaze went around the huge mansion to imagine what it would have been if his parents would have been with him.

He wouldn't deny it anymore but he wanted someone to accompany him, to wait for him to return from work, to cook him meals, to take care of him. He wanted someone for himself. He wanted a companion. He would deny it every time but he had started to agree with the fact lately that he wanted someone to enter his world and be his forever and ever.

"Being alone is not a good feeling at all. I should actually agree to Aunt Aasiya and let her select a girl for me." He muttered to himself as he remembered Shahmeer's mother telling him that she was going to select a girl for him to settle down. He had denied it back then but he felt he should agree to her and let her select someone for him. He let out a huff as he ascended the stairs taking two steps at a time and entered his room.

Placing his briefcase on the couch, he walked to the bathroom and freshened up changing into some casual clothes. As he walked back in his room, he got his laptop and sat on the couch to continue working on the final structure of the smartphone model to be launched at the year end. In the middle of designing the structure his cellphone began ringing. He connected his earphones and answered the call and continued working on the model alongside.

"Good evening Mr. Chang. How are you doing?" Shumail spoke as soon as he answered the call.

"Very Good evening Mr. Ibrahim. I'm doing perfectly fine. I hope you're doing good too!"

"Of course Mr. Chang. I'm doing good as well. Thank you for asking."

"Well Mr. Ibrahim I apologise for last time once again for cancelling the meeting at the last moment but I hope we can do the meeting again?"

"That was no problem at all Mr. Chang. I understand and yes we can surely do the meeting again. When should we have the meeting then?" Shumail asked as took hold of a notepad and jotted down some points that needed consideration in the model of the new smatphone, his eyes fixed on his laptop screen.

"I was thinking if you could visit me here at my home town in Japan and we have the meeting. I fear I might not be able to come to Canada for I'm conducting all my business from my home. Will that be fine with you?"

Shumail's eyebrows knitted together as he did a mental calculation of all the things that he have to take care of if he would go on this business trip. He finally analysed the situation and decided that it won't be of any harm.

"Sure no problem Mr. Chang. I'll prepare for the meeting." Shumail spoke as he emailed his secretary about the meeting and asked her to arrange his schedule according to the trip.

"That will be great Mr. Ibrahim. I would accompany you to the manufacturing plant of our company then and you can have a look at the development process yourself. This partnership of ours will get us some good market share."

"Manufacturing unit? That will actually be great! I'm about to finish the final layout and structure of it. I'll mail you the design in an hour then."

"I'm looking forward for it. Good night." He cut the call and put his cell aside as he continued to work on the design.

***

It was a day before his business trip and Shumail found himself seated on a swing in the playground of his neighbourhood after he returned from his Zohr salah. The swing beside him and all the other slides were covered with a thin layer of snow and he saw a snowman rest in the middle of the playground that he assumed that the kids from the neighbourhood made, sticking two long sticks by it's side as it's hands and a carrot that made it's nose, the snowman had a scarf wrapped around it's neck as well. It brought a smile of his face as he saw the snowman and gave himself a push to swing.