Assalam-o-Alaikum and hello to everyone! 

First chapter of the story! 

Read, vote, comment and enjoy! 

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◊Chapter#1◊

Trnnnnnnnnnngggg. The last bell of the day rang and all the students started pouring out of the school, a school meant for primary and secondary schoolers. Sumaira packed all her belongings in her bag and swung it on her shoulder as the rest of the students.

Something was different about her. There are always two kinds of students who get out of the school in time during the pack-up time. First are those who are in a hurry to get out of the prison of school for the heaven-like home. Sumaira wasn't one of this kind. She was one of the other kind, the one that was better; those students who leave the school in time due to their punctual habit. Rightly, she was one of them.

In contrast to what is found so common today, she was a punctual person. It won't be wrong to say that punctuality was her most prominent quality. She adored punctuality and disliked unpunctual people, except for the ones related to her. That was a bit of favouritism by her heart, but she didn't mind it at all. She had got a number of such students in her school, but she refrained herself from showing any harsh expression towards them. She didn't want to break anyone's heart, another trait of hers. But sometimes, she could not resist. Well, that was rare a bit.

"Are you coming tomorrow?" Sumaira asked Natasha, her best friend, on the way to the girls' wing gate. Amongst all her classmates, if she could ever regard someone completely sincere to her, it was Natasha, alongwith a few other students. The rest posed to be sincere with her to get their own benefits, especially those related to studies. She was a topper of her class and no one could afford missing a chance to be benefitted from her. She also kept helping them despite knowing that they were being selfish.

"Nah. We are free for half of the day because of sports. I won't just let the hotness of the atmosphere eat me up." She said while placing her hands on her face. She and her sensitive face. Sumaira shook her head. "You coming?"

Sumaira shot her a glare. "Oops...sorry. Yeah, yeah. I know that you have taken part in the 200 meters race." Natasha apologized.

"Besides that, I wouldn't have been absent. You know I am punctual." She stated.

"I know that Maira. Just wait and watch, how a gold medal will decorate and adorn the front of your uniform." Natasha showed her a winning picture. It was true. Sumaira was an excellent racer since childhood. She had continually won medals after medals in every coming race. No doubt, this one could be hers easily too.

Sumaira rolled her eyes.

"What? That was true!" Natasha half-yelled and then gave Sumaira a side bump.

By that time, they had already neared the gate. Sumaira gave her a side bump in return. This time, Natasha couldn't balance herself unless someone else got hit by her. The same happened and Natasha regained balance after all. But there was a loud shriek that soon followed after.

That voice is familiar. Sumaira thought.

While Natasha and Sumaira turned around, the former with an eye squinted, the person had got up from the ground. She dusted off her uniform and looked up at them, with her arms folded.

"I-I am so sorry Asia. I am really sorry. I didn't mean that, you know." Natasha tried to apologize to her, but for some reason, Asia was glaring at Sumaira.

"I know that you didn't mean it." Natasha took a sigh of relief at that, but the next statement made her freeze. "She meant it, as always." Asia pointed at Sumaira.

'What? Me? I didn't do anything. I didn't mean anything, nor did Natasha. I don't understand why do you have a problem with me always?" Sumaira also caught anger. 

"You are the reason for everything I do. Sometimes-" She would have continued with her angry stuff if she weren't interrupted by Natasha.

"Friend and foe!" She addressed them, but changed her words when she got a strict look from Asia. "Ok, ok. Sorry. Pals and gals! This is not the time to argue. Besides, I think you two are totally a wrong pair for an argument. So just stop this simply and get yourselves back home. If God wills, you two can continue this during lunch someday if you wish. You know, you have your food as weapons then."

"Whatever." Asia muttered and walked away.

"You know, I always wish I could be you. Cool and calm." Sumaira told Natasha after looking at Asia's back for somewhile.

"Now that's my friend, always wishing to be me." Natasha winked at Sumaira.

Soon they were out of the gate. Both of them tried to search for their separate transports, which had not reached yet. Natasha's eyes wandered off to a usual spot, a slab in front of the college gate, which always had a poor man sitting on it. Right then, the same man was there.

"Look there. Uncle Shawl!" Natasha giggled.

Both of them had kept his name 'Uncle Shawl'. He always had a brown shawl covering his body, be it summer or winter. They had been seeing him eversince their first day in the school, Sumaira's in grade one and Natasha's in grade two. It was his usual spot, especially during the pack-up time, as Sumaira hadn't found him sitting there always whenever she happened to pass by any time other than the working hours in school.

Sumaira also looked at Uncle Shawl. "I don't know why does he always sit there. Doing what? Staring at the students getting out of the school and into their cars. I think he is planning to kidnap some student, maybe a targeted one already, or maybe a random one. But he seems to be a kidnapper by his looks, really." Sumaira offered her opinion. "Anyway." She shrugged.

"No, he can't be a kidnapper. What do you think? A kidnapper occupying a place for almost nine years and not yet a single child abducted? Nah." Natasha negated her. "What I think is, that he is a beggar, maybe a professional one, but he pretends to be one who does not beg. You know, pretending to have some self-esteem. Well, that time has gone to have such beggars in Pakistan with self-esteem. Now, they have adopted it as an occupation." She spread her hands around while explaining. She had this habit of using her hands while talking.

"Natasha, I think you should either get your hands tied behind your back or you should stick a tape on your mouth. One of them is just fine for you at a time to convey your message. You don't even need to learn the signs language." Sumaira spoke and got a slap on the arm by her. "Ok, I think we should go talk to him. Just to pass time."

Natasha gave Sumaira an are-you-mad look. 

"What?" Sumaira asked, amazed. "Don't worry. He is not going to kidnap us. Just follow your opinion about him. He is a beggar, right. Besides, he is one and we are two."

"Yeah right. Let's go." Natasha responded, partially agreeing and both of them headed towards Uncle Shawl. For the first time they were going to talk to him.

"Assalam-o-Alaikum uncle!" Sumaira greeted him in a playful manner once they were close to him.

His head shot up to look at them, which was previously busy in gazing at the school students from far. Brown eyes met his pitch black eyes. Sumaira felt something strange at once. There was something in the depth of his eyes, something very deep, as if an ocean would engulf everything on the shore. There seemed a battle going on in his eyes. His eyes were the battlefield. She could feel a threatening message conveyed by his eyes. But she didn't know whom was it conveyed to. Maybe the world, she thought. She couldn't even understand the threatening message.

Natasha also felt strange, but her case was different. She was astonished at the behavior of Uncle Shawl. He hadn't replied for the salaam. Though Natasha was a Christian, but she knew that Muslims replied to each other for the greetings. He didn't look like a Christian to her. But he could be, she didn't know.

"Uncle!" Natasha waved her hands before his face. "We had said something just now. Are you even present?"

No response. There was utter silence. Natasha nudged Sumaira to proceed in the talk. Only then had she come out of her other world.

"Umm, I think our cars will be arriving soon. Let's go." She held Natasha's hand and headed towards the school's parking area.

"I think he is a psycho patient. He doesn't reply anything. What in the world is he doing exactly?" Once they were a bit out of his reach, Sumaira spoke out loud, enough to be heard by Uncle Shawl. She wanted to show him the reality that he doesn't seem to know. They were two and thought of him in such a way. The thoughts of the world could be no less than that and he should realize it.

She shaked off those thoughts, leaving it all up to Uncle Shawl. It was his life and he was responsible for ruining it. If he doesn't care, who was she to push him to do so.

On the other hand, he just watched the two girls walking away, silently. He let out a heavy sigh and rested his head back on the trunk of the tree, closing his eyes. Just after a few seconds, he lifted his eyelids open and looked at the sky. It was all clear, no interruption by any natural factor. He thought on it for sometime and then looked back at the school gate. Those two girls had gone by then. There were just few students strolling about with their fellows, waiting for their transports. He again rested his head on the tree trunk and closed his eyes.

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 "MAMAAAAAAA!!!!!" Gurya shrieked out loud just before running away from her father. They were all in a park to have lunch and she had just called her father a fatso, based on the fact that he ate too much no matter how thin he was. Of course, she couldn't be spared by him. So there she was, trying to dodge her father.

That could not last long. After all, she was a child and he was a man. Once he had a firm grip on her, he started tickling her.

"Ah, ah, ah.......Ma---ma......khekhe.....Pa-pa.....ok......ok......." She tried to stop her father in between her laughs.

"Say you are sorry. Come on. You call your papa fatso. You fight with your papa, so you get a tickle all right. Come on, say sorry first. I won't stop otherwise. Gurya." He was also not ready to surrender.

"Stop it now. What if she feels pain in her stomach due to that tickling of yours?" Maria interrupted in their moment while making the tea.

"That's our problem." He brought a finger to his lips to silence her. "Come on Gurya." He then turned his attention towards Gurya.

"Ok.....o...k......So-" Once he heard her saying it, he left her. "Bad." She continued and stuck her tongue at him before running away.

It was then when he realized that she had said 'so bad'. He had mistaken it for 'sorry' from the start.

"What?!" He cried, though he knew since forever that she could change her statement anytime. "You wait Gurya. This is all your brought-up Maria." He narrowed his eyes at her jokingly.

"Oh well, you do know that most of the children today in the twenty first century behave like this." She could not stay behind as well.

"Most of the children, not all, right?" He asked in a boastful manner. "You could change her during the brought-up Maria." He advised before looking around.

"You are impossible Mr.Malik." She shook her head while pouring the tea in the cups.

"Yes, that I know." He smirked and then noticed something. "Gurya!" He yelled loudly. It was a park after all, there was no ban on yelling. "I am not coming to get you. Come out now." He surrendered at last.

She didn't come out. He knew that now he had to go look for her. He mumbled 'Gurya' under his breath before getting up. There was no particular hiding spot in the park except for the bushes and the trees. He looked behind the trees near their picnic spot but failed. It was only when he closed in on a bush that he found her. He couldn't help smiling at her.

She was dressed in a sky blue frock, looking as clear and beautiful as the sky. His Gurya. Some of her hair had released themselves from the pony, few of their strands flying all over her face, willing to fulfill the wish of the blowing air. Their darkness and her fair complexion contrasted with each other, which just suited her in the right way. She had her hands covering her face already, which meant that she had sensed that her father got her.

He stretched his arms out and lifted her in his arms. She was so light that he could manage carrying her on his shoulders in the standing position. She giggled as he carried her and clasped her hands together around his neck once she was sitting on his shoulders.

"Excuse me." They were moving towards Maria when someone stopped them on their way. He turned towards the 'someone'. They were two and seemed to be a couple.

"Yes." He answered.

"Would you mind letting us have a few photographs with your daughter? She is very cute and beautiful Masha Allah."

He was not astonished at all. It was nothing new for him. Many people had asked him or Maria about this before and they had never refused. But it all also depended on Gurya, though she never refused too despite the fact that she was shy in that case.

He glanced up at Gurya and found her looking back at him. She had no refusing expression, so he took it as a yes.

"Yes, sure. Just be a bit careful, because she would feel shy around you as you are strangers to her." He instructed them before putting her down.

"Of course. We understand it completely. You don't worry about that." They consoled him and then the picture-taking session started, with him as a photographer. Once they were over with it, they left with a 'thank you' and lots of prayers for their little and lovely family.

"My tea must have lost its heat because of you Gurya." He complained when they were on their way back to Maria again. It was a false expression though. He couldn't have any negative feelings towards Gurya ever.

"So what's my mistake? I didn't tell the tea to get cold. It is its wish to do so. I am not guilty." She freed her hand from his grip and ran towards her mother when they were finally there, in order to tell her to instruct the tea to take all its heat back for papa.

He could just smile and the laugh. His Gurya.

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 Sumaira tightened her shoe laces before the race. Once done, she headed for the starting line.

"Nothing can make you lose unless you stop trying and lose hope yourself."

She had learnt this; from something or someone, she couldn't classify it properly. This had helped her always and had never let her down. When this quote was with her, she didn't even feel the need of Natasha's support. She felt independent and free, following the quote.

The referee blew the whistle and the race started. Sumaira exerted all her efforts to speed up, not ending the try or losing hope according to the learned quote of the anonymous person.

She got indulged in the race. She wouldn't had come to know when the race ended if she weren't surrounded by students at the end of the race. It was all then that she had realized about the race. It had already ended.

She was the winner. She had stood first. She had won. The anonymous quote had won. She felt immense pleasure emanating from every part of her body, more for the victory of the quote than herself.

The anonymous quote had won again. It had not let her down and had proved its worth once again.

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 There was a tremor felt in the ground which was possibly followed by the shrieks of the people. But there was no one to hear those shrieks, all were dumped in a few moments in another world, either to return back or to never return to this world.

Within half an hour, there was noise and panic all around. The place was in a shambles. Ambulances, rescue team, news reporters and volunteers had gathered there. It was a scene of complete devastation and destruction.

"As said and observed by the people least affected by the earthquake, the earthquake had taken place around four in the afternoon which makes it half an hour ago from the present time. The centre or focus of the earthquake is also yet thought of somewhere in Kashmir. As you can see behind me, the place gives the look of a complete ruin. The ambulances have already arrived in time and the victims and casualties of the earthquake are being loaded in them and taken to the nearby hospitals. The rescue team and volunteers are trying their best to get the people out of the debris. It is predicted that there will be more deaths than injuries in the light of the magnitude of the earthquake which is 7.4 and the tremendous wrecking, but nothing can be yet said properly unless observed." A female reporter reported to the news channel that she worked for while other reporters around spoke similar things about the earthquake.

Some victims bled profusely while others were found dead. The volunteers and rescue team members shuffled through different places to rescue the victimized people.

"Get him to the ambulance, fast." A volunteer rushed through the crowd of officials and workers to get to the ambulance, a little four years old boy in his arms. The boy was led to the hospital in the ambulance in a hurry as he was badly injured.

"We found two persons, a male and a female, in the vicinity of the place where we had found the boy. They both could not survive unfortunately. I think that they are his parents. I highly doubt that this is true." One of the rescue team members spoke to the volunteer who had carried the boy to the ambulance.

"Allah can do everything better." The volunteer prayed.

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 "Sir, we are unable to find any relatives or guardians of the four years old boy in ward number seven. We have even given a notice in the newspaper too but no one has contacted us yet. It is almost going to be a week. I think he has no one in this world. I feel so sorry for that little boy. He is so innocent and a sweet-looking child. May God do better in his favour."

The Christian nurse who had just knocked at the door of the office of the managing director of the hospital informed him.

"I had contacted an orphanage in Rawalpindi already in case this happens. They had agreed to it. This treatment of his has been done free of cost, so remember it. Now that this is clearly the case, we are going to hand him over to the orphanage. Let him gain health completely in a day or two, then I will get him transferred to Rawalpindi. Ok, you may leave now."

The managing director filled her in the matter and asked her to leave. He then began to think of any further measures in this case if there could be, which was evidently visible by his thinking face.

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That was the first chapter of the story. How did you find it? I hope you liked it. The pattern of writing in this book is a bit different, so if you want to ask any questions regarding this thing then that is yet kept a secret and confusion for you. Other than that, any question or suggestion is most welcomed.

This chapter is dedicated to @idonotexist my sweet and dear friend and sis, because of her continual support on everything for me. Thank you so much sis for your undying love and support on my works. I hope you continue reading and enjoying them as well. May Allah bless you every day and night.

Till next,

Take care,

Love,

Noty ♥