Chapter Fifteen

Seasons change. Winter dissolves into spring; the flowers blossom and the dull world gets splashed by colors; ranging from pink to green, and a hundred different shades in between. As the harsh cold melts away, hearts soften, and love arrives. 

The period between December to early March was infinitely beautiful for Zahid and Amal. Their hearts were experimenting with a newfound emotion, for though Zahid had left for Lahore a few days after the Nikkah, he kept in contact with Amal and the two of them chatted nearly every single day.

From passionately ranting on about how Shahid Raza had won the case, to sharing their daily routines and a part of themselves with each other; there was nothing these two did not do. During these three months, Zahid came over to Islamabad four times.

Meeting each other live was even more splendid than texting, for other than their long drives, dinner and park dates, Zahid, who was a regular when it came to morning jogs, encouraged Amal to join him as well. Amal, comparatively lazy and very particular about her sleep- was hard to convince, but eventually agreed. Thus, they spent this time getting to know each other and falling in love a little more every day.

They had their wedding on the third of March. Their wedding was perhaps, even simpler than their Nikkah, for they held no function of Barat, and all Zahid did was come pick Amal up from her house. As for the Walima, no halls were booked, and rather, Zahid took close family and friends out for dinner.

Thus, in a society where dowry is prevalent and women take everything; ranging from furniture to bedcovers with them when they get married, Amal arrived at Zahid's house with nothing more than two suitcases, three cartons of books, her laptop bag and a certain cat called Eddie.

On a slightly colder Monday morning in March, the clouds hung low in the sky, grey and heavy; a warning for the rain that threatened to come. As the sky opened to the rain that started to fall with extreme force, Amal ran out to the veranda of her house, barefoot. She ran on her toes, quickly gathering the laundry before she ran back inside, hissing, "Cold, cold, cold," under her breath.

Once she was inside, Amal closed the sliding door. She had only just dropped the laundry on the sofa when the door slid open again and a wet Zahid hurried inside, holding Eddie. As Zahid ran a hand through his wet hair, turning around to close the door, Amal hurried towards him. Paying him no heed, she grabbed Eddie, running her fingers through her cat's wet fur.

"Aww, honey, you're all wet."

"No, I'm fine-" Zahid cut off as he turned around and spotted Amal bent over Eddie, running her fingers through her cat's wet fur.

"What?" Amal said, looking up at Zahid.

"What?"

"You just said something."

"I did? When?"

"Just now- I'm sure you said something."

"I really don't recall saying anything."

As Amal narrowed her eyes suspiciously, Zahid blinked back- an expression of innocence plastered over his face. Shrugging, Amal carefully placed Eddie on the sofa before she hurried off to get a towel. A sigh escaping his lips, Zahid collapsed on the armchair. His eyes narrowed as he watched Eddie snuggle and settle down on the sofa. For a second, Zahid was sure that Eddie looked at him, almost jestingly; as if to declare his victory.

"Shouldn't have saved you," Zahid muttered, leaning back and closing his eyes. The pitter-patter of the rain against the windows had a soothing effect on his mind, and Zahid found himself mentally ticking off everything that needed to be done that day. He had to decide on a travel destination with Amal, go over to his office to settle down the last of the cases, and start packing as well.

He blinked his eyes open when he felt a weight on his head, catching sight of Amal, who had dropped a towel on his head. Noticing the mischeviousness in her eyes and sensing what she was about to do, Zahid opened his mouth warningly, but before he had the chance to stop her, his hair had already gone through the level four operation of intense rubbing and scrubbing.

When she finally stopped, Zahid felt slightly light-headed and dizzy, certain that his hair was a complete mess, for Amal was grinning as she tossed the towel aside. "I went out too, but how come your hair is wetter than mine?" she said, feigning innocence as she touched her hair. "Don't worry though, your hair is all dry now."

"It is?" Zahid smiled sweetly, getting to his feet. "Your hair looks pretty wet as well. Are you sure you don't need to dry it?"

Noticing the glint in Zahid's eyes, Amal took a step back, shaking her head. "Positive. It will dry on its own-" the next second, she had let out a shriek as Zahid grabbed the towel and chased after her, laughter and giggle-filled apologies echoing around the house.

~~~

Focus. Eyes narrowed. You should feel the energy between your eyes and the object. Creases visible on her forehead. Drown out all other sounds. Trying to ignore the darned clattering of the rain. Now, command the object to move towards you.

"C,mon doughnut. C'mon."

The doughnut, however, did not move an inch from the plate and Amal let out a groan, collapsing back on the sofa.

Clearly, there was no such thing as telekinesis.

Now, how Amal reached the point of sitting on the sofa and trying to will the doughnut towards herself through telekinesis without getting up was a whole other story.

To summarise: Zahid was gone to his office, and Amal was bored.

A sigh escaping her lips, Amal cast a look around the living room.

Used to having people around, settling in had proved a little difficult for Amal in the beginning. Zahid's two-room house, though, had such a homely feel to it that it had not taken Amal long to get comfortable. With Zahid by her side nearly every day, helping her settle in and even aiding her in moving things around in the house to suit her tastes, Amal had finally started to settle in.

When he wasn't around though, Amal felt a strange feeling of loneliness creep over her. She wasn't used to being completely on her own, and the lack of productivity in her life at the moment was surprising her. While she still wrote for the Masjid magazine in Islamabad, not being present there physically had reduced the amount of work, and other than her weekly blogs, Amal did not have much to do.

Browsing through her YouTube recommendations, Amal came across a cake recipe. Straightening up, a sudden idea starting to take shape in her mind, she grinned, her boredom vanishing.

~~~

"You're leaving for Hunza the day after tomorrow?"

Zahid nodded, studying each case file closely before he put it in its respective drawer. Lounging on Zahid's swinging chair, Harris watched Zahid work.

"You do know that you don't need to close this place down, don't you? I can handle the cases on my own."

Again, Zahid nodded in response, his eyes skimming through the content of perhaps the thirtieth file before he put it in the second last drawer, grabbing another file from the large pile on the table.

"You actually don't trust me, right? You think that if you leave me in charge, I will mess everything up."

"Mhmm."

"I would have argued, but what can I say? You're a hundred percent right. I don't trust myself either." Sighing, Harris leaned back on Zahid's seat. "Lately, Zahid, I've been thinking about life-"

"That's dangerous."

Harris ignored Zahid, not letting his comment bother his sentimental mood. "Life is so fleeting, isn't it? We have no idea when we're going to die." Harris sighed once again as if he was carrying the weight of the world. "I've decided," Harris said suddenly and Zahid tore his gaze away from the files, his brow arching at the determined expression on his friend's face.

"I'm going to run away from home."

Zahid blinked, resisting the urge to groan as he returned to his work. Harris was bound to make this declaration once every two weeks.

"I'm serious this time," Harris said, getting to his feet and pacing the room. "I'll go away to Murree or someplace for two weeks, and then I'll text Ammi that I'll only come back if she stops this whole rishta-business. She will have to agree, won't she? Her son is definitely more precious to her than getting a daughter-in-law... right?"

Harris tilted his head as if he himself wasn't so sure about this. "Definitely," he muttered under his breath, trying to convince himself. For the next fifteen minutes, while Zahid worked- clearly not listening to Harris, Harris ranted on- making a perfect 'running-away-from-home' plan.

Harris, somehow, had gotten a bit wild in his plan-making process and had reached the point where some group of crazy rishta-aunties would kidnap him from Murree when the office bell rang.

Both Zahid and Harris exchanged glances, and Harris shrugged, for they weren't expecting anybody. "If it's some new client, tell them that we won't be available for a week." Harris nodded, leaving Zahid to work on the files on his own. In the absence of Harris, a peaceful silence ensued and Zahid sighed with relief, finding that without Harris ranting on behind him, he could work twice as fast.

Just as Zahid put the last file in its respective drawer, stretching his arms for he was done with his work and could go home now, the door opened and Harris peeked in.

"Someone is requesting to meet you."

Zahid raised an eyebrow, about to question further though the seriousness in Harris's expression caused him to purse his lips. Wondering who had come to meet him and why Harris was being so solemn about it, Zahid followed Harris to the lobby.

Sitting by the table in the lobby, a woman sat, a shawl loosely covering her head. Her gaze was fixed on the calligraphy on their wall- an Ayah of the Quran mentioning the importance of Justice. As Zahid walked towards her, he could not help but sense that this woman seemed familiar.

"Assalamualaikum," he said, glancing at Harris, who had not followed him past the door-way before he turned towards the woman, who quickly got to her feet. "How may I help you?"

"Mr. Zahid?" the woman asked, her form visibly tense. When Zahid nodded, his eyebrows drawn together, the woman relaxed. "I am Samra Syed." When Zahid showed no signs of recognition, she exhaled slowly, clutching onto her shawl tighter. "Syed Manzoor's wife."

Zahid froze, his eyes widening.

~~~

Baking a cake should have been easy. It would have, perhaps, if Amal hadn't decided to decorate it.

The icing bag in her hands, a few strands of hair escaping from her bun and a little flour decorating her face, Amal tried to draw a cartoonish car on the cake. Ever since Zahid had claimed that he wasn't going to get the scratch on his car fixed because Amal and Zahid had met through it first, it had become an inside joke for the two of them.

Grinning to herself, Amal made a line on the side of the car, leaning back to look over the outcome. Satisfied, she put the icing bag down again.

Zahid was going to love it.

She had only just placed the cake in the fridge when she heard the front door open. Straightening up, Amal managed to quickly wipe the kitchen counter clean, just as Zahid appeared.

"Assalamualaikum!" Amal said, unable to keep the excitement from her voice, "I have a surprise-"

She stopped short when she noticed the expression on Zahid's face. His eyebrows were drawn together and his forehead was creased, his expression troubled. Amal frowned, watching as he took a seat on the sofa, massaging his temples.

"Zahid?" Amal said, a bit cautiously, but he did not respond, squeezing his eyes shut.

Worried now, Amal took a seat next to him. Zahid's shoulders were rigid and Amal could literally feel the tension that vapored off him.

"Zahid?" she said again, lightly touching his shoulder.

Zahid opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the floor. "Today-" he began, his voice strangely low, "- a woman came to the office. She introduced herself as Syed Manzoor's wife."

Syed Manzoor? Amal's eyes widened, recognition dawning on her face. "The victim of the Shahid Raza case?" she breathed out.

Zahid nodded, an unreadable expression in his eyes. "She told me that the high court accepted her appeal. She-" Zahid paused, squeezing his eyes shut, "She wants me to take over the case."

Assalamualaykum!

Okay, first of all: I'll explain why I updated a bit later than expected. Firstly, I felt that since I was starting a new part, I should take a short break before posting it. Secondly, my result was coming and I was in no state to post hehe. Also, my classes started, and hence I was busier than usual.

  Since my classes started, I also wanted to inform you guys that I won't be able to update as often. However, I'll still try to post within 3 - 7 days.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited now that the juicy part of the story is starting. What do you guys think about Zahid taking over the Shahid Raze case though? I hinted it a bit too much throughout Part one. 

Do let me know what you think, and if you liked the chapter, do consider leaving a vote. 

Jazakillah!