Imperfect Perfections

[12] Lamb of His Lion

"We fought"

She turned my head, to face him. There it was; truth and sorrow mingling softly. She failed to meet his gaze; it had been rushing through my blood like the angst of pain from the beginning. She had known; when he confessed. When he had accompanied. Now, when he spoke.

The drink would have slipped from my hand, had he not caught it.

"I apologize. I didn't really want to surprise you, you know..."

Fami shook her head and wiped her mouth off as some juice had slipped off her lips.

"They are clean..."

She laughed, finding a rather weird Harith cracking jokes, now and then.

"Shall I pay?", before she could disagree, he had taken out his purse and paid the shopkeeper, with a tip and a wink. The old aged man smiled at him; its beauty energizing Fami who too smiled. The two of them then got back into the bus, which had stopped for a break.

"Public buses do stop?"

He nodded, "They have to. Usually, some run for even days and months; and petrol and checking of parts, all these turn out to be compulsory now that the rate of accidents is accelerating. This ...now let me see....will go up to Khairan and return to Velapoor, which had six kilometers north of our city"

"You seem to know well", she whispered, keeping her head to the window pane.

Silence stayed put.

"Dada....was a bus conductor..."

She looked at him, "Really?", raising her eyebrows. 

He nodded, looking straightforward.

"He had been ever since I could remember. From the fourth grade when he could come in those brown uniform to pay my fees till my matriculation; the last day I ever saw him"

Fami held her breath.

"He knew he was dying. What difference will anything make?"

Harith didn't shed tears for that. 

"What about her? Your mom?", she asked, waiting for the worst.

"Mama failed to see a future without him. Besides, I can't blame her. He never told her..I too found by mistake...when a paper of his lung cancer therapy came out fluttering from a suitcase I couldn't even recognize..The family went insane after that..."

Fami didn't dare interrupt. She knew, when words were spelled out in deep thoughts, it meant they should be left to be left, without any interruptions disturbing its flow. For they were from underneath all pain; a young lad like him had to go through.

"..Granny asked my mom to marry again...that was common those days..I guess...However, I left the house for the hostel...saying I got a scholarship and all....After that. I never went there...and never will..."

"Now this is my life...and this will be..."

Fami held her breath, recalling an incident. 

"But Harith, you said the party was your dad's money..."

He laughed and sneered, simultaneously, 

"f**k you to believe that! My dad and mom eventually started taking positions. Initially, it became Jake's mom who is a widow for as long as she can remember. Then when she became pregnant with her manager's sperm, I became what was called the 'not-so-blood-related' person, so I hell damn left. After so, the positions were taken up by my rich uncle and aunt, whose in Australia..who earn more than what the president here does!"

Listening, she slowly let the need for it. Her fingers rolled in slightly to meet his touch, making him gawk at it. She rolled her lips into a tight smile and held it. Their fingers intertwined and remained on her thigh, soft and secure.

"Now, you have got me. I can be your mother, a real one"

Harith actually squealed at the punch line, making the passengers from behind look at them.

"Behave, Harith!!", she warned, feeling embarrassed. 

"f**k sake! But I don't need any mother... I'm just coming with you, cause Jake and I f*****g fought, at the wrong place and wrong time; for a reason, I can't even f*****g understand. Hell sake!"

She sighed,

'Can't you control on the f word?.. It spills out without any limit..."

Harith teased,

'tsk tsk, look whose talking."

"I don't use it often!"

"Of course you do, nerdy"

"HEY!"

Harith laughed and continued, "Okay, okay...I'll control whatever...So, he needs alone time and I need to. Besides, I need to see if you needed help to flirt with Faim too so-"

Harith began to laugh as a rather annoyed Fami began to scratch and argue with his hands. 

"Okay..okay...Sorry! But seriously, what is your plan to get inside their house? At night? Through a ladder or crane cause your weight will need one..."

Fami glared at him, whose face was now more lit than ever.

"No! I'm gonna go in the straight and proper way. Say I came to help, cause I'm a ...good.....friend..."

Her voice broke at intervals making the latter suppress a chuckle.

"What?"

"No, like seriously! Are you gonna go in and say, "Hey, I'm a friend of Fahim who come to help his sister in the wrong place and wrong time; cause I feel like I have to", clearly when you are none of that and doesn't;t f*****g have to"

Hearing it from his mouth, she sighed in desperation. Of course, it sounded dumb.

"Is it just me, or does that sound worse than it was"

Harith ruffled her hair and squeezed her cheek,

"You duffer, just follow what I do. And I promise you, you're getting a room inside Fahim's house. Promise..."

She looked up at him, confused and rather hysteric. 

"f**k, give me a pinky, will ya?"

She looked at his extended pinky and rolled forward her finger, accepting the promise.

"Thanks..."

He shrugged his shoulders, like a savage dude, and gagged,

"Sick! Clean your mouth for once, will ya?"

She gasped and started attacking him again.

It was again another journey of annoyances and funny fights.

Until when the clock struck two in the afternoon, after their 14-hour journey, bringing the wheels to a street of culture and tradition, love and discipline, color and crowds; Khairan Nagar, the indisputable challenge to the fight for God and his mercy. 

The two of them had slept off, by then.

When a ray of sunlight and an irritated conductor awoke them.

                                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The autorickshaw stopped right in front of the big house. On one glimpse, 'big' wasn't the word. It would be huge. The three-storeyed bungalow looked like a flat, diminished and constructed to look like a house indeed.

 The decorations were going on, undoubtedly with glitters hanging from the tiptop to down the bricked roof. Flowers and long chains of steel rods held the pandals, which were arranged with chairs and tables; the setting was going on full swing with random people rushing around with plates, and crockery. 

The gates were open, wide, and announced for any arrival. 

"They are hella rich..as you can already see...", he whispered, paying the kind man the cash. Fami who was too astonished to say anything just nodded and remained holding her backpack and staring at the big building. Crowds and noises rose from within, making her curious. 

It felt like she had come back to her ancestral home, which wasn't as posh as this, however the same when it comes to people.

"Go on...put on your shawl", Harioth keenly and softly lifted her fallen off veil and placed it over her head. Fami nodded and smiled at him.

"So the plan is...."

"...you go along with what I say.."

Fami rolled her tongue,

"Would it be a lie?"

He licked his lips,

'Maybe and maybe not. It depends on how they consider your appearance"

Fami cringed,

"Mine? And you?!"

Harith smirked,

"They know me as much as they know Fahi...So be happy I accompanied."

She almost fainted.

"Just stay strong! No dramas"

She breathed twice, hard, and held his hand.

"Yeah...welcome to the lion's den, the lamb of my lion"

Saying so, he held her hand and walked inside, putting forward their right foot inside, like tradition marked in every religion.

However, little did they know, the lion had been watching them, for so long as they were there.