Bewitched
30th April 2025.
“Naina!”
His voice was hoarse, he had been crying for few minutes, the eye lids, swollen because of constant wiping, had turned pale. The corner of his Indigo shirt damp from the tears, the sleeve crumbled at the elbow. His left hand would go to his face every other second, and all the substances, sweat and tears and slime from his nose would absorb in the cotton sleeve. For a man who never knew the art of crying, he had done enough. He has done it in a manner worth noticing, anyone would’ve had coaxed him by now but Naina, lay unmoved.
“Say something!”
He cupped her face in his hands, He was tired. The plead in his voice was now evaporating, rage replacing the sorrow. Mohib was constantly looking at her face trying to find a hint of an emotion, or expression, angst, grief, helplessness anything. There was nothing!
They’ve been lying on the concrete for twenty minutes now, right where she fell after Danny had dropped her off.
“What happened at Danny’s?” It was the first sentence he spoke since she came back. He sucked all the tears in and tried to hold Naina by her shoulders, she yanked his hands off.
“Nothing!” Naina said in a voice that was barely audible.
She was already moving upwards trying to find something to grab to get up on her feet. Mohib stood up before her extending his arms proposing her to grab them so she could lift her frame from the ground.
That was when she cried.
Soft sobs followed loud screams and soon she was gasping for breath pulling her flesh out with her fingernails. Mohib was defending herself from her attack, trying to hold her hands in position, some of her fists landing on her husband’s face, some on her own, she was fighting the unseen demons. Screaming in a voice Mohib has never heard before, he had never seen her cry like this.
Trying to calm her down he constantly took the punches she had aimed at her own face, hugging her furious shuddering body, she was trying to break free of his embrace at the same time asking him to confine her. Mohib has been her safe place until an hour ago.
Why? After three minutes of screaming and quivering, she finally lost her energy. Hanging in her husbands’ embrace, all she could say was a word. Mohib tightened his grip over waist, Naina’s feet were now above the ground, swinging.
