Before Time (The Time Trilogy Book 1) (25 page)

“Can I have some water, please?” I asked.

“Sure, anything you want, love,” she said, pouring some water in a glass for me.

I drank some water from the glass and then handed it back to her.

“How are feeling now?” she asked.

“Better, I guess. How long have I been out?”

“For a good eight hours, love. You fainted on the chairs, and then we brought you to this room. You did recover from your faint, but then you were taken for the surgery. I asked the doctor to give you anesthesia, and now you’ve woken up.”

“Eight hours!” I yawned.

“Are you hungry? I brought you some juice because the doctors said that we have to wait a few days to give you solid food.”

“No, I’m not. I just want to go to sleep again, but first, when can I go home?”

“They said as soon as you wake up.”

“Alright.” I lay back against the plump pillows and closed my eyes.

Sometime later, I opened my eyes when I heard the door to the room squeak. Aliza entered followed my mom.

“Come on, sleepy head. Time to go home.” She grinned at me. I smiled back weakly. I felt weak, worn out like I had run for the Olympics. I groaned as I sat up, but Aliza was right there to help me, and it didn’t hurt much. Finally we were on our way home.

The outcome of my illness was that I couldn’t eat solid food. Whenever I told my mother that I was hungry, there was a huge glass of juice or soup, which I was starting to hate. I wanted solid food, perhaps a steak or something, but I didn’t want juice at all. Moreover, Mom wouldn’t let me walk until and unless I was totally healed up. Totally bored with being a prisoner in my own home, I decided to log in to mIRC, as it seemed like days since I’d been there.

As usual, he was online. It seemed to me that he never left anymore.

Impassioned:
How are you feeling now?

ME:
I’m fine, just in pain, which will go away in a few days, according to the doctor.

Impassioned:
If the doctor says that it does, then it will definitely go away. Are they giving you any painkillers?

ME:
Yes! I’m taking them.

Impassioned:
That’s a good girl.

ME:
:)

Impassioned:
Anyways, I’m going to shower and watch the television for some time. I had a long day, and am now looking forward to relaxing a bit.

ME:
Have fun.

Impassioned:
You too!

ME:
Bye.

I turned the laptop off as well and tried to sleep some more.

Chapter 15

My phone was ringing incessantly when I returned to my room. I felt quite better now that I had gotten over my appendicitis. I switched on the lights and placed my bag on the table. Picking up the cell phone from my study table, I looked at the caller ID.

It was an unfamiliar number.

Pressing the
talk
button, I placed the phone near my ear.

“Hello?”

“Hey Onaiza! How are you?” The voice was quite familiar. I racked my brain over where I heard it before, and then I remembered. It was Sameer, one of my first friends from mIRC. We hadn’t heard from each other in months now. He was a remarkable DJ, whose playlist was quite identical to mine. We both loved rock music as well as hip hop. That was the reason we became such good friends, although he had other reasons, like trying to flirt with me. He used to call me on and off, especially after the episode when I was quite adamant that we remain friends. He hadn’t said much since my refusal.

“Hey Sam! I’m good. How are you doing?” I smiled into the receiver.

“I’m good; in fact, awesome.”

“That’s good news, then.”

“Yeah. So, what else is new at your end?”

“Nothing much. Same old, same old.”

“Same here. So, are you on mIRC these days?”

“Of course.”

“That’s great. I’ve been out of the picture for quite some time now. I think I should visit someday.”

“You should. I miss your playlist and the mixing you used to do with different songs. It’s been so long; I haven’t played.”

MIRC radio meant that it was a shout-cast server that streamed live music to a website, where the people could tune in and listen to the music being played. We could also DJ for those radio stations, and I loved doing that. It was my dream to try to be a DJ, but my dad would never allow me to visit a real studio. Therefore, I had found a substitute.

“Me too. We should do a combined show some day.”

“I’ll visit there someday.” We made small talk for a while.

“Oh, by the way, I have a surprise for you.”

“What is that?” I asked.

“Wait, I’ll call you back in a bit.”

“First tell me what the surprise is.”

“I’ll tell you when I call you back.”

“Okay.”

“Call you back.” With that, the line went dead. I sighed and placed my cell phone back on the table. I turned on my laptop and logged in to Facebook to check on my farm.

Asher. His name came out of nowhere, and now I was thinking about him. Over the last few days, I had been trying not to, but today, he was back in my mind.

My mind replayed the conversation we’d had the day before yesterday, starting from the fight. I couldn’t understand what he wanted from me and why he was doing this with me. A million questions came to my mind, but all of them ended with one phrase: what did I do wrong? He’d scolded me like I had committed some unforgiving sin and he was going to hand out punishment to me at any time.

His attitude, his words, and his cutting remarks hurt me deep inside, and I wanted to cry. How had I thought that he was understanding, caring, and that he knew what I wanted? I was so wrong. Even after this realization, I wanted to make things right again. I just wanted everything the way it used to be because I had enjoyed the friendship that had grown between us. Nothing else mattered to me more than the fact that I wanted to experience the peacefulness, the sense of tranquility, the feeling of being safe again. I was ready to do anything to regain that.

Tomorrow, when I go online, I will talk to him again and try to make him see reason.
For now, I couldn’t do anything about it. I picked my cell phone and went upstairs.

Mom was cooking dinner in the kitchen and my sisters were out shopping. I would prefer spending the day with my nose buried deep within a thick novel rather than shopping. Right now, I didn’t even want to read, so I switched on the television and shuffled through various channels.

I settled on MTV, which was playing some oldies from the 80s and 90s. I settled myself against the couch and watched “Unbreak My Heart” by Toni Braxton. I was aware of the song playing, but my mind was going over all the chats that we had so far. Suddenly, as I watched the screen, the lyrics started to make sense. Nick Carter’s voice echoed as he sang “I Need You Tonight
”
.

Need. The word had only four letters, but it was such a heavy word.
Why do people need others?
I wondered. How can they depend on only one person all their lives to bring them happiness? I understood our need for our parents and siblings because they are blood relations, but what’s with the non-blood relations? I had seen people get married to total strangers because they fell in love and would live happily ever after.
How is that even possible? How can people even know in one heartbeat that this is the person they want forever?
I had never understood this, but right now, as I watched Nick Carter singing into the microphone, I somehow felt I could relate.
How is that possible?

Disturbed, I changed the channel.

Before I could settle on something more entertaining, my cell phone rang. It was Sameer calling again.

“Hey! I didn’t think you would call back.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” he said.

“Well, my mistake.” I grinned into the phone.

“Anyways, I have a surprise for you.”

“What is it?”

“Hold on! You are so impatient.”

“Okay.” The line went blank on his side. I could only hear the vacuum through the phone, but not even one minute had passed before he returned.

“Okay, I’m back.”

“Welcome back, Sam.”

“Thank you. Okay, Onaiza, I want you to meet my best friend. I won’t tell you her name because you already know, and all you have to do is guess.”

“Alright. I can only guess if she speaks.”

“Yeah, she will.” I listened closely.

“Assalamu Alaikum.” The voice was familiar, but where had I heard her before? Her voice was high-pitched, but there was a soft lilt to it.

“Walaikum Salam. This voice is definitely familiar, Sam, but I can’t seem to place it.” I said.

“Try guessing,” he said excitedly.

“Give me a hint first.”

“You met her on mIRC.”

“Ummm…” I tried to think.

“Hey Onaiza! It’s me, Uroosa. Remember me?”

Oh. I did remember her. I met her on mIRC a few months ago, before I knew Impassioned and started talking to him. I joined another channel where I made friends, and there was this guy from Multan, Rat, who had introduced me to her as his girlfriend. Later, I had talked to her once or twice on the mIRC whenever we encountered each other. After that, she had disappeared from mIRC, and I hadn’t seen her online until now.

“Hey Uroosa! How are you doing?”

“I’m doing good. What about you?”

“I’m great.”

“Good to know. Sameer was telling me that he hasn’t talked to you in a long time, and neither did I, so I decided perhaps we all should talk.”

“That’s good. I was getting bored with the television.”

“Thanks to Sameer who called us,” Uroosa said.

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Well, we should exchange numbers so that this idiot here doesn’t have to act like an operator between us.”

“Of course.” I dictated the number.

We talked for some time and then promised to call each other the next day.

Chapter 16

New Year’s was just around the corner. After my surgery, I was better, but my doctor still wanted me to get the maximum rest before I went about my plan to start walking in the park. I had logged on and off on mIRC, but Asher was never there. Perhaps he was busy with his official work and didn’t have time to come online. I spent my time on another channel, where I had made friends and we used to enjoy it a lot. Sameer also joined there, and we had great fun playing with the radio, mixing the craziest songs together and having fun.

Finally, New Year’s Eve arrived. I was driving towards the supermarket to complete errands for my mother, but my mind focused on thoughts of Asher. Where the hell was he?
It’s been days since I saw him online and there’s been no messages from him.
He wasn’t even online in the daytime, and that was really weird. I decided to text him on the number from which he had called. I didn’t want to call, but I wrote a long text message, saying that I hadn’t seen him around, was wondering where he was, and happy New Year. I never got a response for that text.

Soon, the first week of January was almost over. Sameer kept me busy with the mIRC radio, but I didn’t forget Asher for even a second. I was always searching for him in the channel, but he never showed up. I wanted to see him, talk to him, and mostly, I wanted him to tell me that everything could go back to normal. As days passed, my patience ran thin, and I was getting rather fidgety because I hadn’t talked to him in weeks. I was worried about him. Weird thoughts came to mind, like maybe he had an accident, or that he must be ill. I wanted news, any kind of news about him, but there was none. I saw his friends online, but I didn’t want to ask them about him.

I woke up with a heavy heart. The weather outside was sunny, but my mood wasn’t. I desperately wanted to talk to him. It felt like someone had cut off my oxygen. What the hell was happening to me? I asked the question, but I had no answer. Disheartened, I had my breakfast, did some reading, and when I was tired of reading, logged into mIRC. I scanned through the channel list as soon as I was connected to the server and had joined the channel. To my great relief, he was online.

ME:
Where were you?

Impassioned:
I don’t have the strength to stay away from you anymore. I was creating some distance to regain my strength.

ME:
That’s why your phone was also switched off.

It was a statement, not an accusation.

Impassioned:
The number that you have is a dummy one, which I don’t use.

ME:
Alright. If you want to create some distance, I can help you with that.

Impassioned:
Listen, Onaiza, you are free to do whatever you want to in your life. You don’t need to put distance between us, but I’m already committed to someone else. The more I talk to you, the more I feel guilty. I’m a broken person and I’m used to living alone. This is something that nobody can understand. I really don’t have the strength to stay away from you, but I will visit her grave, to remind myself of the oath.

ME:
Alright, Asher. I won’t talk to you now because I don’t want you to be in pain. I don’t want to give you pain as well.