“Feeling cold yet little bro. Just wanna be sure, I mean if you could feel cold why would you do stupid thing like that. Look at you now, completely drenched in water, shivering. What if you catch a cold? You are already this weak. If you do these things you will worsen your condition even more.”
Ishmael carried out the one-sided conversation. It was a normal situation where he did all the talking while Azaan rarely responded and even then he was stingy with his words. A few drops of water landed on him from the slight opening of his window and the cold droplets caused a shiver to crawl through his body. He quickly closed the gap he had opened to lower down the temperature of the car.
“Because of you I have to sit in this cold cold car. Be a bit grateful would you.”
“Thank you.”
“Wow, you responded. How merciful of you. Here I was thinking I would have to keep talking all the way to myself.”
Street lights lit up the surroundings and as the darkness receded, they could see the storm bending the tree on the sides. Even before Ishmael could feel the storm hitting the car from the side but the visual impact was much larger seeing the bending, seemingly on the verge of snapping. He pressed the accelerator.
“So how is the gym going these days? And the archery? Don’t overwork yourself okay, slowly work your way up. Very slowly. The doctor said you can recover so don’t waste this chance.”
He looked towards Azaan while the surrounding was lit up by the street light. It allowed him to see the figure of his brother. He seemed a lot more normal physically. A bit too normal. He no longer appeared to be a starved skeleton with only skin on his body. As he looked at him, he could see the meat that now hid his bones. It was too much of a change too quickly. Something was wrong. He had already known that when looked at the daily reports that he had been getting. Not once had he visited a pharmacy during this whole month and he had found a lot of his medicines in a garbage can. Adding the fact that his brother had been working out a bit too much it was a miracle that nothing had happened to him yet. Or it would have been a miracle if not for the recent events that had been occurring.
The only reason he had allowed his brother to do as he wished this far was because he already had a cure for him. It was something that had been acquired through a friend and was currently being tested in the company's labs. But as he looked at his brother, the change was a bit too jarring. No matter how good of a diet you take, it was completely impossible to gain this much weight in less than a month, not to mention the fact that his brother was a beginner. Still, he kept the emotion from showing up on his face and made his voice cheerful as he asked.
“Look at you, no longer looking like a skeleton. You haven’t been taking steroids right?”
Ishmael had his eyes focused on his body rather than his face, looking for a twitch or any other reaction as he questioned him. His eyes lingered at his hands but the darkness made it impossible to see what he wanted to.
The conversation lulled for a moment as Ishmael stopped talking. The rain now struck on the roof as though a hammer was constantly slamming on it. The wipers were working at full speed but even then it was becoming difficult to see the road ahead. The storm had worsened.
“Who do you think those guys were?”
“Who?”
“To whom you gave your car.”
“You would know better.”
He felt a shiver crawl up his body and his teeth started chattering as the last remaining warmth of the heater died out even though the windows were closed. He had turned it off so that his brother would not become sick with all the drenched clothes he was wearing.
“Hey, close the air vents on your side.”
He then turned on the heater on his side and then lowered the window slightly. The warm air caused his shivering to stop
“So how’s your game coming along?”
“Complete.”
“Really? Send me a copy then. It's the least you can do for all the problems you cause for me.”
“Will send you a steam key.”
“That's good. You also have to give me a treat ok so be prepared for that too.”
As he saw a board, Azaan asked.
“Not taking me home?”
“There are guests at home today, wanna come?”
“No.”
“Thought so.”
The conversation stopped after that and Azaan closed his eyes, listening to the rain as it struck the car.
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Time passed and by the time Ishmael arrived at the apartment he noticed his brother sleeping. His body would occasionally shiver but it was strange that he was nearly ok even though his skin had a bluish tint on it. It would have caused him to panic normally, but at the moment he was focused on something else. He eyed his fingers to see any kind of marking but just then an especially strong wind struck the car causing his brother to wake up.
“Want to come in?”
“Nah, I have to go back. The guests must be waiting. I ran all the way here to get you so please don’t cause problems for those poor guys. All of them were completely drenched in this cold weather and most likely they are going to catch a cold.”
“Thank you, Allah Hafiz.”
“Hey, at least pretend to listen.”
His phone started ringing but he ignored it for the moment.
“You have been taking the medicines right?”
“Why?”
“You look so healthy. Don’t work out too much. It will have a negative effect otherwise.”
As Azaan got out, Ishamel moved over to the wet seat and grabbed the mat from his side. It was full of water.
“Give me a hand.”
As Azaan moved his hands forward to pick up the mat from his side, Ishmael’s eyes swiped across his brother's hands. He could now see scratches. They were in a criss-cross pattern and he could see it present in both of his hands. He picked up the mat and balanced it with the help of his brother. Most of the water was transported out even though some of it did spill inside.
"Thanks little bro and quickly go dry yourself. If you feel like you are catching a cold go to a doctor."
Azaan stood there in the rain as the car zoomed into the darkness. The water that had seeped out during the drive was instantly refilled as he stood under the strong rain. He felt pain as it struck his face. The drops were bigger now and their speed much faster.
He kept standing there again he could hear something buzzing as he stood there enjoying the silence and the nature. It was something that he had never been able to enjoy before so he wanted to experience it to the utmost. He stood there and would have kept standing there if not for something hitting it in the head. Almost immediately afterward, he felt his whole body being struck by something finally forcing him to go inside the building.
He could feel his face starting to swell. As he stood inside the building, he looked outside. Wherever the light reached, he could see white balls falling from the sky. A hail had started. The ground was quickly covered by a white carpet and suddenly he decided to go to the northern areas.
“Sir, are you okay?”
He turned to the old guard. He was covered in a sweater and coat but even then he shivered in the cold. He nodded at the old man and started walking towards his apartment. The old man opened his mouth to ask something but stopped and returned to his location where a heater was present.
Azaan took off his clothes at the entrance of his apartment and waited for the excess water to drip off his body. Only then did he move towards his bathroom and picked up the laundry basket to put the drenched clothes into it.
As he was choosing a new pair to wear he called Nasir. Nasir dealt with all the audio/sound-related tasks in their projects.
“What a surprise. Why did you call man?”
“Come to my place with clothes and everything. We are going to Naran.”
“Why ‘we’. It will be covered in snow, man.”
“I don’t have a car at the moment.”
“And what would you do even if you had it. Go out in this hail. If you can’t hear the hammering sound it is making, let me tell you it isn’t light.”
“Ah, forgot about it.”
“What do you mean you forgot about it? Can’t you hear the sound?”
“I can. Then how about the morning. 10 am?”
“But what are you even gonna do at this time of the year?”
“I want to see snow.”
“Then why not go to Murree.”
“Too crowded.”
“What about others?”
“They will be with their families so…”
“Ok then. I will be there but you will be making the food. Only then I will go.”
“Okay.”
He quickly took a shower and changed into warm clothes. His body quickly started heating up, a sensation that felt very comfortable. Turning the heater on, he made himself a cup of tea and took out some pastries from the fridge. He sat on the mattress with the heater near him as he looked out at the darkness through the window. The sound of rain was overridden by the hail but it was still relaxing. He slowly drank the tea and during this, he had taken out his book and started writing ideas for the new game, whatever it was that came to his mind it was written down.
It did not matter if it contradicted previous ideas or was too difficult to implement etcetera. He just filled in all the ideas that came to him and a lot of them were coming to him at the current moment. He continued doing this until he ran out of the tea and only then did he stop. After washing the dishes, he offered night prayer and readied himself to sleep.
…..
“I can see why he hates it?”
“Azaan?”
“Yep, it is too exhausting to deal with these people.”
“Still, why don’t you ask him to have some sense already. You barely returned due to hail. He can not just keep depending on you.”
“Depending, han? It would be nice if he started depending on others. If I don’t keep a tight watch on him, who knows where he will disappear.”
“Let him go for a bit then, he will come back when he understands how difficult it is in the real world.”
“Would he now?”
On his bed, Ishmael thought back to the old times that were very vague now. He remembered that there had been a time when his brother had started spending more and more time cooped up in his room with his books and games. It had degraded to such a degree that mother had to forcefully restrict his time alone. From there it had seemed that he had recovered as he had started laughing and smiling with everyone. Learning to cook with mother while he and Muhammad played around.
Slowly, it has seemed as though everything had become better and even though Azaan had never been able to do physical activities back then, they had tried their best not to exclude him. He did not know when but as they had slowly been lulled into a relaxing he had again started increasing the time he spent alone. Socializing just enough that they could not say anything but otherwise being holed up in his room all day.
When he started going to university, something that now baffled him it had seemed to have rekindled life inside him as he began expressing himself more and more. Laughing and smiling. Becoming angry and sad unlike before when he rarely expressed himself. It had completely revealed their tensions until it all shattered like an illusion. He did not know what happened even though he investigated through his friends. Nothing had really happened, nothing that they knew of. It had become worse ever since last year.
Tap
“What are you thinking about? Your brother.”
“Yes.”
“Let him go for a bit. Didn’t you say he wanted freedom then give it to him. Maybe he will return when he has enough of it. Humans easily become bored of things that they have been blessed with.”