It was a leaf falling Autumn Day

The phone rang. This was in the middle of the night, at 12:25 pm. Wasifa’s breath quickened as she answered the phone. ‘Hello!’ ‘Hi! This is Mirana. Did you hear that Ayman is in the ICU of Midland Hospital?’ ‘No! Oh my God! What happened to him?’ ‘No one knows! I called his home and they said he had fifty-fifty chances. ‘What do you mean? Fifty-fifty chances?’ ‘Well he might live or he might die, fifty percent chance for him to make it through. Mirana’s voice was cold.’ ‘But what is wrong with him?’ Wasifa eagerly awaited her response. ‘I think it’s some kind of virus. It’s killing him bit by bit. All his organs are failing on him.’ ‘I can’t believe it! I just talked to him just last week. He said he was feverish. Anyway thanks for letting me know. I will go see him may be tomorrow.’ ‘No use! They are not letting anyone get inside.’ ‘We will see what we can do. Bye now.’ Wasifa’s throat went dry and there was a knot somewhere inside her chest. Sleep evaded her. She thought of the first few days of their meeting. One day she went up to him and said, ‘If you can give this flower to Lily when it’s dead then I will give you 100 taka. Wasifa came with a long stem rose in her hand. The flower tilted to one side as the stalk was broken. She quickly held it back in position with her right hand.’ ‘Why when it’s dead? Why not now, its head is broken anyway?’ Ayman asked mischievously. ‘But it’s a bet! You will get hundred bucks if you give it to her when it’s dead.’ Ayman took the flower from her hand, his fingers brushing hers lightly. He felt her shiver as he looked into her eyes. Was she doing this to get his attention? Ayman thought to himself. They had befriended each other from the first day of college but he never saw anything like this in her eyes before. May be he didn’t notice while it was there all along. He told himself. He went to give the flower to Lily who was sitting in the canteen among a group of friends. They all laughed, cracking jokes. ‘There goes our Romeo!’ Lily’s cheeks blushed as she took the flower from his hand, the bud tilted and there was another round of laughter, this time someone banged the table with both hands. ‘Hey Ayman! Do you need the notes from yesterday? You missed the class.’ It was Wasifa again, the next day. He just nodded. ‘Tell you what; I left it at home, why don’t you come and pick it up this afternoon after we finish classes.’ She gave a dazzling smile. She invited him home and planned to do their study together. So they met sometimes in the library or at home frequently. Lily’s face was all flushed whenever Ayman was around. Once they had to visit the science museum as part of their study tour which was not so far and they all decided to take rickshaw ride. After everyone boarded on some six or seven rickshaws Lily and Ayman were the only ones left behind. But Lily just refused to get on the same rickshaw with Ayman. So one of girls had to get down and sit with Lily while Ayman got on with her companion. One day Lily sat in the library. She was trying to solve a problem at one corner. Ayman came in with his books. He asked her if he could sit next to her. She nodded. He looked at her hands and took her right hand in his saying, ‘you have such tiny hands! Look at mine, they are huge compared to yours!’ He put her palm on his and she noticed hers was really much smaller than his. But they looked perfect together. A pair of palms glued to each other in mid air, one female and one male. May be they were meant to be together thought she. She smiled and told him shyly, ‘I had put the flower inside one of my books. It has dried, still looks like a rose but brown in colour.’ He almost forgot about the flower. Apologetically he said, ‘Oh! The rose you mean. Listen I will give you my file, he pointed at the leather file he carried with him.’ ‘Why do you want to give me the file?’ ‘I don’t know, because it is with me all the time. So I would like to give it to you.’ ‘Do you mean you want to give me a piece of you?’ ‘May be.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘But not the whole of you?’ She asked as she looked back in his eyes. Her voice faded into the ringing of the bell. Wasifa came in panting, slammed her bag on the table and said, ‘sorry, I’m late but my car broke down on the way.’ Just realizing she was interrupting something. ‘Oh! I need to visit the rest room.’ Lily said she had class to attend to and walked out. Ayman nodded. Later that month Mirana came from America and got enrolled in their class. She had brown hair and brown eyes with very bright skin tone. Mostly she wore western clothes which made her stand out among all the others. Ayman openly admired her telling her she was beautiful. Ayman was almost seen everywhere with her like a moth around a flame. In the classrooms, in the canteen and they even took the same ride back home. Lily tried her best to stay away from their path. One day she walked in the library and found them sitting close to each other. Ayman straightened himself and looked at her with pursed lips. Lily’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. ‘How are you Lily?’ He asked. ‘I’m fine thank you. How about you?’ ‘I’m fine too. You know Mirana, we were discussing math.’ He pointed at Mirana who extended her right hand to Lily. They shook hands. After their final exam, Mirana and Ayman both migrated to the United States. Wasifa and Lily knew their whereabouts and got in touch now and then. Both the girls settled in their hometown. A few of years later Ayman came back to the country and joined his father’s company. Mirana came and joined a foreign bank and got settled in her childhood city. All the friends begun meeting here and there for coffee. The news of Ayman lying in the hospital hit them like a bolt of thunder. How could that be? Was it really happening? It was surreal world she was living in Wasifa thought. How could a healthy young man of twenty seven go into that state in matter of few days? Was life and death like the opposite sides of a coin? Was the boundary between them as thin as a hair strand? Couldn’t anyone come back from there? It seemed very strange to think that Ayman would no longer be there to laugh at his own jokes. He laughed uproariously at the slightest of things. When Wasifa went to see him the next day, she was not allowed to see him as his condition deteriorated. She met Mirana on her way out in the elevator. The news of Ayman’s death reached her two days later. It was Lily this time. She broke into tears, ‘I prayed so hard last few days for his recovery but God didn’t listen to me. May be god doesn’t love me as much.’ Her voiced was muffled with her tears. ‘Shouldn’t we go to his house?’ ‘I found out they are bringing his remains to his house in about an hour.’ Lily uttered with great difficulty. ‘Let’s go then! Shall I pick you up?’ When they arrived at his place, they saw a white van which must have brought Ayman’s remains. He was brought inside the living room for everyone to pay their last respect. The house was filled with people. His mother sat on a sofa wailing. Wasifa noticed Mirana was already there. Her eyes were smudged with the khol. She wore a white Shalwar Kameez which was very unusual for her. They greeted each other with their eyes. ‘My heart broke as I saw Ayman’s body lying.’ Mirana told her. Wasifa asked if they could sit in the nearby coffee shop. Mirana agreed as she felt she needed to get the weight off her soul. They sat awkwardly for about ten minutes. Each engrossed in her own thoughts. The waiter came and Mirana ordered the same coffee for everyone. Latte. Then she said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening! Is this is for real? She pinched the back of her left hand with her fingers.’ ‘Yes! We just came from Ayman’s funeral, he will be buried very soon.’ Wasifa’s eyes were filled with water and she wouldn’t let them roll down her cheeks so she wiped them off with the napkin. ‘For the longest time we thought Ayman and you were… well you know together.’ Lily said looking at Mirana. ‘Well we were when we were in college but when we went to the states things really changed. You see we lived in different states and there was no way we could meet up every week as our education was very demanding. But we met like two or three times while we were in the United States. But somehow I felt that we would get closer as we were home now.’ Lily’s mouth was slightly open as she listened to Mirana. Wasifa spoke, ‘Last week when I invited him to come to my party he declined saying that he was not well. But he told me something that made me all teary he said you have made me realize where my roots are.’ ‘What exactly did he mean by that?’ Mirana asked. ‘I think he meant to say that no matter where he was he belonged here. It’s funny you know he would call me up sometimes from the US and share all his problems with me. But that was like three or four times throughout this whole time. May be it was inevitable that we would be together someday. At least I thought so.’ She looked at her friends with questioning eyes. It was Lily’s turn to speak she said, ‘I had always admired Ayman from my childhood. I felt that he felt the same about me too. Now I confused talking to you two, maybe I saw too much into it but I’m afraid emotionally I invested too much in this relationship. She broke into tears.’ Both Mirana and Wasifa offered their napkins to her. ‘Do you want to visit the graveyard sometime this afternoon? After all the formalities are done that is!’ Asked Wasifa. ‘Yes.’ Lily and Mirana uttered in unison.