18— An unforeseen talk with Sabba! “Knowledge comes with a prize that not each one of us is willing to pay as it takes courage to change the perspective one has known since it has been born and brought into the world with morals varying from society to society.” — Saumya Tripathi “How can I just accept it? Trust him? Hm?” With sadness in my eyes and a clog in my throat, I mustered up the courage to ask the question myself loudly. I was terrified. “Why wouldn't I be?” Recalling his words as he uttered in his deep, throaty voice about the past that I had no memory of. I shuddered. "You had an accident when you were little causing the memories to be interlocked in a certain part of your brain letting you form a wall over it," I could still remember him saying to me. “We had a bond.” The hauntingly certain confidence in his tone had me blanketed in goosebumps and chills. The way the truth appeared to have swirled in the large orbs when his piercing gaze met my eyes made my heart rac

Part two. The soft sound of the wind chime clicking together through the wind filled the air while the breeze continued to dance around the curtains. It must have been the first time where the silence didn't instil terror but brought a soothing calmness and tranquillity with it. Regardless of the fact that even though there was a certain feeling of desolation that was present in the atmosphere, I let myself breathe the calmness that the breeze didn't fail to provide. Unknowingly, my gaze swept back towards the middle of the window where the wind chime remained hanging delicately. I seemed to have been transfixed by it as it kept on moving and making a musical tone and yet I was seeing nothing. My eyes kept on gazing at it blankly with a wide range of thoughts clouding my brain with possibilities. With my mind occupied by the event which took place in the last couple of hours or was it more than a few hours…I couldn't say. I wasn't sure nor I might have been at the right level of my mi

Part two. Spreading out the dark, thick— tall oak door, both the gangsters entered, unsteadily with long strides. With broad shoulders and shades covering their eyes, Uzair walked in with security following behind him. His features were very well-schooled and straight. "Good evening, Godfather!" They wished simultaneously, lowering their necks in respect for the capo dei capi. "Regardless, boys! Have a seat, both of you. We have a state of affairs, might I add a very perilous situation on our hands to look over." The godfather deduced, dismissing any formalities. “The matters seem simple yet it is but.” "What is it, Godfather?" The underboss asked, face impassive, voice as cold as an iceberg, taking a seat while nodding in the direction of eleven other heads of the Mafias of different countries, seated on the leather-comfortable revolving chairs, when they nodded at him back in respect. "No formalities, gentlemen." The godfather ordered. He stood before them, in front of the hea

Part two. Shaam slightly pulled the ends of his hair in sheer frustration seeing his little daughter suffer at this age. Although he seemed to be calm and collected, inside he was everything but. He paid attention to his musings as the boy who stood there contemplating. Shaam couldn't help but feel so defeated at that moment. He knew his daughter was the foremost priority on Uzair's list. However, he dreaded the outburst which was yet to come from the young lad any minute from now. He knew how much his gudiya meant to Uzair, there was no doubt about it. He protected his gudiya like a family member of his family— like he was for them. Uzair was capable— more than capable enough for protecting his soft little daughter, Shaam agreed. “Such a good lad he is. He would be making our country proud one day with his honesty and hard work. I hope he will be equally as serious, honest and devoted to my daughter as he is now to his country in the future as well,” he thought from somewhere in

Meanwhile in the corridor. . . Several minutes ambled by… Ten minutes passed… Twenty minutes passed… Forty-five minutes passed.... And so on. Their patience was running away, precisely of Uzair's. As he strolled hastily with quick long strides in the space of the hospital, hands running in the mane frustratingly with each passing minute. “What is taking them so long?” “It takes time, son.” “It has been nearly an hour since we walked out of the room!” “He will be out in any minute now,” assuring him, Shaam responded, looking tensed himself. "She would be fine, wouldn't she?" Uzair asked when he felt a presence behind himself, hovering over him. His voice vacillated. His eyes were hooded with pain and affliction as he asked with a certain quiver in his small voice. Shreyaanz had never seen his boy this afflicted and broken as he was sounding now in his whole growing period. “She is going to remember us, right?” “She will,” he consoled. “I don't know why this had to happen