Chapter 40
Life in long distance with Amaal was life like he had never experienced before.
All of a sudden, his mind wasn’t playing flashes anymore.
The static was never empty, always filled with thoughts of her.
And when it wasn’t, it was filling with more ideas, better ideas, bigger ideas for Himachal Development Party.
It was as if being with Amaal had opened his potential, even if they couldn’t meet face to face as often as he would have liked to.
“…but you said your current trip is for a week!” She complained.
Samar hummed, pushing his earphone in tighter as he stepped out of the Boulevard Road Headquarters into the busy autumn street.
Tourist season had still not wound down, even though the temperatures had started to swing.
The team of junior leaders and members around him began to follow him as they were wont to do wherever he went in Kashmir.
Samar shook his head at them, waving and stepping off.
“I am in the state for a week.”
“But not in Srinagar,” she grumbled.
Samar walked through the crowd. “I am here for a day.”
“And you went straight to the headquarters.”
“If I had come there, would you have left work?”
“Umm… no. But it’s the waiting that counts. Come, wait under the Secretariat in your car all day to get just a glimpse of me.”
“O-kay,” he barked a laugh. “Any more commands for me?”
“You are the one with the commands.”
Dark, pleasurable thoughts clouded his mind. He slowed his pace.
“I hope you are talking to me in silos.”
“Why?”
“Put me on speaker and I’ll respond to that.”
“Here you go.”
“Cancel all meetings in second half. The Press Secretary will be taking my commands tonight.”
“Samar!”
He laughed. “You are sitting in a silent, closed room right now.”
“Just come show me your face, already! I last saw it in August.” Samar glanced down at himself.
What had happened to him? He had bought a white kurta and pathani and wore it like a fool just because she had once said she liked him dressed like this.
Thankfully, he had not completely gone to waste, and had pulled on his old plaid jacket at least.
“Tonight. I will come pick you up to show you the flat I rented.”
“Where?”
“You know the place.”
“I know every place in this city. Which area?”
“I’ll show you… Amaal, I’ll call you back.” Samar saw Iram, dropping to the ground, security and the crowd around her. He cut the call, running through the tourists down the street.
“Move! Move!” Her security was making a bubble around her, pushing everyone out. Shehzad, her Head of Security, had her head in his lap.
“Let me in.” Samar stepped up. “I’m a doctor.”
The crowd parted for him immediately. Shehzad’s eyes met his and the security recognised him. Samar thought they would stand against him but an opening was made.
“Run to the headquarters and get my medical kit.” He ordered behind him, kneeling beside her and taking her wrist in his hand. Her pulse was jumpy. Doubly jumpy. He pulled her eyelid down. Dilated.
“Madam had a dentist appointment and passed out the moment she came under the sun.” Shehzad relayed, holding his mobile to his ear — “Get the car!”
“What procedure did she have?” Samar glanced over his back, the crowd bringing phone cameras out. “Move her to the car. Where’s the car?”
“There!”
The security bubble pushed and Samar saw a way open up to the car, the door open. He covered her as Shehzaad picked her up and deposited her inside the car. Samar took the seat next to her, holding his hand out for the kit that came. The doors were shut, and the convoy kicked into motion.
“To the hospital,” Shehzad ordered the driver. Samar wrapped the BP cuff around her arm, taking her pulse again. 110.
The BP came 90/70.
He stilled.
He stared down at her.
Her skin was pale.
Eyes still closed.
“We can take her home for now,” he directed.
“Hospital…”
Samar pulled out his mobile and scrolled down his list of Favourites. He dialled.
“Yes.”
“Iram fainted on the street outside the headquarters…”
Atharva went silent. Then yelled — “Where is she?”
“She is fine, still passed out. I am having her driven home.”
“Take her to the hospital first I am leaving…”
“It’s better if we take her home.”
“Why? What’s wrong… Samar, if…”
“She will be fine. Just come home.”
————————————————————
She woke up just around the time Shehzad deposited her on the bed in Atharva’s room and ran out to get her things.
“Wh…” she croaked, then immediately set her hands on her stomach. She panicked, gaping up at him.
“You know it then,” he remarked, standing at the head of her bed.
“Whe… what are you doing here?”
“You fainted.”
“I know.”
“On the pavement.”
She frowned, confused.
“You fainted outside Shah-Irani café, beside our party headquarters. I was down when I saw you hit the ground.”
“You brought me home?”
“With a little help from your security.”
Her forehead broke out into a sweat. Samar reached down to check for another incoming faint and she reared back. He stilled, staring quietly at her. And her head relaxed. He checked her forehead. It hadn’t gone cold or hot.
“You are not feverish, that is good.”
He straightened and pointed to the glass by her bedside that Shiva had kept ready. She picked it up and brought it to her mouth. Then stopped. Suspicion was clear in her eyes. He couldn’t fault her.
“Shiva made it. I had nothing to do with it. Here.” He plucked it from her hand and poured a sip into his mouth before handing it back. She held it steady, still in shock, looking… scared. For the first time, Samar did not draw pleasure from her fear.
He sat down and took her wrist between his fingers. Her pulse was still going strong and fast. Definitely pregnant.
“Where is Atharva?”
“On his way.” He glanced up — “Do you still feel faint?”
She shook her head.
“Nausea?”
“No.”
“Does Atharva know?”
She frowned. He pointed to her stomach with his eyes.
“How do you know?”
“I am a doctor, Iram.” He set her wrist down. “The first thing I checked when you fainted was your pulse.”
It hadn’t dropped like a regular faint. It had been doubling down. A body preparing for motherhood. Samar stared at her wrist. And for the first time, did not see Aamir Haider.
“Did you tell Atharva?” She asked.
“No.”
“Iram! Iram?!” Atharva’s yells were deafening as he tore up the house and entered the room.
Samar got to his feet, stepping back. His eyes met Atharva’s and he saw relief. As if Atharva hadn’t expected to find his wife safe and sound here under his care. But then, Samar could not take offence to that reaction either.
“She fainted,” he said. “But her vitals are stable now.”
Atharva didn’t even spare him another glance as his eyes went straight to his wife.
Samar turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
With a jerk, he realised that Atharva was living such big milestones of his life and he wasn’t in them anymore.
In another reality, it would have been different.
Mistakes, on both sides but mostly on his, had made it impossible in this one.
————————————————————
Amaal stood outside the line of boutiques on Rajbagh, the lights bright this late into the night. He was still not here.
She leaned on a lamp post and called him.
“Here, here,” he answered and cut the call immediately, his car lights blinking at her as it wove through the pedestrian traffic. Amaal huffed.
His window opened. “Sorry, traffic.”
Her eyes widened. She pushed her head through his window — “Are you wearing what I think you are wearing?”
“Just get in.”
Amaal met his eyes, not even trying to hold back her grin — “I just asked you to come show me your face, you brought the entire package?”
“Amaal.”
“Fine, fine…” she began to round the car.
“Mobile.” He yelled.
“Oh!” She turned and found her mobile on the lamp post platform. “Sorry, sorry…”
Samar was shaking his head when she settled beside him.
“How is it that you have not lost even one phone yet?”
“I don’t lose phones.” She turned and deposited her shopping into his backseat. Empty and clean for a change.
“You forget phones on any horizontal surface available.”
“It’s happened once or twice.”
He gave her a look over his specs, merging into the traffic.
“Where are we going?! Where did you rent a flat? I thought you already had rented one?”
“The lease got over and now I have to shift.”
“You have stuff to shift?!”
“Are you meeting me after two months and doing nothing but taunting?”
“Who started it?”
Samar's head turned to her. “Better that than doing what I want to do.” His eyes hit her mouth.
“We are in public.” She flushed, looking around as they were literally surrounded by pedestrians pushing into their slow-moving car.
“Precisely.”
Amaal sat back quietly then. They cleared the stretch and he raced it out to the main road.
“What’s in the bags?”
“Shopping! I am going to London.”
“When?”
“Dates are not finalised yet, but sometime this Christmas. Probably for two weeks if I can manage.”
“The question is, will the government manage?”
“I will, of course, be working…”
“You should not.” He turned solemn, glancing at her at a red signal. “When was the last time you took a break?”
“Can’t remember.”
“Then take it. Atharva will be ok without you for two weeks.”
“Atharva needs to be kept in line or he goes rogue.” She rolled her eyes. “Just today we sealed Iram’s major public debacle. And then CM sahab went home halfway through his engagements because who knows what happened, and refused to come back. He has been so distracted lately.”
“Hmm.” He turned into a familiar locality.
“Here?” Amaal gaped, bending to soak in the street. It was still the same, just prettier, a little brighter, cleaner thanks to CM sahab’s cleanliness drives, and wider after his new road-widening campaign across the residential stretches of Srinagar.
Samar stopped the car outside 256, Nehru Nagar.
“Are you serious?” She turned to him.