Missing Pieces of a Puzzle

  • 15 May - 21 May, 2021
  • Salaar Laghari
  • Fiction

A sad was horrified but he didn’t react. The criminal took out a gun from his pocket and aimed it at Asad.

“I’m asking you for the last time,” he said to Asad, “hand me over this money or I’ll.…”

“Asad just give it to him,” Asad’s friend forcefully said to him.

Asad who was still reluctant didn’t move. His friend hit him on his shoulder and asked angrily,

“Are you crazy? He has a gun. He will kill us both. Just hand it over. Just hand the money over to him.”

“Shut up,” Asad said to him.

The criminal loaded his gun in front of them as if trying to scare them. Asad said to his friend,

“We are two. He is one. We can defeat him. Just react smartly and don’t create a fuss.”

“Are you out of your mind?” his friend responded furiously. “If he is one, then only he has a gun. Don’t be over smart.”

“Wait,” Asad said, “let me try on him.”

Asad looked at the criminal’s face and said,

“Let me try on him. I know he can do nothing.”

Asad stared straight in his eyes. The criminal who was a bit scared then said,

“I’m telling you. Don’t play games with me.”

“I love playing games with criminals like you.”

Asad then paid attention towards his gun and after realising something, he said to his friend in a tone of mockery,

“Would you have a look at that? This gun is not even a real gun.”

The criminal got shaken and after changing his direction, he ran away as fast as he could.

Asad laughed out trying his best to insult the criminal fleeing running away.

“Oh, my God!” Asad’s

friend said.

“What did I tell you?”

“How did you know he was just a trickster?”

“I’ve seen several things like this before. Let’s go now.”

***********

That day, Aaraiz was scrolling through Kiran’s Facebook Account. He was still friends with her on Facebook, but he was depressed seeing how happy she was in her life, without him.

He was seeing that this new guy Asad was there with her in pictures. He tried to analyse who this guy was and how she met him. He however, recognised him and came to realise that he was one of his university mates in the same university. They were from different batches and hardly ever came face to face.

I wonder what she sees in him. He wondered in his thoughts.

He then saw that Kiran’s friend Mahnoor was online on Facebook. He texted her privately,

“Hey, Mahnoor.”

“Hey, how are you?” she replied back.

“How is Kiran these days? What is she doing?”

“I would advise you to stay away from her. She is not a good person. She has no respect for your feelings. Find someone else who is worth your love.”

Aaraiz read the text and felt a bit disappointed. He then texted her,

“Can you please convince her to be with me?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t. But I want you to be convinced. Stay away from this girl. She is not worthy of love and respect.”

Aaraiz got even more upset, and so he simply closed the messenger tab and focused on something else. In his thoughts, he was thinking,

Who is she to stop me from loving someone? I shouldn’t have simply texted her.

He then logged out of Facebook and said,

I think that I should focus on something more practical. I can and I should make her believe in my love.

He stood up from his computer chair and walked towards another table. The necklace was on the table. He picked it up and looked at it.

***********

Yeah, right,” she said touching her forehead. “Silly me.”

“Anyway, I’ll come over. Text me, then we’ll go.”

“Sure, sure.”

After she disconnected the call, she saw one of her friends coming towards her with delightfulness in her face.

“Hey, Kiran!” she said.

“Look, I’m sorry. Do me a favour; please tell them all that there is an emergency. I have to leave.”

“What happened?”

“I have to go now. Bye bye.”

Kiran immediately turned and left her friend alone, walking away.

Two hours later, as it was half past seven during the evening, Kiran and Asad were walking on the footpath.

“I really like your bike,” Kiran said to him. “I don’t really ride these, but I liked yours.”

“I see, but I’m about to purchase a new car.”

“A new car? Wow!”

“Yes.”

“Which car are you thinking of buying?”

“I don’t know whichever car that can please me.”

Kiran chuckled.

They kept on walking until Kiran asked him,

“If you don’t mind me asking, are you…”

Seeing she was getting nervous, he said to her,

“You can ask whatever you want to.”

“Yeah, well… I just happened to ask…Are you s–single?”

“Well, yes! I am….”

“I see.”

“What about you?”

“I’m single too.”

“Great!”

Kiran felt kind of excited as she heard this word from him. So as they walked a bit more, Kiran asked,

“What kind of girl are you interested in?”

Asad chuckled for a bit and then said,

“I just want someone who can accept me for who I am.”

“I see.”

“What about you?”

“Well, I have a long list,” Kiran responded.

The two of them talked and talked until eventually they formed a committed relationship.

***********

Several weeks passed, Aaraiz had no idea about Kiran’s relationship status with Asad. He was although very curious about her and kept on checking her social media accounts but he did not know that he was about to get heartbroken.

One day, the three of them were invited separately for a party. The party was arranged by a friend who was a mutual friend of all of them. Aaraiz had no idea that they would be here and neither did they. The party was arranged in a farm house.

Aaraiz came to this party, so he could distract himself a bit. He was happy for a moment as he met some of his old friends, but he later got interested in a conversation on Kiran. Some of his friends were talking about her.

Later in the evening, while Aaraiz was walking in the garden, he saw Kiran talking to some friends. He got so panicked that his heart started beating a lot faster than usual. He said in his heart,

Oh, my God! What is she doing here?

He moved back as if trying to hide himself and said,

I had no idea that she would be here.

Few minutes later, Kiran was with the male friend who owned the farm house and arranged the party. She said to him looking around making sure that no one was

watching her,

“Thank you, Sawaiz.”

“Excuse me?” he said politely yet inquiringly.

“I would like to thank you for arranging this party on my request.”

“No problem. No problem

at all.”

“I want to remind you again that no one must know

about this.”

“That you requested this party?”

“Yes,” Kiran said.

“Okay, no problem. Can you also remind me why you asked me for this?”

“I want to propose Asad today. I will do this in front of everyone.”

“I’m fine by this. But I still want to know why you wanted this to happen here? I mean why did you choose my farm house?”

“Come on, why wouldn’t anyone prefer this place? I want my special moments to be in the places where I would appear to be wealthy.”

“Wealthy?”

“Yes. I want to appear wealthy. Well, at least in front of the world.”

Sawaiz chuckled and said,

“Alright, whatever you feel like.”

Aaraiz was at quite some distance. He was looking at her and he talked to her in his heart,

How are you Kiran? I so want to be with you right now. Why don’t you value my love?

He was about to weep which was why he turned and walked towards another direction. He tried to control his tears.

Asad was inside the farm house and was having a cold drink. He was going through his cell phone, when he heard someone calling him from behind. He turned and said,

“Yes?”

“They are calling you over there.”

“Who?” Asad asked getting surprised.

“Just come, everyone’s waiting for you there.”

“Who? Wait, what is going on?”

“Your friends are waiting for you there.”

As he saw everyone was headed outside towards the swimming pool, he followed everyone.

Outside, Aaraiz who was sitting upset and all alone also saw people gathering. He also got curious and followed the crowd.

Between the crowds, there was a car covered under a cloth. Kiran was standing right next to the car. Asad came over and stood right in front of her, kind of confused. The crowd of friends was cheering them up.

“Asad,” Kiran said on a mic that she was holding. “I want you to see this first.”

She took off the car’s cloth and a white Civic appeared before everyone.

“Asad, you are the love of my life,” Kiran announced.

Aaraiz of course, got brutally heartbroken. He was shaking with a tortured soul. He couldn’t see this anymore, and so he simply turned around.

Asad who was happy seeing the car got really nervous. He took the mic from Kiran and said,

“Look, we are in a committed relationship. I can promise you that we might get married. But I’m sorry, I simply cannot accept this.”

Kiran got a little upset on this but the crowd started cheering forcing Asad to accept this proposal.

“Oh, dear Lord!” Asad was getting embarrassed.

Kiran was hoping that he would accept this gift.

“How did you arrange all this?” Asad whispered to her.

“Please accept it,” Kiran whispered back in a pleading tone.

“…Alright,” Asad announced after a pause. “It is a great honour for me, thanks.”

Kiran got so much excited. The crowd cheered.

Aaraiz who was at the corner was looking around as if he was terrified and was waiting for some sort of thunderbolt or a disaster that would simply destroy everything and end his torment forever.

***********

Next day, Asad woke up as he heard knocking on his door. He woke up and went to answer the gate. As he opened the door, he saw two police officers. He asked getting kind of alarmed,

“Yes, what is it? May I help you?”

Meanwhile at Aaraiz’ house, he was in his bathroom’s tub wearing his night suit. He was in a state of extreme depression. He was holding some sort of poison. He was thinking about drinking all of it at once. He did not have any courage to drink it but he really wanted to. He opened the lid but he got even more fearful. He almost dropped the bottle on the ground. But he managed to hold it.

Back at Asad’s house, he was quite worried as the two police officers were inquiring from him and it was quite unexpected.

“Can you introduce yourself?” one of the police officers said.

“My name is Asad.”

“This car. When did you purchase it and where did you purchase it from?”

“I got it yesterday,” Asad replied regarding the car he got as a gift from Kiran.

“This was reported stolen, few days back. Did you steal it?”

“What? No!” Asad replied getting shocked.

to be continued...

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