“His name is not Abdullah.”

She was seriously shocked for a moment seeing the honesty in his confidence.

“Then what…I mean” she got confused and couldn’t ask what she wanted to ask, “I mean what’s his name”

“You don’t know about it yet do you?”

“About what?” she asked getting confused and curious.

“He’s dead…”

“What? What are you saying?” she got shaken.

“He was killed, he’s not alive anymore. And secondly he never worked here.”

Eruj started weeping and slowly she lost her consciousness.

***********

Present Day

The three students were standing outside Shehla’s room. They were peeking through the shutter that was not shut.

“So she was the first one who got admitted here” one of the students reconfirmed what they all knew.

“Yup” another one answered.

“Professor Zeeshan told me that he received a picture of the moment when she was at the park, before she was seized by the police”

“You mean when she fired her pistol in front of public?”

“Yes”

They were also making some notes. As they left the spot and started to walk, they met Professor Zeeshan on their way. One of the students asked:

“So it was their lover Sarim Waqar’s death that broke these women?”

“Yes, it was that tragedy” the professor replied.

“And what about Zubair Karwani?”

“What about him?”

“I mean where is he now? Where did he go after what he did?”

“Oh don’t worry about that” the professor answered, “he was arrested a long time ago”

“Was he sentenced to death?”

“He’s waiting trial”

“I see”

They all heard a little noise from behind where the students were standing. As they turned to see, it was Farheen. She was crying out loud. The two nurses were forcefully dragging her to their room.

“Oh God” one of the students sighed, “why does it hurt to see someone else hurt?”

“They all were badly hurt” the professor replied. “They all got heartbroken, and it led to this condition.”

The nurses however took Farheen to her room. The students and the professor also left the corridor and went outside to finish the report they were working on.

As I sat next to the piano, I looked at the magnificent thing. It wasn’t antique but that was the only word that came to my mind as I placed my eyes on it. I hesitantly touched its keys. At first, I just enjoyed the smoothness of the substance. While enjoying the moment, I unintentionally pressed a couple of keys.

The sound that was created. I got to tell you honestly, it was something I’d never heard before. The music of the keys was so amusing and soul soothing that I craved to hear more. So, I continued playing further. And the sound that produced like waves of water were so mesmerising that I got lost in the music. Music was everywhere. I couldn’t stop my fingers as every key was like a spice that added more taste to the food. For a moment I had forgotten all that I was going through earlier. My luggage issue, my dull life and all other issues were of no concern to me.

The music was echoing all around my mind and it was activating different chemical reactions in my mind. At least, I felt that way. My fingers were just moving and getting faster. My eyes were open for a long while due to which tears started to appear on them.

I took a pause of few seconds. Feeling really uncomfortable, I hit the piano’s keys with my both hands and continued playing whatever I could. It was all happening so spontaneously. Maybe it wasn’t in my control. Somebody should have stopped me.

I lost track of time. I got so involved that three hours passed behind me and I kept on playing the piano. The tunes had gotten inside my mind so badly that every moment I took a pause, I heard the music in my head and my mind desired more.

It was the first time ever I was playing a musical instrument and in the first practice it had gotten inside my veins. I don’t know what exactly happened. I either felt overdosed or my hands got tired. I finally let go. I gave up the piano and stood up. There was no wall clock on which I could check on time. And my cell phone had broken open due to which there was no clue of time. I felt quite thirsty so I went towards the kitchen to drink water from the recently purchased water cooler.

***********

I was downstairs at some local restaurant. While I was having lunch, my ears were constantly feeling the soothing music that they just heard. I couldn’t eat so easily but I managed. My fingers were moving the way they were moving on the piano.

I stood up and kept the bill on my table. I got out of the restaurant and rushed to my apartment. I was dying to hear the sound of the piano’s tunes. I ran as fast as I could and finally reached my house, which I had forgotten was not actually mine.

Dear piano…here I come. I uttered as I entered inside.

I walked straight towards the piano. And without even washing my hands or anything, I just pulled the chair and sat next to it. Before starting it, I closed my eyes and let myself believe that I was in some concert and a lot of people were watching me play. I opened my eyes finally and began to play.

Oh, and the relief I felt after listening to its keys. It’s just beyond describable. This piano was like a cure to me. Just the way a medicine is to some ill patient. The feel on my hands after touching this magnificent piece was like touching gold. The sounds of the instrument rocked my world again and I kept on playing until my hands got tired.

One moment as I woke up I found myself lying on the ground. I got up and saw that I was lying close to the piano.

Had I slept? I don’t know.

Had I fainted? Probably.

Was this entire piano incident a dream? No, I don’t think so.

I stood up and looked around through the windows. It was getting darker. I then looked at the piano and asked myself:

What’s happening to me?

I then looked at my cell phone’s different pieces on different places.

What am I doing? I think should get myself together and work on finding a better place to live. Or should I?

I walked and thought about my miserable life in this rented apartment. Then I came back towards the piano and told myself:

Instead of dying out of boredom, I would prefer dying by this musical instrument…

***********

For two days, I kept on playing the instrument for like fifteen hours. One third of my day was spent on sleeping and out of remaining hours, one was spent on eating and drinking. Fifteen hours I spent. Yes fifteen hours I spent playing this beautiful instrument. A beautiful instrument that made me an ugly human being.

There were moments of my life that had given me really severe pain. They were wounds of my heart. But they were moments about my past and I had moved on from them quite a long period back. Now there were hardly any traces of those events left in my mind. But this musical instrument was also capable of activating the feelings of nostalgia in my mind.

I was playing the piano quite differently this moment. I started from the left side. I presses every key from the left side and among the black keys, I started playing them with the right hand and pressed them from right to left. A new kind of music was produced as I playing it quite slow.

The music was tempting and provoking. It was reminding me about the painful moments of my life and was also forcing me to realize the kind of injustice that was done to me. I saw my ex-wife’s face. Then in another thought I saw her with some other guy.

I opened my eyes and looked at the piano with fury in my eyes. Then I raised my hands higher and hit the piano quite hard. And then continued playing the same way as before but with a little fast speed.

I remembered the nights that were sleepless for me. I couldn’t sleep for several days. It was because of my wife. She was not a loyal person. I also remembered the time when I lost my first girlfriend before my graduation. I was so deeply involved in these thoughts that I didn’t want to let go off the piano.

Two years before I was about to graduate, I had just befriended a girl of my age. She was from different department but we had a lot in common and were crazy about each other. She always used to say:

You complete me. Without you I’m just a half person.

I was so hopeful. She had given me reasons to live. She was the one who had given me greater expectations for life. I was probably immature which was why I never considered the worst that could happen. I probably should have.

Her father was a kind of conservative person. He wanted to marry her daughter to some trusted family of the same community as his’. One day I went to her and saw her weeping. I asked her what had happened and why she was so upset. To this she spoke the words that actually came out as a bullet:

I’m engaged to someone else now. We can’t meet anymore.

Those words just shocked me.

Well that was the last time I saw her. She never contacted again. I tried her cell phone number and her email but there was no response at all. I was heartbroken. I had lost the love of my while.

All the while thinking of these incidents, I stopped playing the piano and felt sweat all around myself. If you’d been looking at me right now you’d say sweat is coming out of my eyes as well. But it wasn’t sweat actually. They were tears. I was upset again.

I left the piano and stood up. I walked towards the opposite direction wiping out my sweat but I instantly felt the need of hearing the piano’s music. I just couldn’t stand the silence and had to listen to the piano in order to remove the frustration that had just gotten into me.

I went back and sat next to the piano. I put my fingers on its keys and continued playing the instrument. I really didn’t want to play it but I was. I don’t know why. My body was kind of attached to it. What should I do? How can I detach myself from it?

I don’t know what happened. But I do know that I fainted completely. Yes I blacked out, maybe because I was taking too much pressure. I fell down from the chair and my face hit the piano.

It lasted for one minute only. As I got up I looked up at the walls and stood up using the chair as a support. Afterwards I went to sleep.

***********

Next day as I woke up around one o’clock, the first thing that came to my mind was the piano. I went to the toilet and washed my face. I looked at myself in the mirror and realized that my face had changed. I had become weaker than before. I asked myself should I be worried. And then replied to myself:

Of course not! As long as I have the piano and its tunes, I am healthy enough to survive.

Next minute, I was sitting by the piano and I was playing like a decent person. Everything was calm until I went back to my flashback and I remembered my wife.

At first I remembered how my wife and I were laughing together. Those were the best days of my life. Life was never as beautiful. I was married to the woman I truly loved. She used to smile because of me. She valued me more than anything. But what happened further, was unforgettable.

She didn’t value my love at all. She had no importance for me in her heart. Her conscience was dead. Maybe it was my fault. I had given her freedom. And she misused her liberty.

I saw her in a car with some other man. Days later we got divorced. She took more than fifty percent of my property after the divorce. And the saddest part for me was that she never turned back. She never cared to ask how I was doing. She was happy with her new husband.

I stopped playing the piano and my eyes were blazed with fury. I was so provoked by the music of the sound that I was now dying for justice. I wanted to settle the matter right now at the very moment.

I picked my cell phone and dialed Wajeeh’s cell phone number. I was quite desperate at the moment. He answered my call after several rings and spoke:

“Sohail, where have you been?”

“Look Wajeeh, I need a…”

“…You left my house” he interrupted, “I was so worried. Is everything alright?”

“Your gun…”

“Sorry?”

“I need your gun,” I spoke sternly.

“What? My hand gun?”

“Yes, with bullets in it.”

“With bullets? Dude what are you up to?”

“Just do as I say, please” I spoke trying to control my temper, “I need your gun, now!”

“Wait a minute, you’re not living in that haunted apartment are you?”

“No I’m not, but I need your gun and the bullets. Tell me when should I come to pick up.”

“Dude you can come anytime now but we need to talk about…”

I disconnected the call.

to be continued...