Kissa

"Stranger"

*KISSA*

*Chapter 2: " Stranger"*

Pieces of broken glass lay at my feet. Raindrops fell on it and made it shine.

The rain started again. Soft. Cold. Like the sky was tired of crying.

Ali stood at the door. Water dripped from his hair to his shoulders. His white shirt clung to his body. Raindrops traced lines down his cheek like an old wound opening again.

I bent down to pick up the pieces of glass. My hands were shaking.

Was this all I came back for?

Twelve years of waiting. Many sleepless nights. And this broken moment.

"Leave it," Ali said. There was no softness in his voice.

His voice was deeper now. Heavy. It was not the voice from my childhood. He was a lawyer now. And I was probably just a file to him.

I felt the cold, sharp edge in his tone. My heart sank.

I froze. Looked up.

His gaze was still on me. Sharp. Like he was checking a file. Like I was the case he had to decide.

"Any special reason for coming back after twelve years, Miss Kissa Daud?" he asked. He measured every word.

The word "Miss" hit me like an arrow. Right in the center of my heart.

"Yes," I said. My voice drowned in the rain. "I came to finish the childhood I left unfinished. The childhood that stayed incomplete without you."

Aunt took one step back. She looked at both of us. Then she left without saying anything. Like she knew this was between us now.

Now it was just us. The rain. A stranger. And twelve years of silence standing like a wall between us.

"So is this how you greet someone after twelve years?" I stood up. The glass was about to cut my feet. "No complaints. No hurt. Just questions?"

Finally, Ali came inside. One step. Then another. Water dripped from his shoes. With every step it felt like he was stepping on my heart.

He stopped a few feet away. So close I could hear his breathing. And the way mine stopped too.

"I treat strangers with respect," he said. There was pride in his voice.

Stranger. That word fell like rain. Cold. Sharp. Like poison.

"Oh, so I am a stranger now, Ali?" I whispered. There was no rain in my eyes. Something else was. "The one you took punishment for as a child?"

"How can I trust you?" he said, watching me. "When will Miss Kissa Daud change her mind again? When will the princess of Karachi remember her city? When will she leave everything and go again?"

He smiled a little when he said "princess." But that smile held teasing and complaints. And somewhere deep, pain too.

"So what do you have here now?" he asked. He put his hands in his pockets. Like he was holding himself together.

"My village," I said. "My home. My memories. And you."

"Twelve years have passed, Miss Kissa Daud," he dragged out the name. "Now you are a stranger to them. And they are strangers to you. You are a guest here."

He pointed toward the old tree behind the window. "Look at that tree... see how alone it looks."

I took one step forward. He didn't move back. The distance between us shrank. So much that I could smell the rain on his clothes.

"At least say my name right," I said. There was pain in my voice. "Don't talk to me like I am a client. Miss Kissa Daud... just call me Kissa, Advocate. Like you used to."

For one second something flickered in his eyes. Something old. Something I recognized. The eleven - year - old Ali who had stood like a wall in front of the teacher for me. who had said "I broke the glass."

Then it was gone. Like someone switched off a light. He looked away.

"People shouldn't change," I said. "Ali said time changes, people don't. But you have changed."

Ali's eyes came back to me. I didn't know what he was searching for in my face. The past? A mistake? Or an excuse?

"People have to survive, Kissa," he said. There was exhaustion in his voice. "And I am just surviving. Files. Courtrooms. Staying up all night. Disappearing all day. That's my life now. Nothing else."

"That's not life. That's a punishment," I said. "And you are punishing yourself."

"Punishment?" He gave a small laugh. But there was no happiness in it. Only wounds. "I got my punishment the day I told the teacher I broke the glass. You were crying. I thought I would take the blame for you. So you wouldn't cry."

I smiled. There were tears in my eyes and a smile on my lips.

"So why don't you take it now?"

"Do you still have the courage to take my punishment?"

He threw the question back. "Can you still stay for me?"

I said nothing. I stayed quiet.

Ali looked toward the rain. His whole body was soaked. Like he wasn't even fit to stand in the rain anymore.

"Kissa, you have grown up. Twelve years, Kissa. Twelve years. If you could be happy without any contact for that long..."

"No calls. No messages. That only means you didn't need me anymore... So why did you come?"

"I did come back, didn't I?" I said. "Is coming back not enough?"

"You came back?" He turned. There was doubt in his eyes. "People come back to where their home is. Where their heart is."

"Your home is also in Karachi. And so is your heart. Then why did you come here?"

"You just came to add new memories to old ones, Kissa," Ali said. "Then you will leave again."

I pressed my lips together. I had so much to say. I wanted to scream. But I stayed quiet. Because the time wasn't right yet.

He turned to leave. Slowly. His shadow stretched long in the rain. Like he was walking away from himself too.

"Wait," I said. My voice was louder than the rain. "At least tell me this."

He stopped. He didn't turn. Only his shoulder faced me.

"Did we really become strangers to each other?" I asked. "Was our entire childhood a lie? Was that wound a lie? Was our friendship a lie? Was I nothing to you?"

Silence. Only the sound of rain. And somewhere far, a dog barking. Even my heartbeat had stopped.

I held my breath. Waiting for an answer.

Then Ali looked back over his shoulder. Half his face was in darkness. Half was in the rain.

"Just this," he said softly. Tired. "I don't know."

And he walked away. Into the darkness. Into the rain. Without looking back. Without stopping.

Leaving me standing there. With the broken glass. And a broken question.

After twelve years this was how we met. I came waiting. He left with indifference.

The rain got heavier. I stayed there. My feet felt nailed to the ground.

"Was Ali's attitude a complaint?" I asked myself. "Or something more?"

Ali was my childhood friend.

I can't call it love. Between us there was a bond of trust and faith. Which was maybe breaking now.

Tomorrow will be a new day. Tomorrow I will ask. Tomorrow I will stop him.

But today... today I only understood that twelve years change people. Or maybe we change ourselves.

To be continued....

Did Ali really forget KISSA?

Tell me in the comments.

Let's see what happens in the next chapter.

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