Love, loss & the Unseen

She was lying on the bed, eyes fixed on the slowly spinning ceiling fan. The room was quiet, but her mind wasn’t. It was loud—filled with fragments of memories she couldn’t control. Thoughts kept pulling her back, like a film playing on repeat. She still remembered the exact date. 16 September 2014. It was supposed to be a happy day. Everyone in her family was getting ready to visit her father’s younger brother. A baby boy had just been born, and the whole house was filled with excitement. Laughter, rushing footsteps, and the sound of preparations had turned the ordinary morning into something special. They were leaving from Jamajo to Karachi. A small family trip, nothing unusual. Just a visit, just a celebration. Or so she thought. Karachi felt alive as they arrived. After reaching, they visited her uncle’s house, exchanged greetings, smiles, and warm words. Her father also planned to meet his cousin there. Everything looked normal, like any other family gathering. But life rarely announces its turning points. After the visit, they were sitting inside the taxi parked outside the house, ready to return home. Her parents were still talking to relatives nearby. She stayed inside the car, quietly lost in her own little world. A school-going girl, unaware that some moments don’t just pass—they stay. And then it happened. A boy arrived on a bike. He stopped near the taxi. For a second, everything felt ordinary again. Then he greeted her. He leaned slightly, moved his hand toward the taxi window, and offered a handshake. She hesitated for just a heartbeat… then shook his hand. That was it. A simple greeting. A normal moment for the world. But for her, it was the moment everything changed. She didn’t know it then, but that was not the beginning of something beautiful. It was the beginning of something she would later call destruction—slow, invisible, and endless. And he… he was wearing a blue shirt.