Chaos Of Affection || A short story || Ali Muhtasham

                                                                               

                                                                                                    (1)

The cats were jumping on the bed when she after taking bath entered the room and turned on the fan. As the fan started moving, her hair started throwing up and she began to run her fingers through the hair thoroughly. Her face became flared up when she saw that the cats had torn the bed sheet apart with their claws. She shouted at her high voice but anger didn’t suit to the angel like girl.

The anger was totally faked but it had to appear. She pushed the cats from the bed and then from the room. She already was in anger due to some other reason. She then sat on the chair and started saying,

“I wish Tally would confess because I’m a girl and girls are shy and I can’t but he can. But what about the family?” she stopped.

After thinking for a minute again began to say, “I want him and I don’t know if he wants me but what about the love we both think we are in but I don’t want to confess?”

“I, I want him and this is the truth but, but who cares? What should I do? What? What?” she began to stammer.

While she was saying all this, her mother entered the room and said, “Naty! You still are thinking about him? Your father scolded you for this earlier and you are again keeping up with the same thing.”  “But, Mom,” Naty Interrupted.

“Shut Up! I’m not here to listen what you think. We’ve decided. You’ll never talk to him again and this is the final thing.”

“Mother?”

Her mom left the room turning the fan off and after getting out shouted, “Come down.” 

Her eyes had already filled with tears. She wanted to cry hard and due to Globus sensation her throat hurt and she lay on the bed.

                                                                                                    (2)

The coffee with the layer of cream on it was on the table just beside a book and vapors were rising from its upper layer.

“Oh! Shit!” he uttered after grasping the hot cup of coffee. “Why Allah? Why? Why always it’s supposed to be me? Why me?” he mourned with eyes half filled with tears. He despite drinking coffee left the room and went to the park just in front of his home. Strolling there he got a thought about the tribulations he was going through and sat on the bench thinking how hard the life would be if he were supposed to live without the love of his life, Naty.

The sun had already set and a cool breeze was blowing past and the leaves in the wind looked like a flickering flame on the candle.

He walking along the barriers in the park entered zebra crossing while traffic was still in the run. A few cars could have crushed him but a friend of his saw him from the coffee shop just beside the park and ran to him saying, “Hey! Are you in your senses?”

“What happened?”

“The cars could have crushed you,” saying this he pulled him towards the front stairs of his home and sat on them.

“Oh! I didn’t see anywhere.”

“You were thinking bout her? Weren’t you?

“Eh! I guess so,” he told Sam with a weary expression on his face.

“You need a sound sleep. You should go to bed now and sleep,” Sam advised him.

“Yeah! I was thinking the same. I better go now.” Tally without saying goodbye to Sam opened the front door and entered his home.

Sam with a queer expression said, “Has he given all of his?” He then walked towards the coffee shop from where he ran to save Tally.

“Tally! Stop!” His mother ordered. “What happened mom? I need to get some sleep” said Tally.

“Where were you been?”

“At the park.”

“At the park?”

“I guess I didn’t say anything complicated.”

“But you never go there.”

“What if I went there? Did I do something bad?”

“No! But………”

“But what mom?” He interrupted.

“You never go there. I’m saying this.”

“But I went there today and don’t wanna talk about this anymore.” Saying these words he went up .

“What about the dinner?” His mom shouted while he was on the stairs.

“I don’t wanna eat.” His voiced rose from the corridor that started just after the stairs ended.

He directly went to the bed to get some sleep.

                                                                           

The chaos arises when someone’s cursed. Naty was cursed by his parents about Tally. She was doomed to show no concern to him. That’s how cursed caused the chaos. But the chaos isn’t the last thing. It keeps its effects onto the person who’s cursed until exploitation occurs in his behavior. This exploitation changes the habituation of a man. Actually the chaos which causes exploitation leads to rebellion behavior and this yet was to observe in one of them.

 

                                                                                                    (3)

It’s actually a year ago when they first met at the college. Tally was so intelligent that he was the most prominent one in the class and that’s how Naty first saw him. He used to answer every single question asked by the professor and even argue on the basics of a concept. Naty used to stare him, sitting diagonally to his chair, with his hair getting down on the table.

‘Hey! What are you looking at?” asked Tally. “Hey,” Tally repeated.

“Oh! Oh! Sorry,” Naty stammered.

“Sorry?”

“I was lost in thoughts.”

“That’s fine,” he said.

A moment later Tally turned around and asked, “Hey! Girl in thoughts. What’s your name by the way?

“Naty. Naty’s my name,” she replied.

“Cool.”

From that day they started talking and remaining together. Naty was already impressed by his intelligence. They used to talk until the Morning Prayer and even in the class a bit of eye contact they started having. Not the friend kind of. They actually were falling for each other and one day suddenly Naty called Tally.

Without formal greetings, Tally said, “I’d call you later.” And then he hung up.  Almost, after an hour, he called her; she picked up and said, “You are …..” “I’m sorry,” Tally interrupted.

“Where were you been? Have you got a new chick to brag about in boys? That’s why you hung up.?”

“Hey! Hey! What are you talking about?

“With whom you were busy?”

“You are suspicious of me?”

“Sort of”

“I fucking was stuck in the darkest time of my life. I was worried about my mom. She could have died in that severe situation and you are charging me of betrayal. Stop! For fuck sake.”

“Tally….,” she interrupted. “Shut the fuck up,” he responded the interruption and hung up.

Meanwhile, they were talking, Naty’s mother voice rose from her back.

“Wow Kiddo, You’re Grownup now. Talking to boys. Hmmmm”

“No! Mom!”

Her mother left the room saying, “You’ll be punished, Honey!”

This is the point when she was caught and was made to remain in her room for a month. No mobile. No Internet. No outing. Just she and her room.

“The night’s stormy now and I’m alone in the room. It’s been two week since I talked him,” she said while taking the panorama of her house garden in the night.

The night was clear with the light of moon. The moon was at its peak and was spreading white light everywhere. The light though was very small but managed to beat the rays of darkness.

“Take your food and eat it,” her mom ordered after entering her room which was locked due to the punishment.

“Mom! Mom,” she called.

“What?” her mom inquired in very rude voice.  “I love him and this is the truth and there is no way you gonna stop from being Tally’s,” Naty explained.

“Hmmm,” her mother created guttural sound.

“No!” she shouted when her mother locked the door ignoring the explanation she gave to her.

“He’ll say Naty’s mine and I’ll marry him and there’s no power on the earth which would undo our relation,” she said in her low-high voice combination.

The last time they talked, they had arguments and according to tally he was in sever condition and her mom was sick. Naty was quite worried about him. You only got panic about those whom you consider your love one. Although, Naty was being locked but she still thought about him and this’s the love that keeps people linked no matter how much distant they are.

                                                                                           
                                                                                                    (4)

The month punishment had completed. She was then allowed to go to college and prohibited to talk him. But the prohibition wasn’t gonna work after all they both were head over heels in love with each other and love attracts. There is no possibility for repulsion in between two lovers.

The bus had got her from the home stop and after getting off the bus in front of college she was Tally.

She ran, meanwhile Tally saw her too, and after few seconds jumped into his arms and cried, “I love you, Tally. I’m sorry I doubted. I’m really sorry.”

Tally hugged her so hard and said, “The love has started showing after effects. But you don’t have to care. Okay? I’m here and I’ll talk to your parents.”

She replied, “Okay.”  The tears had dissolved the makeover. And it was on his shirt.

“Now go and wash your face,” Tally advised.

“Who told you about my lock down?” asked Naty.

“Your younger sister,” Tally told her.

She went into the washrooms and washed her face watching into the mirror.

Tally told her, “I’ve taken part in singing competition and I would sing a song for you today,” just after she came out of the washroom.

“What it’s called? She asked.

“If you leave me now.”

“I won’t leave you.”

“It’s song name,” he confirmed.

“But I won’t leave you ever.”

“I know that.”

“I should prolly go now,” Naty said. “Yeah. Sure,” he said, “but come to the theater just after the break to hear my song.”

“I will.”

The time had changed a lot. Naty who after being flaring up used to say him, “Now talk to her. Go Na. Go! Go!” was now more concerned about him.

She entered the theater just before Tally started singing.

She waved to him. He did too and then he started singing following lyrics.

I would cry if you leave me now.

I would die if you leave me now.

I’d take chances to make things right,

And I should fear about the stormy night.

Cause I know it’s hard for me and you

But I’ll try hard and make one, two.

And if you leave me now I’d barely breathe now.

Got so many scars underneath now.

I would cry. I would die.

If you leave me now, if you leave me now. 

He repeated these lyrics twice. Meanwhile, Naty left the theatre.

He ran after her and saw her weeping in the side garden of the college.

Tally inquired, “What happened?”

“I became emotional.”

“You didn’t have to.”

 He braced her and cajoled him not weep anymore because it seemed hurting to him.

“Naty,” voice full of anger rose behind them. It was Naty’s father who had seen everything and was there to pick her up.

He approached him and grasped him from his shirt front and jerked him. “Why don’t you stop seeing my daughter?” her father asked.

“I love her,” Tally simply told him.

“That’s bullshit.”

“I love her. She loves me and this’s the truth and you won’t be able to separ……”

Her father punched in his face while he was saying. “You are piece of shit. OK? That’s what you are.” Her father said.

“You are obliged morally to hit me and that’s what you are doing and that’s why I’m not responding to what you are doing. Believe I could have beaten you brutally but I couldn’t just because you are her father. Naty’s father,” he told him.

“Hit me! Hit me! You son of a bitch.”

“Dad,” Naty interrupted.

His dad ignored her and said to him, “It’s the first and last warning dear or either I should put a bullet straight in your head.”

Her father than dragged Naty while she was crying and put her into the car and drove to home.

The chaos which started earlier by lock down had grown in worse form and it was exploitation.

Exploitation takes less time to act and this was yet to come.

                                                                                                     (5)

Here is the point when she wept on his bed after taking bath. She wasn’t given the love from his parents she expected of and it was now past 8 in night.

The night was overwhelmed as the clouds covered the moon. The nigh had won and the moment which was on its peak vanished as the tear from the eye evolved and flowed until the jawline. There are the miseries appeared.

While weeping silently she had carried a blade and in utter love stared at the picture of Tally.

“I love you but this world is way crueler. I’m sorry,” she said.

She went into the bathroom and sat in the tub weeping way slower but intense. She rolled up her sleeves and cut her wrist. The stream of blood reddened her white pajama. A bit of blood’s vapors rose and she started trembling. She remained numb whilst her mother knocked the bathroom door and entered and shouted, “Faiq! Naty’s bleeding. Faiq! Faiq!”

They carried her to hospital but she had died on the way and the exploitation in the habituation has shown the results. She died with an immediate decision and didn’t even think about Tally that how would he bear this tragedy? ………………………………………………………..

It’s told that Tally became savage on hearing the news of the Naty’s suicide. He didn’t even was allowed to attend the funeral. He wept for days until he lost his senses and started to roam in the whole city.

But this roaming reminded him most of the things like Okus Pokus. She used to say this instead Ok.

The love. The smile of her. The blushing face of her without the glasses. Roaming reminded him each and everything.

“Who would love me now? Who'd say Okus Pokus? Who’d say Tally I won’t leave you? Who would?” Tally cried while crossing the road meanwhile a bus in its full speed crushed him down. And he died at that point.

Naty’s mother cursed her about Tally. The curse caused the chaos in different forms; she was made to remain in her room doing nothing but arising clamor in her mind, his father beat him in the college.

This all lead to exploitation in the behavior. The exploitation killed Naty. Exploitation in the habituation killed Tally. Parents of both of them would curse themselves and the chaos would again start and this cycle would be continuous until the apocalypse.