Short Story | Father by Maham Amir

It was a Friday evening. After completing his work, Hadi was relieved to head back home. He left the office, and as he descended the stairs, he was planning on how to spend his weekend after all the hustle and bustle of the whole week. He came at the ground floor and saw the sky from the inside. It was still colorful. The orangish sunlight was covering the one side of the sky, while the rest lay faded at the other. 

After waiting for quite some time, and facing the rejection by three rikshaws, one driver finally agreed to take him. He saw his watch as he sat inside, as if he was in hurry to reach somewhere; but in reality there was no one waiting for him at home and he had nothing special to do, he had all the time to himself but still there was this feeling of unrest. It was around 6:13 pm. Gradually, the sun was drowning and was losing its power over the sky. There were 3 more people in the rikshaw along with him, 2 middle aged men and 1 little boy in his teens. 

His home was not so far. Usually it took him quarter of an hour to reach home, but today it was taking so long. Or at least, Hadi was feeling that time got slow. At one of signals, the rikshaw stopped. Tired of the gazing at the same faces, he looked outside and saw a young adult boy sitting on a footpath discussing some things with an old man. His expressions were tensed, shoulders bent and face downwards as he talked. While the old man was listening him empathically. It seemed like he was sharing his personal problems. He tried to listen, but couldn't hear them from such distance. He made efforts to hear a word but ended up getting lost in the moment. The more he focused, the more he analyzed them and gently, the world around him started to evaporate, the people, the road, the clamor, all seemed too vague and blur for him to make sense. All he could see was two of them. All he could feel was warmth in his heart. 

He saw his father in the old man and himself in the young. He felt happy to realize that in the world crowded with old aged homes there are still some people left who give importance and respect to elders. He was just smiling at them. And a person sitting next to him looked at him as if he was just dumb. But he was no fool, just humbly lost in the realization, and unaware of the world around him. But suddenly a terrible guilt surrounded him, taking him back to the days when he abandoned his own father, just before a month he died.