THE SHADOW OF THE PAST
The car rolled through Islamabad’s wide boulevards. Every street, every turn dragged Zain deeper into memories he buried ten years ago.
Aryan glanced at him again. “You’re quiet. Too quiet, Shah.”
Zain didn’t answer. His fingers tightened around the seat. Outside, the Margalla hills blurred past, just like they did when he was fifteen. Back when this city felt like home, not a battlefield.
The driver took the same road to the mansion. The same gates. The same high walls. Only now, the bungalow didn’t look as bright. The same walls that once echoed with “Drink your shake, Zain” now stood silent, waiting.
Zain stepped out. Ten years gone, and his feet still remembered the path. His past had just landed. And it wasn’t going to let him go.The gates of the mansion creaked open. Same sound. Same place. But the man stepping in was not the 15-year-old boy anymore.
Zain’s eyes swept over the courtyard. The marble floor where his mother used to make him stand for morning dua. The window of the kitchen where she’d call out “Shake khatam karo”. Everything was still there. Only the warmth was missing.
Aryan stayed silent behind him. He knew better than to speak when Zain wore that look. The look that said the past was no longer behind him. It was walking beside him now.
A shadow fell across the entrance. Not from the sun. From memory. From that “kaali raat” that turned this bright bungalow into a graveyard of laughter.
Zain clenched his jaw. “I’m back,” he whispered. Not to Aryan. To the walls. To Sofia Shah. To the past that destroyed him.Everyone in the bungalow had already found out that Zain Shah was coming back today. Beee Jaan was lost in happiness. And why wouldn’t she be, her grandson was returning after ten years.
And Zain Shah didn’t know that someone else was waiting for him with equal longing.
The moment Zain Shah stepped into the lounge, Beee Jaan’s eyes fell on him and she rose to her feet. Her eyes filled with tears. And the instant Zain Shah saw Beee Jaan, the dam holding back his emotions broke.
Beee Jaan whispered softly and stepped forward to pull Zain Shah into a hug.
“10 years...” Zain Shah said in a broken voice. “10 years...” Saying that, he broke down and cried.But no one saw his tears.
“Shah, why did you give such a big punishment to your Beee Jaan? You know how much I love you. Now you won’t go anywhere. You’ll stay with me.” She was losing herself, speaking in a broken, scattered way.
Zain lifted his eyes and looked at Beee Jaan. “No Beee Jaan, I won’t stay here. I came back only for my younger Shah. He is my responsibility. You know what promise Mama made me take in her last moments... to take care of my brother.”“And Zain Shah always keeps his promises. You’re forgetting, Shah. You have another responsibility here too.”
