Homesick

The road lights shimmered off the chrome mirrors as he reversed the car. Without cognizance of the wet road, he moved the vehicle over the curvy path. “Where are we heading to?” Anee asked as she fiddled with the radio to fill our ears with high bass music. “Surprise!” He murmured. As they hit the highway, the tires roared like wild beasts. Everything around them seemed to be running against time like the sky-rocketing buildings, the Silver Oaks, the road signs.

Anee keenly watched how the orange, green, and red lights played with the tiny droplets of rain. The auto’s blue headlamps gave the illusion of big, bright eyes as the car slowed down near the puddle. The sedan was all wet due to the unexpected rain that evening. It’s jet black paint glistened as a passerby SUV flashed lights from the opposite direction. “Why is he doing that?” Hiding her eyes with her hands, Anee inquired. “He seems crazy.” Adi smirked. There was something in his smile that made Anee skeptical about him. After pausing for a moment, she tried to make a guess, “Adi! are we in the wrong lane?” The young boy did not reply.

They kept going for an hour.

The motor seats were maroon and gray with cozy velvet cushions. However, the best thing about it was its dashboard. It was filled with tiny ornaments - blue and green puppets, and yellow minions. Touching one of the toys, she asked again, “So we are going to?”

“If I knew this, I would have told you.” Some journeys do not need any destination.

PAUSE

As they entered the city market, a hatchback challenged Adi to race with him. “Adi, don’t do that. This is a risky zone now!!!” Anee was never in favor of racing and Adi was her complete opposite. “Haven’t you witnessed his gesture? He has dared me!” Adi shouted and his wheel picked up speed.

The two cars kept chasing each other for sometime before the hatchback disappeared in a dark lane. Both the drivers showed awesome but reckless driving skills. First the stranger car overtook the Adi’s vehicle. Adil superseded it after some efforts. While racing, the two driver absolutely ignored about road safety. The only passion was to knock the other car - at any cost! There were no signals on that Islamabad road that made their racing game stronger and more interesting. Finally, the rival’s car turned right; while Adi moved forward.

“Thank God! You slowed it at last.” Taking a sigh of relief, Anee remarked sarcastically. “He challenged me!” Adi shouted and pulled off near an eatery. “What would you like to eat, Anee?”

“I want a red velvet pastry.” Anee replied.

“Fine.”

He went inside the shop and brought soft drinks and snacks. That was something much needed in that rainy summer evening. After nibbling their food, they decided to drive around aimlessly for another two hours.

“Wanna visit the Lakeside park?”

“Yes. Or...probably no, I think no. I do not think it is a good idea.” She replied in hesitation. The Lakeside always captured her soul. The area imparted in her the real sense of how a home should feel like. But she was not ready to face her past.

Anee probed Adi again, “Are you sure we are going there? This road provokes...” She left the sentence incomplete.

Adi did not reply but his heart raced badly.

Anee did not know how to stop Adi. May be he was emotionally stronger than her; or perhaps he wanted to concur those “unknown” emotions that always bothered him. Whatever the reason was, Anee was completely against visiting that place. After Adi drove for 15 minutes, they both began to feel overwhelmed with unsettling emotions. Flashbacks of their past made them go haywire. “I can clearly see a young girl standing with her little brother and father near the Lakeside Park gate.” Anee thought to herself. “What a memory!” She experienced effervescence and despondency both at the same time.

As the car moved, somebody inside Anee shouted: “Oh, do you remember these trees? These Silver Oaks were planted when you were at school. You drove by them daily some years ago.” She ignored that voice once...and twice...but it keep coming...“Remember that silver towering building? It was under-construction when you shifted at the Lakeside park house.” Anee tried to focus her attention to music.

As the vehicle crossed the Park’s boundary, someone knocked again. “Don’t you even recognize this park which you visited with Papa a million times?” She ignored once more.

The wheel turned right where a road sign read: “PLEASE SLOW DRIVELY” and her face glimmered with a big smile. Somebody inside criticized again, “Even this road sign is not changed that you and Papa always made fun about.”

Taking turn from the Round About, Adi recalled, “Remember, Papa always warned me for slowing down the wheel at this point.” He was an extremely conscious driver and I was his complete opposite. Alas!”

The vehicle kept moving though.

A few moments later, a huge erection reminded of Papa’s office. “This building is still the same. We used to drop Papa there near that gate number 2. And that window on the top-right of the 2nd level opened in his work area.” Some drops of water fell from Anee’s eyes.

The pain elevated as they moved forward, the trees, buildings, even the people standing by on road, reminded of their Lakeside home that they had to leave two years ago.

Nothing had changed. They wanted to visit their house but those painful memories associated with it did not allow them that day. They wanted to meet with their father desperately. Somebody was stopping them however.

People thought they did not remember their father and they had never forgotten him!

Despite their differences, they missed him badly every day. Although bitter; still he was their father. They had borrowed his genes as well as his soul.

Adi kept driving in and around the Lakehouse that day. They had been living in exile; yet every inch of that place belonged with them. The sky, the soil, the plantation, all reminded them of their good old days. In reminiscence, they sobbed secretly.

After failing to stop herself, she decided to visit their Papa. “Adi, let’s go there...let us meet Papa” and pointed in his street from afar.

Adi moved the vehicle in that direction. Then stopped and revered it from midway and faltered, “we are heading to nowhere!”