THE MAN WITH FOUR FACES

  • 31 Mar - 06 Apr, 2018
  • Salaar Laghari
  • Fiction


A month ago

Playboy. That’s what they think about me. They think that I was playing with women’s hearts and was using them for my own pleasures. But let me assure you that those who think like that are very wrong.

Others must be thinking that I am a hypocrite with multiple faces. They believe that I don’t have one personality. So let me clear that as well. I’m not at all like that, neither have I ever played love with any innocent women.

One evening while Omama and I were sitting in a park, she asked me, “So, what about the marriage appointment?”

“Yes, I have taken an appointment from that office. They have given me this week’s date. We’ll have to get there before afternoon.”

“That is so great!”

“Yes, but we are short of witnesses. They need two of them.”

“Oh, then what are we going to do?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll arrange someone.”

“Thank you Saad, I am so happy!” she said with smile on her face.

After a long moment of silence, she asked, “After we’re done with this marriage thing, can I come and visit your company?”

“Of course you can, in fact, I was planning of taking you there earlier but things came up”

She was, however, assured that I was serious in this relationship, but her expectations soon to be shattered.

***

Shehla was sitting furious at her home. Someone next to her was brainwashing her mind against me. She seemed angry on what she was hearing but deep down she was very upset.

“This guy who claims to be in love with you…” said a guy sitting with her, “is lying. He hangs around with different women at the same time.”

“Have you seen him with anyone else?” she asked him.

“Yes, I have. I know other women just like you who have fallen for him and I also know that he is not committed to any one of them.”

“So, that means he is committed to me,” Shehla tried to justify her love for me.

“Then why didn’t he ever tell you about his other friends?”

Getting more upset she held her forehead tightly with both hands.

“Trust me, Shehla,” he continued, “if you don’t want yourself to get heartbroken and betrayed then you must end this relationship.”

“No, I can’t…” she said controlling her emotions, “I love him and he also loves me.”

“Do you really think he does?”

She was speechless and tears were dropping down her eyes.

“Shehla, I know him. He’s an immoral and selfish human being. You need to understand that a guy like him can never commit to a woman, unless there’s money involved.”

She gave it a thought and closed her eyes. Anger was visible on her face and her expressions showed that she was not a weak woman. It seemed as if she had all the strength to avenge for her feelings.

She stood up and shouted, “No one can misuse me.”

“Good!” he said.

“I’m going to show him what it’s like when you get hurt.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to spare that man. I will kill him!” she yelled.

“Shehla, please don’t do anything like that. I didn’t come here to suggest that at all.”

She tore the tissue papers in her hand showing her anger towards me.

****

Eruj was at the store waiting for me with her son.

Where is he? She thought about me. He’s not even answering my calls.

As time passed, she felt disappointed and guilty as her son had to wait with her, so she decided to finally leave. The moment she stepped outside, she saw me standing at a distance and called my name out, “Abdullah!”

Then she rushed towards me leaving her son behind. As she moved across the crowd, she saw that I wasn’t standing there anymore. She had lost me and walked back to get her son.

****

As Omama’s phone started to ring, she answered the call, “Hello Saad,”

“Yes, ok listen to me now,” I spoke from the other line, “day after tomorrow at two o’clock, you have to reach the location I told you about.”

“You mean the marriage court?”

“Yes,” I replied to her.

“Oh, of course. I’m ready, completely ready.”

“I’ll text you the address once more,” I instructed, “then you’ll have to be there at 2pm because our appointment is of 2:30pm.”

“Right, I remember.”

“Ok, take care. Bye!”

“B'bye!”

She disconnected the call and was really excited, as she was finally getting married to the guy of her dreams.

On the other hand, someone who was deeply in love with me was planning to murder me.

****

Shehla opened her closet and then a drawer. She heard her son entering her room, so she turned around and asked him to leave. As the young kid was insisting on staying with her mother in her room, she forcefully yet gently pushed her son outside and shut the door. After locking the door, she went back to the closet and checked inside the drawer. There, she finally found what she was looking for – her husband’s pistol. She picked it up along with two bullets. While looking at the pistol she said, “Rashid… your time is over now. You belittled my love and misused my feelings. I won’t let you walk alive now. If you can’t commit to me then you can not commit to any other woman. You deserve to die.”

She loaded the bullets inside the pistol and seemed determined to kill me.

****

Next day, Farheen and I were at a public park. As we sat on the bench together she asked me, “Ahsan, can we buy our own apartment after our marriage?”

“You already have your apartment and secondly we’re not getting married anytime soon,” I told her.

“Nevertheless, we need a new apartment.”

“What for? You already have one.”

“Yeah, but I don’t like being alone.”

“So, call your friends over,” I replied bluntly.

“You seem down today. Is something bothering you?” she asked me.

“No, nothing.”

“No, I know there’s something. There is something that is really eating you up. Tell me, I want to know,” she insisted me to tell her what was wrong.

“You want to know?” I started to lose my temper. “It’s you! It’s your attitude that’s bothering me. The way you talk so frankly when it’s not appropriate, the kind of words you use. That’s all what’s bothering me.”

“What are you talking about? I am fine with the way I talk.”

“See, that’s what I’m talking about,” I pointed my finger towards her. “You are never ready to accept your mistakes. You always think that you are right.”

“Now you’re talking like a child. I, at least, never speak the way you are speaking to me right now. In a harsh and sharp tone.”

I tried to control my temper so I gently told her, “All I’m trying to say is that you think that you have complete right over me, but you don’t.”

“Why not?” she raised her voice. “Just the way you have rights over me, I also do. Or else what kind of a relationship is this?”

“I never demanded any right over you. Never mind, I’m through this relationship, we’re done.”

“Oh, so now you’re breaking up with me?”

“That’s the best thing I can do at the moment,” I said as I stood up.

She also stood up from her seat and looked at me angrily. Before walking away, she said to me in a loud voice, “Fine, don’t you ever contact me again!” she said and stormed off, while I sighed in relief.

****

Hours later, it started getting darker as evening approached and I saw that more people flocked to the park. Unexpectedly, I spotted Shehla too and she was looking at me ferociously. As soon as I delightfully waved at her, she started walking towards me.

Seeing that look on her face left me surprised. As I paid close attention, I saw that she was holding a pistol.

“You liar!” she yelled at me as she came closer and stood in front of me, “you cheater!”

“Hold it, Shehla,” I tried to calm her down.

“I’m going to kill you today!”

“Stop! Don’t!” I shouted. “What is it?”

She raised the gun and aimed it towards my face. Some women at the park screamed and we caught almost everyone’s attention.

“No one’s going to stop me,” she shouted in an angry tone, “today I will kill you by all means.”

“Why are you doing this, Shehla?”

In the quest to save me, some men went towards Shehla and asked her to put the gun down. She didn’t pay attention to anyone and kept looking at me. Two women standing behind Shehla tried to control her but she was so determined that she resisted and managed to load the weapon. Within few seconds she aimed it towards me and fired a shot with her gun. Then she was dragged away.

****

The very next afternoon, at almost two o’clock outside the marriage court, Omama arrived in a taxi. She waited by the stairs for me and looked well dressed, as she was very excited but the day wasn’t going to turn out the way she wanted.

A whole hour passed and she was still waiting outside, sitting on the stairs. She was trying to contact me on my number but it was powered off. As time passed by she started getting worried and also depressed considering the possibility that I had dumped her.

It was six o’clock and she hadn’t had her lunch. She was still waiting for me to show up. She kept on trying my number but there was no reply at all.

As it got darker, she lost all hope and her eyes were filled with tears.

I can’t believe he lied to me, she wondered.

One hour later, she called a taxi and prepared to leave for her home.

****

Meanwhile at the police station, a police inspector looked carefully at Shehla’s face. She was being held by two female police constables. After observing her carefully, he said, “This woman seems insane. She can’t be kept here. Take her to the mental hospital.”

“He lied to me,” Shehla mumbled some words.

“Sorry?”

She didn’t respond. The inspector understood that there was really something wrong with her so he ordered his subordinates to get Shehla admitted in a mental hospital.”

****

Days later, Eruj was at the store where she used to meet me. She held my photograph in her hand and showed it to the security guard, “Have you seen him here?” she enquired about me.

“No,” the security guard said after looking at the photograph.

Then she went inside and asked someone at the counter, “Did he come to work today?”

“Who?”

“Abdullah,” she said showing my photograph.

“His name is not Abdullah.”

She was seriously shocked for a moment.

“Then, what… I mean…” she got confused and couldn’t ask what she wanted to find out, “I mean… what’s his name?”

“You don’t know about it yet do you?”

“About what?” she asked getting confused and curious.

“He’s dead.”

“What… what are you saying?” she looked shaken.

“He was killed and secondly he never worked here.”

Eruj started weeping and eventually fainted, as she couldn’t believe what she had heard.

****

Present Day

The three students stood outside Shehla’s room. They were peeking through a slightly open shutter.

“So, she was the first one who got admitted here?” one of the students reconfirmed what they were informed about.

“Yes,” another one answered.

“Professor Zeeshan told me that he received a picture of the moment when she was at the park, before she was seized by the police.”

“You mean when she fired her pistol in front of the public?”

“Yes.”

They were also making some notes. As they left the spot and started to walk, they met Professor Zeeshan on their way. One of the students asked him, “So it was their lover Sarim Waqar’s death that broke these women?”

“Yes, it was that tragedy,” the professor replied.

“And what about Zubair Karwani?”

“What about him?”

“I mean, where he is now and where did he go after what he did?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” the professor answered, “he was arrested a long time ago.”

“Was he sentenced to death?”

“He’s awaiting trial.”

“I see.”

They all heard a little noise from behind where the students were standing. As they turned to see, it was Farheen. She was crying out loud. The two nurses were forcefully dragging her to their room.

“Oh my God!” one of the students sighed, “why does it hurt to see someone else in pain?”

“They all were badly hurt,” the professor replied. “They all seemed heartbroken, which led them to this condition.”

The nurses took Farheen to her room, while the students and professor also left the corridor. They left to finish the report they were working on.

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