Sometimes in life, it’s hard to pull yourself out from a high tension scene. When we’re stuck, we’re stuck. And I truly felt stuck in a poorly directed and terribly acted soppy scene, packed with tension, drama, tragedy and depression, and the worst part was to not find a way out of it. Perhaps Fawad wasn’t being cooperative enough or maybe I didn’t have the emotional energy anymore, but either way, I was in quick sand; the more I struggled, the more I went into the deep end.

We forgot to talk to one another and at times, we were unable to communicate for days. The only conversation we would have was our routine discussion, running through mundane dialogues that were only necessary for our survival.

Our perfect life was crumbling around our very eyes and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

How will we move on? I wondered out loud. And then it happened.

First, a scratch and then a meow.

I opened the front door and there it was – a kitten; a perfectly fluffy, cute and adorable ball of fur. It looked very young, almost too young to be on its own. I knelt down and picked the kitten up. It was a he, I could tell. I looked around to see if there was another one, maybe its mother was close-by, but there wasn’t anyone else.

I brought the kitten inside and placed him on the kitchen floor. Then, I began searching for a plastic bowl to pour out some milk. It was hungry and its meows made that quite evident.

I bent down and brushed its soft downy fur while it hungrily lapped up the milk, when Fawad walked into the kitchen.

He almost shouted, “What is this?”

The poor baby jumped and crawled under the kitchen table.

“Fawad, it’s a kitten.”

I hardly had any patience left with him; the incredulity in my voice was hardly masked. Why was he always typically male?

“I can see that Saima, but why is it in my kitchen, lapping up my milk?”

Was it me or had this gone too far? My kitchen, my milk? Oh, for heaven’s sake! What was wrong with our lives? They say when evil eye hits, it hits bad, and in our case, we had been hit by the most evil of them all.

I noticeably calmed myself down, took a few deep breaths before I spoke up.

“Look Fawad, it was outside our door. It was meowing and scratching on the door, it seemed hungry. You know it’s an act of kindness to feed helpless animals, so I brought it inside and gave it some milk.” I refrained from saying, “our kitchen and our milk.”

“Ok, whatever! Will I get some breakfast or do I also have to put on some hunger antic?”

“Of course not dear, your breakfast is all set up on the dining table. Why don’t you start? I’ll join you in a minute.”

He left without ceremony.

I looked at him as he turned around and wondered how such a caring and loving man had turned into such a stranger.

The kitten had clawed himself tightly onto the table leg. I pried it free and cuddled him before placing the bowl of milk in front of him again; he began to lap it up almost erratically again.

I joined Fawad at the breakfast table.

He looked slightly relaxed as some food had gotten into his tummy.

Was that a shadow of a smile that I saw?

“Are you planning on keeping it?” He asked again without ceremony.

“I don’t know, let’s see.”

“I know what that means, by evening tonight this cat will have a permanent basket, litter box and food bowls lined up on the kitchen floor. And it will probably be taking a nap on my favourite chair too.”

I laughed aloud! Again my soul-mate, he knew me too well.

“Well, I was wondering how to keep myself busy during the holidays; this little one could be the perfect distraction. He’s such a darling.”

I took the liberty of a wide-toothed smile, disarm yourself honey to be able to embrace his graciousness.

Gosh Saima, medieval England again! Why can’t you be normal for once?

“He? I hate him already. Besides Saima, you have so much to do during the vacations, clean the house maybe a million times and shop till you drop. Plus don’t you have to finally clean-up the nursery?”

The minute he said it, I knew he regretted it, but Fawad was right. It was one of the things that I was planning to do; the nursery had been shut by Fawad since the day Noor left us, I wanted to keep her things properly and the nursery was yet to be furnished. I wanted to find closure by being around her things, but more than that as Fawad mentioned, I actually needed to clean and tidy up.

I looked up and found Fawad eyeing me carefully; I could tell that he regretted mentioning the nursery.

But I wasn’t upset that he did, the time had come that we speak about these facts without reserve, without ceremony and be absolutely natural about it. Yes, it would make us sad and might be upset us too, but it would bring us closer and heal us.

“It’s ok Fawad. I know what you mean.”

Fawad finished his breakfast in silence. I also ate quietly.

That’s when the little kitty hobbled into the room and started to rub against Fawad’s leg.

He bent down and picked it up.

I watched while he cooed to it and cuddled with it for a bit before keeping it down.

“Cats adopt humans don’t they? We don’t find them but rather they find us. We’ll keep him Saima, I won’t mind, and spend some time with him. No need to rush into anything so soon. Rest and enjoy your break for a while.”

“I’m hurting too, and trying to recover as well,” he said, picking up his things as he headed towards the door

Our new found tabby liked him. He saw him off with a purr and a meow and then came running back to me.

I picked him up and rubbed him against my cheek. “It’s just us now dear, till he comes back home tonight. You’ll miss him? Yes, I know, I will miss him too. You’re a good one aren’t you?”

A different day, a new beginning.