Page 172 of The Circle of Exile
The quiet of her house was eerie after days of continuous hammering by Atharva. This had been the longest the house had been quiet ever since his sabbatical started. Iram took full advantage of it. She put Yathaarth to sleep on the sofa in the hall instead of the room farthest from the backyard. She sat beside him with her laptop, as was her ritual every night. He had started to doze off nowadays, then wake up for a top-up of milk around midnight, then go back to sleep — only to rise with the sun and his father.
Iram wanted to wean him off his midnight snack. They had even tried. But it was proving difficult. And then she would see, half asleep every morning, how Atharva would grab his freshly-awakened son and quietly leave the room, bouncing him. She did not know what the duo did in those hours every morning. She suspected there was running around involved in the backyard. She just hoped Atharva was keeping their son away from the half-finished treehouse.
All in all, she was a little biased towards that time they both got. If that meant putting Yathaarth to bed early and keeping on with his top-up for a few more weeks, she was ready to do it.
Iram stopped typing and glanced at her son, his head close to her thigh, full of soft dark curls that matched his father’s waves. He was sleeping so soundly, in that deep part of his sleep. She couldn’t resist running her fingers through his hair. In this phase of his sleep, he never stirred with her caresses. There was a strange kind of joy in seeing your child sleep peacefully. Iram couldn’t stop eating up the joy. With the impossible place their life was stuck in, with the struggle both her and Atharva were enduring to keep their everyday going as smooth and as happy as possible, with the haze covering their future, it was this sight that made her chest open up marginally.
Everything outside this could collapse. But if this remained, she pushed the stray curls back from his temple; if this remained, everything else would remain.
Her silent phone buzzed. Iram glanced at the ID. Sarah.
She ignored it. She did not have the energy to speak to her. Iram was in a place where she wanted to sympathise with Sarah but being a politician’s wife, in the world of politicians, she couldn't help but wonder about intensions. Or about another ear on the other side of the call.
The buzzing died down. Then started again.
Ok, this wasn’t a casual call. She left her son’s head and picked up the phone.
“Hello?” She spoke softly.
“Iram,” Sarah was panicked. “Listen, please trust me. Meer did not have anything to do with it. Tell Atharva, make him understand…”
“Sarah, Sarah… wait. What are you saying?”
“Atharva didn’t tell you?”
“He is not home yet. What happened?”
“You didn’t see the news? Nobody contacted you?”
Iram’s heart began to thud.
“What news?” She searched for the remote. “What is going on? Where is Atharva?”
“He left from here an hour ago.”
“From your house?”
“Iram, he was caught taking some files from a bureaucrat of the CMO. He says Meer set him up but trust me, Iram. Meer did not. I swear to you he did not…”
Iram finally located the remote and put on the TV, instantly switching the volume to mute. The channel was set on a local news channel like it always was nowadays. Some rain forecast was playing. She changed the channel and nothing.
“Sarah, there is nothing on TV…” Iram stopped at a national news channel.
BREAKING NOW
J&K ex-CM CAUGHT TAMPERING WITH HIS INVESTIGATION EVIDENCE
The ticker flashed red. The reporter went on talking on mute. Iram stared, dumbfounded.
“Where is Atharva?” She asked into the phone. “Where is he?”
“He left for home, nothing has happened to him, nothing will happen to him. Meer will ensure that, Iram… Iram? Iram?”
Iram was busy reading. The ticker was now flashing quickly.
ATHARVA KAUL’S PoK FILES MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED
S.I.T. CONVENING FOR AN EMERGENCY HEARING TOMORROW
