Chapter 6 : A Storm of MisfortuneAnd times were good: till bad luck struck.
As I said long ago, I had a bad streak of bad luck. After marriage, wealth and now a beautiful daughter, I thought that it had been just an incidence of the past.
But then bad luck hit, and this time it was much worse.
My husband changed. He was aging, but he had always been sharp of mind.
Then suddenly he started to behave in an extremely eccentric manner.
"Pack me some apples Rhea." he said one morning. "I'm going off on a fishing expedition and won't be coming home today."
I didn't find anything strange in that. He was an avid fisher and had started keeping several aquariums at home. He said he wanted to breed the perfect fish.
"Where is the fishing expedition to?" I asked as I packed his food.
"Just out of town." He replied absent-minded.
He called me regularly and I wasn't worried when he didn't come home for three days. On the fourth day I started to be gradually worried but he reassured me that he would be back soon. But when he didn't get back home on the sixth day, I was frantically worried.
He finally came and my relief must be apparent.
"Don't worry." he said. "I have a huge surprise for you.
I think I got pregnant that night with our second child.
And it was no easy pregnancy. My husband used to be gone for weeks and weeks and sometimes wouldn't even answer the phone.
And then Miraj gave me a shock when he said that his father was at the graveyard.
"The locals say that he sleeps on the sidewalk in the afternoon. He apparently fishes all throughout the night." Miraj looked dazed.
"Has the old man lost his sense?" VJ cackled.
I glared at him. "This is not funny." I started to snap when Miraj interrupted.
"He is in perfectly good sense. I spoke to him and he answered very sensibly. We talked for like two hours till he sent me home. The only wooey thing he said that the ghosts were pretty colourful."
I wringed my hands. "Why didn't you bring him home?"
"He refuses to come. He said he'll be home next week."
As promised, Iqbal was back home next week. He was very normal. He laughed and joked and played with Hestia and talked about the new baby.
"Lets name it Athena if its a girl or Aries if its a boy."
I smiled. I've also started to read on the pantheon and was enjoying the stories of the old gods and their adventures.
That was just one of my few smiled. I could see that Iqbal was wheezy and his age was starting to show. I knew his time would come soon and I wanted him to be at home.
Perhaps he knew that because he said good bye gently when kissing my forehead that night. When I awoke at dawn, he had already left.
It was deemed to be our final good bye.
Death came to him quite peacefully, they said. A young homeless man was camping with him in the graveyard and they were having lunch together. He was in perfectly good humour and joking around.
Then the Grim Reaper had appeared.
"Ah Alvi, there you are." Reaper had cackled.
Iqbal had looked somewhat startled but not afraid.
"Why Reaper, you are late. I expected you much more earlier" He had said conversationally.
"How was I supposed to know you were loitering here in the graveyard? I searched all over the place and out of all the places, you chose to be here, at my very own place!" Reaper had growled.
Iqbal smiled. "I'm ready." He had said quietly. "But I have one wish." He had added and fallen down to his knees. "Pray let me live to see my unborn daughter."
The Reaper had cackled hysterically. "You've already outstayed your time man. Come on!"
Iqbal had laughed back suddenly.
"I know a way to defy you." Had been his parting words as he rose from his feet and followed the Reaper to the grave.
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