" What are you trying to do exactly? "
Maya frowned.

" Not much. Just cleaning my rear view mirror so you can see your face. "

" Excuse me! I am not a clumsy human like you, who comes down everyday dawning shabby shirts and oversized trousers and yet thinks himself to be the coolest on earth. " , Maya tried to sound disgusted, carefully.

" Ouch. Madam. You hurt me badly, my heart's bleeding to bits and pieces.
However, if you carefully look at my rear view mirror, you'll see, despite dawning tip-top dresses everyday, you look clumsier.
Why? Because you carry along those frowns on your face as free offer packs, and I carry a smile.

My heart's mended already, by the way. "

" That's because it's your rear view mirror. A dumb human like you has such dumb possessions. " , Maya stammered however, trying to erase the frowns from her forehead.

" And intelligent humans like you have intelligent mirrors I guess. Pseudo intelligent, I'm sorry!!

Have you ever asked the mirror on the wall though,
' Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the prettiest of them all? '

In no time, it'll whisper....

Farhan Khan. "

And he winked. And whooshed past her in his clumsy, shabby bike.

That was the first time.

The first rains, as if, six years back......

Splashes of raindrops hit her again, as she sat in the balcony of her own bedroom this time. Neither did she get up, nor pull the slides.

She let herself drench for the second time, the very day.

Though, not a drop touched her for the last six years.
She would be escorted with the biggest possible umbrellas when she got down to the office and it rained, keeping in mind that not an inch of her body touched the rains. Nor did she ever sit at balconies when it rained.

However, things were a bit different today.

A lot of him hovered over her stone-like-world, once again.
And it was hard getting over.....

Maya Raichand sat, cupping her face.

-----

A few hours back

" Jai Sir, I will never forget what you two did for me. But please don't drag my child in between. I can take care of her, and I promise, this time I'll do that with no one's help. "

Sonara knew her voice cracked. But she had to tell what she had to tell.

Maya had gone completely silent, as she took a seat at a settee placed in the corner. This hurt Sonara more. Maybe she was being disrespectful to her, but she had no choice. These people suddenly seemed hell bent in proving that she's incapable as a mother!!

However, Jai Raichand looked weird. Very weird.

Soft, calm, composed.

This was not how he was. Sonara had seen him go wild and crazy, or kind and cute, or confused and dumb.

But never this! As if he had suddenly sworn to be the coolest possible human on earth.

He slowly uttered,

" Calm down Sonara. I know you are hurt. But if you have known me even a bit in all these time, you should realize how I lose cool before that one bloody thing called religion. And, another too. Thanklessness. "

He then stared at Maya, who in turn was studying him as well.

" I don't know if you know, but I've known this woman and her struggles for quite sometime now.

I don't realise what made her behave weird with me recently, added to dad's story which brought back instincts in me that I had somewhat lost while helping her ....

I honestly didn't like her staying here initially.

However, not any longer.

You are my sister, I should respect your decision too. She's a woman in need, I should respect that too.

Plus, a baby dangles in between.

Stay Sonara, for heaven's sake. "

He finished, twisting his lips.

Sonara kept staring at her. Somehow, she couldn't recognize this Jai Prakash Raichand. Did his words really have feels? What was exactly happening!?

Maya made a sound, denoting sarcasm mostly. And settled herself more comfortably on the settee.

" Wow Jai, I'm so proud of you my brother. Suddenly you grow so respectful of your sister, of a woman in need....

Suddenly you become so generous towards a religion you have been taught only to hate, and you have accepted that wholeheartedly, all your life.

Suddenly you care for a baby that belongs to a single mother of a status you have only known to .... "

" It's alright Maya Didi! " , Jai stopped her with a gesture of his hand.

Sonara felt lumps rise in her throat.

" Let's please keep aside the tension we are personally having and help this poor soul. I don't exactly know what problem she's facing but... "

" Oops! Then please care to know, Jai Raichand!
Maybe you'll find a better reason to help her. "

Maya jumped up from the settee and walked in between them.

" Sonara, I honestly hope you stay. But if you do, owing to his words, it'll be pretty strange. You leave when he wants to, and stay when he wants to.

Too.....elementary!

And Jai, I honestly hope you make her stay. The entire house and the locality by now knows I brought her along, and if she walks out, they'll know who played the cards. Though you didn't now, instead want her to desperately stay. Don't you?

The choice is yours baby.....! "

Maya Raichand walked away and climbed up the stairs .

Sonara's head seemed weightless. She felt giddy. She felt like falling anytime soon.

What web was she caught in?

What games were these siblings playing with her as the pawn?
Did any of them really have any sympathy towards her? Or towards each other?

Did she finally step into the spider webs and digital fortresses of the upper class?

Why was Allah testing her again and again?

With a hammer banging within her head, she knew the world around her was turning gray.....and black....

She lost all senses rapidly, only to realise that she'd fallen onto a pair of strong arms, after which, the world went blank.

----

Maya slowly looked up.

The rains had increased several folds. So had the turmoil within her.

She couldn't gather what exactly her heart wished, but staring at the innocent face lying senseless on the bed downstairs, and a horrified little baby sitting beside the face, made her realise for a second....not everything invited a game a chess.

For a second though.

Only, for a second.

After which, a face flashed before her eyes. Another innocent face, the most, she had seen in her life indeed. Shabby, clumsy, yet with a smile that changed her life....

What harm was she doing?

Desperately trying to unite two people in the most sacred bond in the universe. Something, she herself could never have......

One of the two was his dumb, easily influenced brother, another was a woman who deserved much more from life.

Yes, she wouldn't have really given a damn as to what these two would have otherwise done with their lives, but now she would.

Only to make his birth-givers realise, how wrong they had been with her, and how they were still on a spree of ruining their other child's psyche.

And god intervened, rightly.

Maya's words had turned quite unfriendly before she had climbed up the stairs, making her afraid later, that Sonara might walk out any moment. And Jai could never hold her back. Also Maya was having difficulty in judging Jai's moves too.

Anyways, God played. And Sonara Parvez fell......losing sense.

Maya got up and walked inside.

This time, she'd not let her go.

Even at the cost of her own life.

Life, Huh?

She was hardly living for the last six years....

-----

People are players.

Introducing Harshad Chopra as Farhan Khan