You Beyond the Hurt
Author: Arham Ahmed Neel
Chapter 1
Five Years Later
"Some people leave your life, but they can never leave your heart. They stay in the folds of memory, in the corner of an old photograph, or in the silent waiting of some rain-soaked afternoon."
Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets.
Lightning split the sky again and again. Raindrops slid down the window glass, tracing their own aimless paths. The busy streets of the city were slowly emptying. Yet in a room on the third floor of a vast house at the edge of the city, the man sitting there had not changed at all.
Standing by the window, coffee cup in hand, Mehrab Chowdhury looked out at the rain.
He was twenty-eight. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a perpetually grave expression. His eyes were deep, so deep that looking into them told you nothing about what he was thinking. He could smile, but rarely. When he was angry, he went silent, and when he was hurt, he withdrew from everyone.
By profession he was a businessman. The business his father had founded now rested largely on his shoulders. Money, influence, social standing: his life lacked none of these.
It lacked only one thing.
One person.
The person who had once been his daily habit.
The person whose voice he had needed to hear before the day could begin, the person he had needed to talk to before sleep would come. For five years now, that person had been outside his life.
Mehrab sipped his coffee.
It had gone cold.
Just then, the phone lying on the bed began to ring.
Adnan's name lit up the screen.
Mehrab picked it up and answered.
"Hello."
Adnan's familiar voice came from the other end.
"What are you doing?"
"You can't see, can you? So why are you calling to ask?"
"Wow! Five years, and the man's manners haven't changed one bit. Would it kill you to speak a little nicely?"
"If you're done with your chatter, I'm hanging up."
"Wait, wait! There's something important."
Annoyed, Mehrab sat down in the chair.
"Say it."
"Keep a cool head and listen."
"Adnan, will you ever just say things straight?"
Adnan was quiet for a moment, then said,
"Neera is back."
At those three words, Mehrab's hand went still.
He set the coffee cup down on the table.
For several seconds, no words came out of his mouth.
"Who?"
Adnan sighed.
"The one whose name still changes your voice."
Mehrab looked out the window.
"No one by that name exists in my life."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you go quiet just now?"
This time Mehrab's voice was irritated.
"Adnan, I don't want to talk about this."
"Fine. No need to talk. I'll just say one thing. The girl has come back to this city. And as far as I know, there's a chance you two will run into each other."
"What reason would she have to meet me?"
"I don't know that. But I do know this: you don't know the whole truth about what happened five years ago."
Mehrab's brow furrowed.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Nothing. You'll understand when the time comes."
"Stop speaking in riddles. Say it plainly."
"Not everything can be said over the phone. Come to Café Blue tomorrow afternoon. I'll tell you when we meet."
Before Mehrab could say anything, Adnan hung up.
For a few moments he stared at the phone.
Then he slowly put it down on the table and closed his eyes.
Neera!
The moment he remembered the name, countless memories from five years ago crowded in at once.
A girl's laughter.
Her turning her face away, sulking.
Walking together in the rain.
And the memory of one last day, the day the girl had wiped away her tears and said,
"One day you'll understand, Mehrab. By then, maybe I won't be waiting for you anymore."
Mehrab opened his eyes.
He muttered to himself,
"Five years on, and you still won't let me live in peace, Neera!"
Meanwhile
At the other end of the city stood a small café.
It was called Coffee Corner. Nothing grand about it: glass-walled windows, a few wooden tables, and some old photographs arranged on the walls. At the table by the window sat Neera Rahman.
She was twenty-four.
She wore a deep blue salwar-kameez, her long hair loose. A faint weariness showed on her face, but her eyes held a strange resolve.
The cup of coffee in front of her had gone cold. Yet she kept looking at it.
Beside her, Maya was looking at something on her phone.
Maya was Neera's younger sister, twenty years old. Lively by nature, she loved to talk. But whenever she saw her sister unhappy, she became unhappy too.
Maya put the phone down and looked at Neera.
"Apu?"
"Hmm?"
"What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing."
"I really don't like this habit of yours, saying 'nothing.'"
Neera smiled faintly.
"Then what should I say?"
"The truth."
"You want to hear the truth?"
"Of course."
Neera looked out the window.
"It feels like this city is just the same as before. Only the people have changed."
Maya was silent for a while.
Then she said slowly,
"Have the people changed, or have you?"
Neera turned to her sister.
"Maybe both."
"Apu, can I ask you something?"
"Go on."
"Do you still love him?"
Hearing the question, Neera fell silent for some time.
Then, with a sad smile at the corner of her lips, she said,
"Not every question needs an answer out loud, Maya."
"So that means you do?"
"Maya!"
"Okay, I won't say any more. But let me tell you this: however tough you make yourself look, I know you still hurt."
Neera picked up the coffee cup.
"Some pain doesn't make a person cry. It only changes them from the inside."
Maya laid her hand over her sister's.
"I won't let you be hurt this time."
Neera looked at her sister and smiled gently.
"You're always by my side. That's enough."
Maya picked up her phone again. But a few seconds later she looked up.
"Apu, are we going to meet Adnan bhai tomorrow?"
Neera paused.
"Adnan?"
"Yes. He called, remember? He said he'd meet us, since he heard you were back in the city."
"Yes, he did say that."
"So we'll go, right?"
After thinking for a moment, Neera said,
"Meeting him is fine. But remember one thing: I have no wish to start the story of an old relationship all over again."
Maya said nothing more.
Because she knew that however lightly Neera spoke those words, the pain stored up inside her was far greater than it let on.
The Next Afternoon
Clouds drifted across the sky.
The rain had stopped, but the air still smelled of wet earth.
Café Blue was a well-known spot in the city. Mehrab came here often. He even had a regular table by the window.
Today, too, he sat at that table.
A cup of coffee before him. A phone in his hand.
But his mind was somewhere else.
After a while, Adnan pushed open the café door and came in.
"What's with you! Sitting there so grim. You look like somebody borrowed ten million from you and ran off!"
Mehrab looked up, irritated.
"Are you going to sit?"
"Wow! Permission granted!"
Adnan pulled out a chair and sat.
A waiter came and set coffee down for both of them.
Adnan took a sip and said,
"Neera is back in the city."
"You told me that yesterday."
"I know. But there's something else to say today."
"What?"
"She's going to be staying here now."
Mehrab tried to stay expressionless.
"Let her stay."
"Won't you even once want to see her?"
"Why would I?"
"Because five years ago, you two both made a mistake."
Mehrab raised his eyes at last.
"Who made the mistake, don't you know that?"
Adnan sighed.
"You only ever looked at your own side, Mehrab. Did you ever try to understand hers?"
"There's nothing left for me to understand."
"Then why did she come to you on the day she left?"
Something shifted in Mehrab's gaze.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Adnan, say it plainly."
"If I say everything in one day, the story ends. Some things you need to see with your own eyes."
Mehrab was about to say something when the bell on the café door rang.
Adnan glanced at the door and smiled.
"Ah, here she is, the one I was talking about."
Mehrab, against his will, looked toward the door too.
And right then, his world seemed to stop for a few moments.
Neera stood near the door.
Maya beside her.
Blue dress, loose hair, a small bag in her hand.
Some difference had come over the face of five years ago. The restless liveliness was gone. Experience had settled into her eyes
"No, we'll be leaving shortly."
"What's the hurry?"
"I have things to do, like everyone else."
Mehrab was silent for a moment, then said,
"We're meeting after five years. Can't we at least sit and talk for a few minutes?"
This time Nira looked him straight in the eye.
"Five years ago, when there was time to talk, you didn't want to talk. Why the sudden interest now?"
The words struck Mehrab in the chest.
Adnan tried to smooth things over.
"Oh, come on, sit down, both of you. It's been so long. Chat a little."
Nira sat in the next chair, reluctantly. Maya sat beside her.
A few moments of silence.
Adnan kept up a stream of talk to ease the atmosphere. The changes in the city, news of old friends, business—they talked about everything.
Only between Mehrab and Nira was there no ordinary conversation.
At last Mehrab asked, on his own,
"Where are you living now?"
"At home."
"Meaning?"
"In my own house."
"Which house?"
Nira looked at him, irritated.
"Are you asking for my address?"
"What's wrong with wanting to know?"
"Nothing's wrong. But the right to know is gone, too."
Mehrab stayed quiet for a while.
Then he said in a low voice,
"Have all rights really come to an end?"
This time Nira didn't smile.
The hurt that had been banked up in her eyes seemed to slip out, just for a moment.
"Rights don't end, Mehrab. People end them."
Mehrab's lips moved, but no sound came out.
Nira stood up.
"Adnan bhai, I'll get going, then. We'll talk later."
Adnan said,
"So soon?"
"I have some work."
Maya stood up as well.
This time Mehrab called after her,
"Nira!"
Nira stopped.
"Yes?"
"Will you answer one question?"
"What is it?"
"Why did you come back after all these years?"
Nira looked at him for a few moments.
Then she said, in a calm voice,
"This city is mine too. Just because you're here, am I forbidden to return to it?"
Mehrab had no answer.
Nira spoke again.
"And one more thing. I have no wish to settle accounts from the old days. So don't expect anything, needlessly."
Having said that, she left with Maya.
Mehrab kept looking at the door.
Adnan slowly came and stood beside him.
"Well?"
Mehrab gave no reply.
"Does it hurt?"
Mehrab turned his eyes to him.
"Shut up."
"Even after five years, that person still affects you this much?"
"I said shut up!"
This time Adnan didn't push it.
After a while Mehrab said, on his own,
"Does she really not want me anymore?"
Adnan looked at him.
"Ask Nira that."
Mehrab gave a bitter laugh.
"I don't even have the right to ask."
10:45 p.m.
Nira sits in her room.
Outside, the rain has started again.
She turned off the lamp, sat down beside the bed, and opened the gallery on her phone.
So many old photographs.
Pictures with friends. Family pictures. Some moments from trips.
Suddenly her finger stopped on one picture.
Two people in it.
One was Nira.
The other, Mehrab.
The picture was five years old. Both of them were smiling. Nira stood with her head resting on Mehrab's shoulder.
Beneath the picture was written—
"Forever, no matter what."
Nira kept looking at the picture.
Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
"Was it all a lie, Mehrab? Or did I just believe too much?"
She switched off the phone and set it down beside her pillow.
But the moment she closed her eyes, the old memories began to rise again.
The first meeting.
The first conversation.
The first quarrel.
The first love.
And that last day...
The day a single sentence from Mehrab had shattered her whole world.
Nira wiped away her tears.
She told herself,
"No, not this time. This time I can't be weak."
At the same time, Mehrab's room
Mehrab sits on his bed.
A laptop lies open in front of him. But he can't settle his mind on any work.
Phone in hand, he looked for Nira's old number.
The number was still saved.
My Nira ❤️
Seeing the name, something stirred strangely in his chest.
Five years ago, in anger, he had deleted the number. But a few months later, from somewhere, he had gotten hold of it again and saved it.
He never called.
He only looked at the name now and then and put the phone away.
Today too he opened the number and stared at it for a while.
Then he rested his finger on the call button.
But he didn't call.
He asked himself,
"What would I say to her? The person who once meant everything to me—how can I tell her today that I still haven't been able to forget her?"
Suddenly a message arrived on his phone.
From Adnan.
Adnan: I need to talk to you about something important. There's a reason behind Nira coming back. And you don't know the reason.
Mehrab replied at once.
Mehrab: What reason?
After a while the answer came.
Adnan: Meet me tomorrow. I'll tell you everything.
Mehrab threw the phone onto the bed.
Then he looked out the window.
The sound of the rain had grown louder.
He said to himself,
"Now that you've come back, this time I'll at least find out the truth, Nira. What happened five years ago, why it happened—everything."
But he did not know that the truth he was so desperate to learn might turn out to be the greatest blow of his life.
The story of five years ago was not over yet.
Rather, the real story might be beginning only today.
To be continued...
End of Chapter 1.