3 Chapter 3

Inam ran toward his father and Salman ran outside to get help from the other shops despite his injury. Inam lifted his father's head from the ground and checked his breathing. He was still breathing, when he noticed his surrounding for the first time. Some men stood near the shop pointing and whispering in their direction. Everyone saw that something was going on but no one came forward to help. Inam looked up to where salman had been and noticed that Salman was not in his seat.

"He must have gone to get Naeem", Naeem was one of his elder brothers and ran the shop closest to inam's shop. He was careless boy but knew how to handle a shop and high pressure situation like these; he was the one who at his grandfather's death bed had controlled the situation and had made the right decisions but his grandfather had died.

"No…..No….No" Inam shook his head "don't think about dead...dont" he told himself.

In just five minutes a semi-circle had formed around the shop blocking the street from view. Shop keepers, customers and chore boys stood 5 feet from the shop. Two boys stood at the one side phones in hand near an electric pole. They were making a video of what was happening. Inam wanted to shout but was afraid to move his father. Another five minutes passed but no one came, then suddenly his father's head moved a little.

"Are you alright father" inam asked but in response only received a grunt from his father.

"Give that to me!" an old voice cut through the murmurs of the on lookers like a knife cuts through butter. Inam jerked his head up and saw Cha-Cha saleem standing near the boys who were making a video. He had snatched the phone from one of the boy and was now telling the other boy to delete the video or else he will break the phone. The boy who owned the phone tried to grab it but another man interfered and stood in between him and Cha-cha Saleem. He was a big man with wide shoulders and muscular arms but surprisingly had a soft face, big black beard covered his lower part of face but had no mustache. Inam recognized the man immediately. He was Munir Khan, he was the one of the laborers how had build the shops in this market. He was an old friend of his father from the time when his father had bought his first shop. He was retired now but still worked with his 2nd son who owned a cosmetic shop in the east side of the market.

"Give it back" the boy said with a wine, tears came into his eyes and was on the brink of crying.

"Do you know how much expensive my phone is" the boy continued but his voice broke.

"If it is this much expensive then you shouldn't have brought it out of your pocket" Cha-Cha Saleem mimicked the wine then continued "…but….Noooooo...you had to take the phone out because it's your father's MARRIGE" Cha-Cha Saleem stressed the last word.

"Give it back old man" Munir khan said in his roaring voice "or else he is going pressure us with the dialogue" he continued.

Both the boys and the old man frowned at him. Munir sighed "you don't remember.....the one where...the spoiled rich children say...."

"SHUT UP!" the boy shouted "both of you shut up, and you old man" the boy pointed toward Cha-Cha Saleem. Cha-Cha Saleem ignored "Do you know who my father is...." As soon as theses words got out of his mouth, Munir laughed so loud that every eye turned toward him.

"This dialogue!" Munir said still laughing, after hearing that Cha-Cha Saleem also laughed but only tears feel from the boy's eyes.

Listing to the laughter Inam felt his father's head shift; he was trying to get up.

"Don't father" inam said but his father forced his way to a sitting position and Inam sat behind his father as a support.

"Tell those idiots to come here" his father murmured, Inam barely managed to hear what he said. Inam called out to Cha-Cha Saleem and Munir, and both of them stoped laughing and rushed toward the shop. The boy cried, Cha-Cha Saleem stopped in his steps irritated by the fact that a teenage boy was crying like a baby. He tossed the phone not caring that if the boy managed to catch or not. The boy managed to catch it. As soon as the phone touched his hands, the crying and wining stopped.

They both reached Sheraz khan and said "are you alright, Sheraz" in a sync. Sheraz khan gave them irritated looks.

"You are obviously not alright..." Cha-Cha Saleem said as matter of factly. Sheraz khan groaned again.

"Does it hurt?" Munir khan asked worry clear in his voice.

"No, he is enjoying it" Cha-Cha Saleem remarked sarcastically, then continued "off course it hurts, you goat of a man. He has a weak heart."

"Mara, don't call me a goat" Munir complained and touched his beard "I am a pathan, I have self respect"

"I know!" Cha-Cha Saleem replied "That is… the only thing you have too bad you can't trade self respect for a little bit of common sense, you have a lot of this and none of that"

Munir wanted argue but another groan from Sheraz khan made him silent.

"I will call my son" Cha-Cha Saleem said in an assuring manner "he will take you to the hospital"

He took out his phone and started to go through the numbers and found the number that he was looking for. He called it once but the call didn't connect, he called again and again nothing. Cha-Cha Saleem cursed. In that moment Tahir appeared from the circle of the men and came running toward them.

"What happened to...." His sentence broke in mid way as his eyes fell on something. Inam followed his eyes and noticed a thin line of blood that ran from the Salman's seat to the circle of men outside. "Salman's blood" the thought send shivers in his spine and he felt ashamed that he forgot about him and his injury.

"What happened to father" Tahir inquired with labored breathes and sweaty face. "He came here running" another thought ran through Inam's mind. "WHAT HAPPENED TO FATHER, INAM!" Tahir stressed and Inam's thought bubble popped.

"Ahh...ahhh…ahhh" Inam wanted to explain but there was so much that he had to explain that he could not make sense of where to start.

"Hell…..Hello….Hello!" Cha-Cha Saleem managed to connect the call "Waheed, son are you there". A response came and everyone heard it "yes, Baba ji(father)!" Phone was on the loud speaker. Everyone looked toward Cha-Cha Saleem including Tahir.

"Lakh lanat taday mu tay" Cha-Cha Saleem cursed and gave the gesture of curse to the phone like the phone could also transmit it too "I called you twenty times and twenty times you didn't answer, you son of a lunatic bastard"

"Don't curse yourself Baba ji" his son replied through phone"I can't stand it, when you curse yourself and you only called two times how many time I told you to take the medicine that the doctors had prescribed but you don't listen....look now, you also forgot how to count"

Sheraz khan groad again and Cha-Cha Saleem's eyes shifted toward Sheraz khan. His voice rose to a shout "GET YOUR ASS HERE RIGHT NOW, ITS AN EMERGENCY" and closed the call.

"he is coming" Cha-Cha Saleem assured Sheraz khan and the others, again Cha-Cha Saleem's phone rung and he unconsciously answered it and put it on loud speaker like before.

"Who is it" Cha-Cha Saleem asked "Me, Baba ji you for..."

"YOU IDIOT!" Cha-Cha Saleem roared "why are you wasting the time, its life and death situation here" "well YOU forgot to tell me where is this here you are talking about" Cha-Cha Saleem raised his phone and was going to smash it to pieces but Tahir stopped him and took his phone from him, gently. He filled Waheed on the detail and told him to bring his rickshaw. waheed replied" I will be there in three minutes I am at fathers chai shop with my brother…..I am coming".

As he had said Waheed arrived immediately but he had a passenger with him. Waheed got off from his rickshaw and immediately went in back as his father raised his walking cane to strike him but on Tahir's voice he stopped. The passenger got off and it was Salman.

Cha-Cha Saleem's anger shifted from his son to Salman in an instant. "Where were you, you good for nothing...." He noticed the blood on Salman's clothes and stopped. The blood stains had transformed into one big pattern and where some small spots lay now lines had formed.

"By my beard" Cha-Cha Saleem said "you look worse than Sheraz, you are worse than him".

"It's not that bad" Salman replied "it's just a small bite" he raised his injured hand. He had warped a handkerchief around the injury and it had stopped the blood. Cha-Cha Saleem ran toward him and open the handkerchief to examine the injury. The rat had bitten off meat about the size of a coin from his hand.

"You call this nothing!" Cha-Cha Saleem exclaimed "take him too" he said to his son.

Munir and tahir helped Sherz khan to get up but not before an argument about, that he was fine and he could walk by himself and he didn't want to go to the hospital. Sheraz khan failed and then they helped him to sit. Inam tried to get into the rickshaw but his father stooped him.

"You are not coming there is still time before closing the shop" Inam argued that shop was not important than him but his father didn't listen. Inam argued more and failed. Salman and Tahir accompanied Sheraz khan, Cha-Cha Saleem and Muinr went back to their shops and stood their in the street alone watching the Rickshaw disappear around the corner.