chapter fifty five

Ahmad's POV

"Can I go in now?" I desperately asked Dr Ahmad.

"Yes but she's not yet awake. They gave her extra sedatives to make her sleep longer cos they don't want her opening her eyes anytime soon." Dr Ahmad explained. He was about to say something again but i quickly went inside the room Khair was in. Since he gave me a go ahead to go in why should I wait for further explanations?

I whispered her name and sat on the small bed studying her features again.

Her eyes was covered with bandage. Her face looked really puffy with all the cries she made herself do. Her skin and lips were chapped. I bet she must be really hungry.

After staying there for twenty minutes, mostly waiting for her to get up, I figured out it wasn't the best thing for me to do. I sent silent prayers for her before leaving the room.

I went to the main hospital to check on Haroon but he still wasn't awake. I moved out of the hospital and drove straight to the police station.

I talked to the commissioner and he told me about Maya and how she escaped.

"We sent our search team to that forest but there was no trace of her. There's a train station at the end of the forest so we guess she took the train and escaped." The commissioner finished.

"Then you're to go to the train station and order them to give you the list of people who booked the train today." I suggested.

"You're right. I will do that immediately." He said and brought out his phone to call. I quietly walked out of his office. I sat in my car and waited patiently for the cops to find out whether Maya left with the train or not.

After an hour, they came back with a bad information. Maya booked a train ticket to las Vegas.

Just how cunning was that girl?!

"So,what are you going to do now?" I frustratedly asked the commissioner.

"The train has already left three hours ago. There's no way we can catch up with it and its not like it will stop anywhere,unless it reaches las Vegas."

Not knowing what to say and do again, I sighed and got up. It was already getting dark so I went back to the hospital.

"You came back at the right time." Sherri smiled.

"For what?"

"We are about to remove the bandage on Miss' eyes." Sherri explained. She obviously can't call Khair's name so she was always saying Miss or ma'am.

"Thank God. Can I come with you?" I said smiling.

"Of course. Follow me." She said and led the way to the room Khair was kept in.

We met two other nurses and the Opthalmologist gathering around Khair.

One nurse was holding a tray while the other was just standing,doing....nothing.

"Take deep breaths,calm down and relax." The Opthalmologist said to Khair and she did as he said.

He slowing started taking off the bandage.

"Why can't he be faster?" I whispered to Sherri after we have seated on a couch far from Khair's temporary bed.

She chuckled and said "I dunno. Maybe that's how it should be. Be patient. It won't last forever."

Three hours later, the bandage was finally peeled of. It was actually three minutes but it felt like hours.

"Take this. You know what to do with it." The Opthalmologist said to nurse doing nothing. She nodded and collected the small tube he gave her.

"Excuse me. I will be right back." He said and went out.

The nurse rubbed the liquid on her eyes and told her not to open them until it dries. They both went outside telling us they will be right outside if we need them.

"I'm actually scared to open my eyes." Khair admitted her shoulders slumping down in defeat.

"Why?" I asked softly.

"Fear of going blind." She said.

"Oh come on. Don't put negative thoughts in your mind. Now open them." Sherri said.

Khair released a laboured breath and opened her eyes carefully.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed in a panicking tone. I rose up quickly and approached her. She blinked several times, cleaned them with her palms and blinked again.

"Are you okay?!" I asked resisting the urge to hold her face.

"I'm not okay." She replied.

"Is the light too bright? Sherri can you pls dim it? Khair say something." I said and Sherri dimmed the lights.

"I...I can't..see."

"Try closing and opening them again." Sherri said concerned and Khair did as she was told to.

"I can't see a thing." Khair panicked and I panicked also.

"Let me get the nurses." Sherri said and rushed out. She came back in with the nurse that was in the room earlier.

"Open them let me take a look." The nurse said and on a small blue torchlight shining it in Khair's eyes.

"I have to call the doctor's attention." She informed and left. I gulped and got up from the bed.

"Just pray. Nothing shall happen to your eyes insha Allah." I tried to convince both of us. She nodded and fiddled her fingers.

The doctor came in and I shifted a bit to give him space.

He touched,poked,squeezed and did many things with Khair's eyes. He kept quiet after that.

I was getting more anxious and annoyed every passing seconds. I got fed up and said "Doctor, what's wrong with her eyes? Is it normal to see nothing after the operation?"

I desperately prayed he says 'yes it was normal and part of huge recovery of the eyes' but he said otherwise.

"I don't want to say this but I have to. She's blind."

(A/N: I felt like stopping the chapter here but unfortunately I can't cos its too short and I want to leave you guys in cliffhanger😂💔)

.......

I left to the station the next day after checking the well being of Khair and her uncle. They were both fine but fast asleep.

"Good morning Sir." I greeted the commissioner

"Morning Mr Ahmad. How are the patients doing?"

"They are both doing great. Here." I said and handed him Khair's and Haroon's medical file.

He went through them and constantly wrote something on his notepad.

"About the girl,what are you doing about it?" I asked him taking a sip of water offered to me by him.

"I'm sorry but there's nothing to do about it. The train has left since yesterday." He said sighing.

"Well,I know that. What if we can reach las Vegas before the train does?" I suggested.

"Pls elaborate." He said and closed the file focusing on me.

"It will take the train thirteen hours from here to las Vegas and the time the train left yesterday to now is twelve hours. That means its remaining just an hour and some minutes for us to do whatever we can do. We can book a flight to las Vegas now and go to the train station. You wait for the train to stop and people to start flooding out. You will check their ticket number each and you can easily detect the girl from there." I explained.

The commissioner looked stunned for a minute before saying "That's a great idea. I will make the preparations now."

He started dialling a number on his phone and as the person picked,he hung up. He looked distant and soon,his surprised look was replaced by a frown.

"Driving to the airport, wasting time on booking immediate flight,landing in las Vegas and driving to las Vegas train station can take more than two hours and we only have an hour left." He said disappointedly.

"If we hasten everything up we can make it and it won't hurt by trying." I convinced him,and myself.

"Okay then. I will....." He didn't get to finish his sentence when I interrupted.

I blurted out the idea that was gradually coming up in my mind "Or...if you call a police station in Las Vegas,they will wait at the train station and do our jobs for us."

"Oh yeah. That's right." He beamed.

I felt like I was doing their job better than them.

He picked up his phone and started making the necessary calls.

I smiled to myself just thinking about what I will do to Maya if she was caught and brought down here.

I will surely give her hot five personal slap and a knock on the head before pushing her inside the cell.

Assuming I was the warder, I will make sure I make Maya suffer just the way she made Khair did. It might not be exactly what she did to Khair but zata gane Allah dayane. (She will understand that God is one).

.......

Maya's POV

If I said I wasn't tired,then that will be the biggest lie of the century. I was so damn tired and hungry.

Sitting on a train for thirteen hours is something else. All thanks to Khair.

We have finally arrived at las Vegas.

Instead of everyone to rush out just the way I predicted, they moved slowly in a disorganized manner forming a small crowd.

I sat on my seat for five minutes and seeing that the crowd wasn't dispersing, I got up annoyed and tried to make my way through the crowd but I couldn't. They were too choked up.

Soon enough,they formed a long straight line and me being at the very last seat,I struggled to see what was going on in the front.

"Okay what the hell is going on?" I yelled waving my hands in the air.

"We don't know but I think there are cops here." A pregnant lady who was not among the line answered.

"Why?" I scrunched my face.

"I don't know dear,I'm not getting a clear view also." She said and looked away from me.

Okay why the hell are the polices here? Is there a detected crime or something?

'They are probably looking for you. You might not know who's a criminal here but you yourself know that you're a criminal.' My subconscious reminded.

Oh my God! How did they know I will be here? It must be that useless Smith. But I never told anyone about my plan of coming to las Vegas, specifically by train.

"Oh geez." I wiped the sweat off my forehead.

Smith will dumbly show them the surveillance cameras and that's how I was found. And about me being in las Vegas, the polices probably went to the train station at San Fransisco and they confirmed my name was among those who booked ticket to las Vegas so they're now here looking for me.

Oh God! What should I do?

The line gradually started moving slowly but I couldn't.

"They are checking the tickets." One guy whispered to the other and I heard it.

Oh Lord! Ticket numbers!

"I hope they're not looking for us." He whispered again.

"They might actually be looking for us you know,regarding the gold jewelries we stole from  Don Marciano's wife. I told you it wasn't a good idea. That man won't let us go Scott free." The one who have been listening finally spoke up.

The other one looked so frightened while the one who talked about Don Marciano acted so cool about everything.

"Hey. If you keep on this face that's when we will get caught." The cool one warned.

"I'm going to leave the line." The scared one said.

"Why? For what?"

"I will go and scrape a number on the ticket and replace it with another number."

"Are you crazy? That's so stupid." The cool one whisper yelled.

"Just know that I'm not in this. I will be waiting for you outside. Good luck stupid." He added and took a step forward cos of the moving line.

The scared guy scoffed and silently walk out of the line and stayed behind me.

His idea was not that bad and I was actually thinking of doing so but I can't be faster than my shadow.

I watched him from the corner of my eyes. He scraped a number with his fingernail and wrote another random number with a pencil.

Satisfied with what he did,he created space for himself at the front line.

After two people's ticket has been checked, then remaining this guy's own. He handed them the ticket without worry.

"Why did the number looked odd? As if you scraped it?" Voice of the police in charge of checking the ticket boomed inside the environment.

I was quietly watching everything from the window.

"No I didn't do anything to it. That's how it is." The guy defended.

The police did a thorough inspection on the ticket and later found out the number was scraped and replaced.

"You're hiding something." The police said.

"No..no I'm..not. What should I hide I...I mean what can I hide?" The guy stuttered and chuckled nervously.

I almost face palmed myself at his stupidness.

This guy is literally handling himself to the cops.

"I will call the train station at Fransisco and ask them if this ticket number exist. If it doesn't, then you're in trouble. To save yourself the embarrassment, tell us the truth now." The police coldly threatened.

This guy was already shivering and wiping sweat off his head. He started pleading "I'm sorry. Its not my fault actually. Pls don't do anything to me."

See this man oo,you have openly said you're a criminal and you're begging the polices not to do you anything. okay, the fear has affected his brain.

The cool guy who warned him against the scraping thing face palmed himself hard.

"What is your name?" The police questioned.

"I'm Levi Parker." He answered.

"You're lying." The police said blankly.

The guy's eyes widened.

"Better tell me the truth or I will put a bullet in your head." The police threatened and to add more effect,he placed a gun at the side of the guy's head.

"I'm Dean Bruce." He admitted.

Okay this man really don't have sense.

"Aren't you a worker at Don Marciano's house?" The police asked and the man nodded his head positively.

"Arrest him."

"What? I didn't do anything here. Pls let go off me." The guy pleaded but it all fall on deaf ears of the polices.

Scraping and replacing number definitely not a good idea so that plan cancelled.

Now what should I do?

Should I hide under the chairs till the policemen leave? But before they leave they will search everywhere. Okay maybe I should hide in the small toilet. If I successfully hide in there till the policemen leave then other people might have full the train and the train will start moving back to San Fransisco.

Darn!

"What should I do? What should I do? What the hell should I do?" I ranted and shifted my weight from one leg to another.

Just ten people are ahead of me.

"Maya act first." I told myself. I was looking around empty-headed and my gaze landed on a young boy seated on the chair.

He had headsets on and was operating on a laptop. He looked oblivious to the situation happening.

An idea suddenly popped in my evil brain. I hope it work.

"Hey." I waved at the boy smiling after I occupied a seat next to him.

He glanced at me,gave me a disrespectful look and returned his attention back to his laptop.

I carefully removed the headset from his head.

"What is wrong with...." He wanted to yell but I interrupted.

"Shhh. Shhh. Pls keep quiet and hear me out. Pls." I said and kept his headset on his laptop.

"Make it quick."

"What's your name?"

"My name is not meant for you to know. Say whatever you want to say. No need for formal introduction." He rolled his eyes.

Okay that was rude.

"Well,I was wondering if we could exchange tickets." I smiled.

"Why?" He frowned.

"Due to some personal reason."

"No thank you." He eyed me, suspiciously.

"What if I add money to it?" I persuaded and the teenage boy gave a thought about it.

"How much?" He asked and I smiled in triumph secretly.

"Will twenty dollars do?"

"What will I do with twenty bucks? If that's what you have to offer then excuse me,I was once busy here."

I don't want to give him much money cos I don't know the problem I will encounter further on.

I removed my headset from my backpack and handed it to him.

He checked it out and gasped.

"Aonic 40" He gasped again.

"Yes that's right. Do you want it?"

"Of course." He started smiling.

"Well let's exchange ticket and you can take my headset as my appreciation."

"Here." He handed his ticket to me without thought and I gave mine to him.

He carried his own headset and gave it to me.

"No. You can keep the two." I gave it back to him.

"Thank you ma'am." He grinned. I stood up and picked the money I offered to him. I wanted to put it back in my purse but I decided to give him.

"You can take this also." I told him and gave it to him.

"Thanks."

I stayed in the line and looked back at the boy setting the headset.

"Cool." He said and put it over his head.

I sighed and faced my front. Just two more people and then me.

'Wait,your face? Won't they recognize you?' My subconscious asked.

"Omg!" I gasped.

Even if I exchanged my ticket with one innocent kid,as long as they recognize my face then I'm doomed. My brand new expensive headset and twenty dollars are gone for nothing?!

Okay I have to go with the former plan. Hiding under the seat. I don't care whether the train takes me back to San Fransisco,I will buy another ticket to las Vegas again.

But it was to late to back out now. Before I could take a step backward, it was my turn. I couldn't run away again,could I? No. So I just stayed glued there and gave them my ticket.

"Your name?" He asked.

"Su...Suhaila Muhammad." I lied.

He gave me a long look and I tried my very best not to appear scared or intimidated.

"You can go." He grumpily said and gave me a space to pass.

I looked back inside the train and it was remaining just four people then that teenage boy who was at the end of the line. I sighed and gradually walked away.

As I got far away from the cops eyes,I speed walked to the road and called a taxi.

I have to get far away from the train station as soon as possible cos if it reaches the boy's turn,they will see that his ticket number is same as the one they're looking for. The boy will realise he was in trouble then tell them everything about our transaction then all the cops in las Vegas will start looking for me.

I don't think the boy will be in any trouble with the cops,like,its not his fault and he's just thirteen or fourteen years but he will definitely get in trouble with his parent or guardian. They might give him an earful of staying away from strangers.

"Pls to forever young palace." I told the taxi driver and he nodded curtly.

I have already made all my research about everything and nothing beforehand. I sat lonely in the taxi with thoughts occupying my mind about what to do next.

"We are here." The taxi man informed.

"Oh. Thanks." I said and handed him his money.

I walked inside the place to get my looks change. I bought brand new clothes and changed into it. I proceeded to the beauty saloon their and I got my hair dyed black and red. I did manicure,pedicure and heavy makeup.

After finishing their job,I looked at the mirror and couldn't recognize myself. I looked so.....different and beautiful.

Now I can flaunt myself in this city for the main time before saying bye bye to USA and old life. Yeah.

........

Ahmad's POV

I have been pacing up and down in thought since when I got the information that Maya's ticket was in the hand of a boy. The boy said it was Maya that bribed her with her headset and some money.

Like what the hell?

How can she stoop so low?

That girl was smarter than I initially thought. And the policemen....

I face palmed myself at the thought of them.

It was like they didn't even care about the matter.

How the hell am I suppose to tell Khair now? She will get herself worried that Maya wasn't caught and she can come anytime unexpectedly to hunt her.

I sighed and went inside the hospital room greeting the two policemen seated by the side of the door.

For once, the commissioner thought of a good thing by bringing some of the policemen to the hospital since Maya was nowhere to be found.

"Are you okay now Khair?" I asked her and sat on a chair facing her as she quietly ate her Pakistani nihari.

"Yes. I'm very fine now."

"Can you stand and walk?"

"Yes of course. As long as I'm not doing that with my eyes."

"Okay,good news." I beamed at her.

"You brought me more Pakistani nihari?" She widened her eyes.

"What?no!" I laughed. "Uncle Haroon is awake." I went straight to the point.

"Seriously?! When?" She asked with enthusiasm dropping the plate of food on the bed.

"Like five minutes ago. I checked on him before coming here."

"Alhamdulillah. How is he doing?"

"Good. Let's go and meet him."

"Yes pls." She giddily said and got off the bed.

We walked inside the hospital and I led us to Haroon's room.

"Oh my God uncle Haroon!" Khair shouted and ran to him.

She was careful to hug him but from the look,you can see she was resisting to hug him tight.

"Ummul Khair. I thought I will never see your ugly face again." Uncle Haroon smiled.

"You have started ko? Your body is hurt but your running mouth is perfectly fine. How are you feeling?" She said ignoring his sarcastic talk.

"I'm okay now. But do you know what Khair, pray to God to protect you from anything harmful then take your time and pray hard to God to protect you from the evil of bullet. The thing is painful like...." He trailed off and shook his head in self pity.

Khair laughed and I just smiled.

"You're always a joker,aren't you?" She said in between laughter.

Glancing at them one last time,I left the room to give them uncle-niece time.

__________