DAHLIA (revised Final Draft, May 2025)

I

It was April 2019. Spring was almost ready to leave to make room for summer, but a gentle coolness still lingered in the air, refreshing and pleasant, carrying the fading breaths of the season. I was in my classroom, drawing cartoons during chemistry class. Suddenly, my attention was broken by the laughter of the students. I turned around and saw the teacher standing behind me, looking at the cartoons of him that I had drawn during the class so far. He warned me and asked me to stop doing this and pay attention in class; otherwise, I would be in trouble. I had to obey him and pay attention in class. 

My attention was broken once again by the vibration of my mobile phone. But as I was in class, I could not pick it up. I was thinking all the time about who had called me at that time. It couldn't be my friends because they all were in the class, and my parents knew I ought to be in class at that moment. I had to wait 30 more minutes until my class ended. 

After the class ended at 4:30, I took my phone and saw that an unknown number had called me. Basically, I don't call back any unknown numbers, and I was in a rush to get back home before a football match between Germany and France began at 5:30 PM. When I got back home, I laid my body on the sofa and started enjoying the football match. After watching the football match, I went to my room and started studying, but I was still curious about the number. 

Suddenly, my phone began to vibrate... That number! It was calling me again. I took the phone and picked up the call, feeling quite hesitant and a bit curious. 

A reply came over the phone: 

"Hello!" 

Damn, it was a girl's voice!! I was not familiar with this before. To say, I am a shy guy and didn't usually talk to girls much. I became quite nervous and silent. 

Again, a reply came: 

"Hello! Is anybody there?!" 

I ventured somehow: 

"Hello, who is this?!" 

She said, 

"I am Dahlia." 

I replied: 

"Whom do you want?!" 

She replied, 

"Can I speak to Ms. Rita?" 

I replied, "No Ms. Rita is living here. You have called the wrong number." 

I cut the call and paid attention to my studies. After a few minutes, my phone rang once again. That same number! 

I picked up the call, and before I could say something, she asked, "Can I talk to Ms. Rita?" 

I replied, quite annoyed, "Check the number before dialing. Ms. Rita doesn't live here." 

She asked again, "What is your name, then?" 

I could feel there was another person beside her who was chuckling while she was talking to me. 

I replied in a strict voice, "I don't tell my name to any stranger." 

She replied, surprising me, "But I know you live near Beatle Square beside the children's park." 

This time, that chuckling turned into a laugh. I had no doubt then that this must have been a prank call. 

I asked, "This is a prank call, isn't it?" 

She hung up. I called her back, but she had switched her phone off. 

I knew this was going to ruin my night. I could not sleep well that night, just wondering who she was, how she knew that I lived near the children's park, and how she got my phone number, though it isn't very hard to get anyone's number nowadays. 

II

The night passed, and the next day was a holiday. Most holidays, I used to go to that park for a walk, and I loved watching children playing. After taking a walk, I sat on the bench beside the seesaw and enjoyed the sunset, though I was still thinking about the incident from the night before. Suddenly, I got a call from that same number. 

I picked up the call and asked her, "Why did you cut the call last night?" 

She replied, "I had some work to do." 

I asked her again, "Who was chuckling beside you while you were talking to me last night?" 

She said, "She is my cousin Fatima. She is still beside me." 

I said, "So what was that all about? For fun and time pass, I guess." 

She said with a strong voice, "No, that was not for fun." 

I asked, "So?" 

She said, "I have seen you several times in the children's park, so I wanted to talk to you." 

I said, "But why on the phone, then? You can come up here, and we can talk a lot." 

She was silent for a while and replied, "I will call you tomorrow evening." Then she cut the call. 

Now I was so much intrigued by her, and the next day I went to the park, in case I could get at least any hint of her presence, as she mentioned she saw me in the park several times, so she might visit there again. I sat on a bench, scanning the crowd, but there were a lot of people around, as it’s a big park, and it was not an easy task to find someone I hadn’t seen in my life but only knew by her voice. Then I would have to talk to every young girl there, which definitely wasn’t possible for a person as introvert as me.  

I was sitting, and then a little kid came, proudly showing me the butterfly trapped in a jar.  

“It’s a beautiful butterfly,” I said, and asked, “Did you catch this?”  

She shook her head. “No, my Baba caught it for me.”  

I told her, “This butterfly is as pretty as you, darling. But you know, she’s crying in that jar.”  

The little girl, concerned, pressing the jar to her face, said, “Oh no! Why are you crying, little butterfly?” She looked at me and asked, “Why is she crying, Uncle?”  

I lifted her on my lap and said, “Because you put her in that jar, and now she can’t get back to her mother or play with her friends.”  

I asked, “Do you want to keep her in that jar?”  

She exclaimed, “No, no!” Then she opened the lid of the jar. “Go, butterfly! Go, go to your mama!”  

The little girl beamed with joy as the butterfly fluttered away. Then she climbed off my lap, ran to a girl, and yelled, "Didi!"

She took the girl in her arms, pulled her cheek and walked away toward the ice cream stall. 

I got back home.

Later that evening, as I'd hoped, Dahlia called me. 

I asked her, "Did you get work again yesterday?" 

She said, "No, my phone's battery was about to die." 

After that, we talked a lot, getting to know more about each other. She was a student in the final year of high school, as I was. But she used to go to a school about 5 km away from the town by school bus, whereas my school was just about a 5-minute ride by bicycle. 

A week passed. We were still talking on the phones, and one evening, while we were talking, she asked, "What are your hobbies?" 

I said, "Drawing cartoons, painting, writing songs, singing, and writing stuff, etc." 

She asked, "Why don't you sing one of your songs for me right now?" 

I said, "No, not on the phone. I will sing only in front of you." 

She became silent after that. I was overthinking if anything I said had touched her. 

I broke the silence by asking her, "I told you my hobbies. Now you tell me yours." 

She chuckled and said, "My hobbies are a little bit the same as yours: writing stories and poems and painting." 

I said, "That's amazing. We're gonna fit right in, then. Can you recite me some of your poems?" 

She replied, "I am gonna write a poem about you and recite it someday in front of you." 

I said, "I am waiting for that day eagerly."

III

A month later, it was mid-May. Our schools were closed for summer vacation. But around this time, Dahlia grew a little distant. I would ring her, but she rarely answered my calls or called me back; when she did, it was a brief exchange, then she would hang up. 

I never pressed her about it either, although I was tense about her sudden silence. But I told myself maybe for upcoming mid-term examinations she was busy studying, after all, not everybody is as careless a student as I am. 

Then she called me one night, by the end of May. She said, "It's been a long time since we talked properly." 

I said, "Yes. I thought you were busy with upcoming exams." 

She laughed a bit, then said, "The mid-term exams are still a long way off. I don't study that early." 

And added, "My mother was ill, so I was busy taking care of her." 

I asked, concerned, "Is she alright now?" 

She sighed, her voice cracking, "Yeah, she is fine now. But doctors said Mom's heart..." She paused, composed herself, then added, "She still needs some rest." 

I felt sad for her. I wanted to ask what happened but held back, afraid that talking about it might hurt her. I wouldn't push her, at least not when her hesitation was clear. 

I told, assuring her, "Everything will be alright, Dahlia!" 

She then said, "I missed our conversations. I missed you. Let's talk as much as we can tonight, only if you're free." 

I said, "I'm free anytime if it's to talk to you..." 

We talked for more than two hours that night. The spark between us, dimmed for a few days, suddenly rekindled bright that night. I was so relieved to hear her voice and giggles again. 

Again, a few weeks passed. Our connection was growing deeper day by day, although none of us had confessed yet, but I could sense that we both knew it was something more than just friendship. One evening, suddenly, I asked her, "Why don't we meet now?" 

She said with hesitation, "Um, okay." 

I said, "Fine, then tomorrow at sharp 4:15 PM in the park. I will be waiting for you near the bench beside the seesaw." 

She said, "Okay." 

I was excited from the morning and waiting for the evening because, finally, it was the day I was going to meet the girl of my life. At last, it was 4 PM on the clock, and I was getting ready to meet her. It was mid-July; the season of monsoon had arrived, so I took an umbrella with me. 

I arrived at the park at 4:10 pm and sat on that bench, waiting for her. But by 4:30 PM, she still hadn't come. I got up and went for a walk to find her, though I hadn't seen any picture of her, so it was impossible to find her in the crowd. 

I waited for more than an hour. It was 6 PM, and the sun was about to set for the day, but she hadn't come. I understood she had made a fool of me; she was not going to come. I came home and was a bit sad about that incident. 

A while later, I got her call. 

I picked it up and said, frustrated and quite rudely, "If you don't wanna meet me, you could've said it before. Why did you do all this drama?!" 

I cut the phone because I was angry at that moment. 

After an hour, I felt that I shouldn't have been that rude to her. Maybe she had an emergency, so she couldn't make it to the park. So I called her. 

She picked up and said, "I know you are very annoyed, but I have seen how excited you were in the park to see me." 

I was surprised and asked, "Were you there?" 

She said, "Yes, I was in the park in front of you." 

I said, "You must be lying because you're a liar." 

She replied, making me a little shocked, "You have the same blue umbrella I have." 

Now I had to believe she was in the park because I had taken a blue umbrella with me. 

Then I asked her, "If you were there, why didn't you come to me?" 

She said, "I don't wanna lose you," and she hung up the call. 

The next evening, she called me. 

I apologized to her for behaving rudely to her last night and asked, "How will you lose me? Relationships grow stronger with meetings." 

She said, "But some relations don't need meetings. Our souls have already met each other." 

I became silent. I didn't know what to say after this. 

Breaking the silence, she asked me, "How was your midterm examination?" 

I said, "It was good, just had some problems with chemistry." I asked her, "How were your exams?" 

She said, "Good, but not as good as yours. I am sure you're gonna get more marks than me." 

I said, "Let's see. If you get good marks, you have to meet me." 

She remained silent. 

Some things in the world cannot be explained until experienced. It was her voice among those things. But still, to say simply, her voice was sweeter than honey and sharper than the sound of the fountain. 

IV

Two days later, on the 20th of July, it was her birthday. I finished all my studies early and called her at exactly 12 A.M.

As I wished her happy birthday, I said, "I can't give you any gift over the phone." 

She said softly, "Your presence is worth more than any gift to me. Stay with me like this for all my birthdays."

I told her, "I will." 

A moment of silence passed. 

I asked, "Will you come to the park today?" 

She said, "That's a secret," and asked, "Why? You wanna find me?" 

I teased, "I don't need to find you. You aren't running away. Are you?" 

She said, "Don't worry, you don't have to find me. I will surrender at the right time." 

Then, with a low, cracking voice, she said, "I have a few things to take care of. I will tell you everything when we meet." 

A brief silence followed. 

Then she asked, "Will you wait for me?" 

I said, "Yes. I will. I will wait for you. And even if it takes an eternity, even if I become an old man with a stick in hand, I will." 

I heard her giggle. She didn't know, but that would kiss away all my tiredness, to listen to her giggle. 

Another two months passed like that. We talked almost every day. It was the end of September. She called me one evening and said, 

"I want to meet you as soon as possible." 

I said, excitedly, "Fine, it's great news. Finally, we are going to date." 

But her voice didn't sound very happy to me. She said, "I will tell you later when and where we will meet." 

V

I was waiting eagerly for that day to come, but the next day, she didn't call me, and her phone was switched off. One week passed; I had not received any call or message from her. I was worried about her and waited for her call. I even went to the park and tried to find her home, but there were almost more than a thousand residents near the park, and it was impossible to find her home. 

A month passed with no news of her.

One morning, I was thinking of going to her school to see if I could get any information that might help me find her, because that was the only way I could think of to discover her whereabouts. 

Later that day, I was sitting in the park, feeling sad. Children were playing at a distance, and tree leaves rustled with a dry, crackling sound in the breeze. I'd lost all interest in the world, my thoughts swirling only around that sweet girl, Dahlia. I kept checking my phone every now and then, hoping to hear from her. 

Suddenly, I saw a girl coming toward me. I had seen this girl often walking in the park with another girl who was the sister of that little girl with the butterfly. 

She came in front of me and gave me an envelope, saying in a low cracking voice, "In this envelope, you will find all your answers." Then she walked away quickly. I tried to call her, but it was a failed attempt, as she had already vanished into the crowd. I brought the envelope back home. 

VI

I went to my room and sat on the chair at my desk. I opened the envelope and saw a letter, a stack of crinkled pages filled with handwritten poems and notes, and some photos of that little girl's sister. My heart raced.

I opened the letter and started reading: 

"I am Fatima. I hope you will get all of your answers here. 

Dahlia is a beautiful girl. She is kind and she loves making people smile around her. We share a bond stronger than just being cousins. She told me everything. Every night after calling you, she'd call me, and then I'd realize how madly she's in love with you. She wasn't this alive before. 

It was the day she saw you in the park for the first time and fell in love with you, but she was afraid to go in front of you. You would probably never guess that Dahlia was suffering from a heart disease. She was never afraid of it. But she didn't want to approach you. She feared that if she opened up to you or if you found out about it, you’d leave her. She was just afraid to lose you.

But in September, her condition worsened, and the doctor said she needed immediate surgery. The surgery was scheduled for the 30th of September. 

Remember the last day she called you and was talking about meeting you soon? It was the 22nd of September. She finally made up her mind to meet you and tell you everything about her love for you and her disease because she realized that if she didn't come back alive after the surgery, she would never confess her love to you, and you would never know how much she was in love with you. 

It was the 24th of September, the day before her admission to the hospital. In the evening, she was on her way to meet you in the park because she deeply believed you would be there, and she was going to give you a surprise. She also wanted to recite the poems she had written for you. She was so excited, and I was just behind her. 

But suddenly, she fainted and collapsed. We took her to the hospital, and the doctor said she needed immediate surgery. The surgery was successful, but she went to coma. The doctors said she may get out of coma but it can take months but even if she wakes, her mind or body may never fully recover. Her mother's health has worsened too.

I have attached some of her photos with the poems she had written and put them in this envelope. You can see that at the end of every poem, she put your name there. 

I'm sorry for Dahlia, for you, for all this pain. 

Fatima" 

I was numb and I sat there looking through the window. The moon hung bright and full in a clear starry sky, but Polaris burned brighter than ever.