For Bluebell Books Twitter Club ~ Short Story Slam Week 34, Dec 3 to Dec 20, 2015 ~ The JourneyThe Snowfall and Home Sweet Home -An Incident from 'A Hill Station That Was 2015

     Graduation Exam over, I was ready to go home…to 12 Kakul Road Abbottabad. 
Uncle took me to the GTS Bus Stand in Saddar Rawalpindi. G for government T for transport and S for service just a reminder of the good old GTS days...GTS had good buses then and one could travel to cities like Peshawar Abbottabad Lahore, comfortably.
 Uncle bought my ticket and I stepped into the bus…I was travelling alone. ‘Are you OK ? ‘Yes I said.I felt like the great experienced traveler the brave lone ranger with not a  mask, but a hood, I was confident because for four long years I had been using the public transport..’the Omni Bus’the 40 seater long bus’  to go to college and return home, er.. safely…there was peace in the city... Rawalpindi was a city of great peace, peace of environment peace of heart and soul...
           Imagine we went to college in a double decker public service omni bus from Tench Bhata 22 No Chungi  to Murree Road to the Government College for Women…now Murree Road has the ‘Metro Bus’. The city had its time of protests and disturbances but never any terror or bomb threats…and so when the bus driver took his seat Uncle wished ‘khuda Hafiz…I will give a ring to Father and let him know that you are on your way’ and I smiled back….
         No fear of ‘ghosts’ nor witches’ nor unseen beings following secretly eh?…’ Uncle Rehman Zafar was the great loving Uncle who used to tell us stories about Dracula and he also opened the boundless twinkling star filled skies and while lying on a bare charpouy, we would fly in our nightly visitations, in our minds through our eyes, as if on the star trek ship..identifying and spotting constellations…galaxies groups  all over the bejeweled canopy amazed and wonder struck at the miraculous creation …
        The bus slowly rolled out from the Grand Stand and was soon on the Mall from there on it was moving towards Taxila Wah then towards Hasanabdal from where it would turn right towards Haripur and reaching Havelian would make the final uphill five miles to Abbottabad. 
      The bus crossed the Havelian bridge and slowly kept on gathering all the power it could…it was cold…and I felt that the atmosphere getting colder…what is this..raindrops…? drops of water were  sliding on the small glass windows...it is raining  here I thought as I looked around….on and on..up now into the mountains,turning and turning again,into more forest area as the road winded ahead…and lo! as the bus crossed the first high turn…it went straight into a beautiful snowfall...Subhaan Allah...
          It was the most wonderous sight I had ever seen…snow falling all around…everything was white…the hills trees and the roofs of the houses, the wipers on the  windscreen of the bus  were swishing left and right…Oh Allahji what beauty nature revealed …it was amazing and then…the bus had reached the Abbottabad GTS stand and as I stared, amazed excited and strangely happy…I saw Father standing there in full army uniform, with a Duffle coat on his shoulders…Masha allah how smart he looked, always, he had come straight from the hospital office..in his official army jeepster. The bus stopped and I got down and was soon inside the jeep, feeling warm safe and comfortable. It continued to snow...Life is a journey, one has to go through rain or hail or falling snow,just like the bus...it had to receive the snow feel the cold,keep moving steadily to reach its destination...
        Father took the wheel of the jeep..and through the snowfall we headed home…12 Kakul Road….beautiful peaceful cool home, an unforgettable home...sweet home...May there be countless safe comfortable and enough sweet homes for all who are seeking them,all who are on a journey ,out in the cold of the world....amen.