The Last Over

The silence of the dressing room was still ringing in Waleed's ears as the team walked out onto the ground. The empty chair, the zipped kit bag, and the sentence he had spoken himself — he will come, he always comes — grew heavier with every step. Outside, the whole mohalla had woken up. People stood on rooftops, children ran through the lanes, and a crowd pressed around the ground as if the entire city had come to watch one…