Porcelain Party

Karum Kayani

 *******

Daastan Publishing

First Published in Pakistan by Daastan in 2026

www.daastan.com  
www.meraqissa.com

Text copyrights © Karum Keyani

Book Design copyrights © Anum Ameer

ISBN: 978-627-526-126-1 (EBOOK)

The moral rights of the writer, illustrator and editor have been asserted. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

*****

[A spring afternoon. A garden party with various well dressed high society people milling about the food tables, sitting and standing in groups.]

[ We hear the sounds of people chatting, live music played.]

[ Guests are slowly pouring in from an entry way on stage right. We see some people being immediately recognized and welcomed into a few of the groups. With how they all seem to know each other, we get the idea that everyone here belongs to the same social circle.]

[Meher a simple well-dressed young woman in her late 20s enters stage right with Sara, same age, dressed in slightly more showy outfit nervously messing with a specific part of her clothing]

[Meher turns to Sara after surveying the place]

Meher: Are we sure about this- Sara stop. Your dress is fine. Just let it be.

[Sara stops, looks up around at the party and straightens up]

Sara: I know it’s fine. [inhales deeply, puts on an obviously fake PR smile and looks back at Meher ] Is my hair okay? It’s not doing the frizzy thing, is it?

[Meher looks at Sara with a fond smile]

Meher: You look exactly as you did five minutes ago when you checked yourself in the car. Relax.

Sara: Thank you. And you also look….. [waves her hands at Meher’s outfit] the way you intentionally chose to look. Despite me telling you to dress up for this.

[Sara steps closer to Meher starting to fuss with her outfit, straightening it, pulling at it, like she was doing for her own]

Sara: Honestly Meher. Why didn't you wear the new purple suit I got for you? It's a very trendy style, everyone is wearing it these days.

[Everyone on stage freezes. Sounds and music stops. Lights dim and a spotlight is trained at Meher focused from the audience, coming from stage right]

[Meher steps back out of the reach of Sara’s now frozen hands, hands moving as if to dust off the feel of Sara’s touch on her]

[ Suddenly Meher turns towards a specific person in the audience in the direction of where the light is, as if they spoke to Meher]

Meher: What? No! No, I don't think I should tell her that I really dislike the color of that outfit, it doesn’t fit me… and like… the collar itches... It’s just going to end up making her feel bad.

[Meher turns towards another audience member on the same side]