Others...

It had been over a month since Tamri, and since my first encounter with Aslam. The desert was calling me in, and I didn’t seem to have a choice. Although, according to Aslam, it had been the other way around; it was I who had been calling for the desert, or as he kept on referring to her for ‘Noor.’ Whenever I pressed him for more details, he would withdraw into silence. And there we would sit staring at the horizon, waiting for yet another day to pass.

One day, feeling more restless than usual, I asked him if we were alone, in this place, as I’d never seen anyone else beside him. He shook his head, “Most people end up coming here, sooner or later. Even now, there are thousands and thousands of our brothers and sisters roaming around this area we’re in.”


“How could that be?” I protested, “I haven’t seen anyone.”

Aslam nodded, “You haven’t seen anyone… yet, because you’re not really paying attention. You’re too much in your head.”

“Where are they? Show me, because I am having a hard time believing you,” I said.

Standing up, he raised his arm toward a large dune that had been crossing our field of vision. Resembling a soft edged pyramid, its closest base was a good five hundred meters away from us. I squinted, “Are you sure? I don’t see anyone there.”

“Look into its shadow, and you will see them.”

Trailing behind the dune, the shadow was a wide moving surface of blocked sunlight, which resembled a cut out segment of a skewed ellipse. Within it, once my eyes could focus on the various shades of black-to-grays, I began seeing shapes. It was amazing that I’d missed them, as there were so many of them. There were hundreds of silhouettes, walking in the shade, as if purposefully following the dune.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“People, just like you and I.”

“Where are they going?”

He closed his eyes, as if a sad thought had risen in his mind, “They’re lost.”

“What do you mean?”

“You will see.” There were tears in his eyes, “Soon enough, you will see…”


To be continued…