The Wishing Pearl of Haythem
- Locked due to inactivity on Aug 4, '16 4:13pm
Thread Topic: The Wishing Pearl of Haythem
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Chapter One
"Alright dearest, time to get up" a voice had murmured softly in Fehed's ear, waking him from another dreamless night.
He stared up in to the young face of his mother, she stared down at him with her tender, loving and affectionate smile, and her gleaming chocolate brown eyes, and he realized that she had woken him up for the dawn prayer.
Fehed would be turning ten soon, and he was delighted of the fact that his age was the exact same number as the fingers on his hands. Mona would often giggle at him that although he ages; he's still very foolish and immature, which often sent him on an angry rampage.
The air was dry and the sun was only just peeking up from behind the dessert dunes and piles of sand, casting only warm faint rays of yellow sunlight, turning the sand golden, and the occasional wild prickly bushes could be seen all around, giving you that feeling that they knew secrets.
Fehed got off his bed and headed for the bucket of water in which he did ablution, his mother asked him if he needed help, because admittedly, he'd often forget the steps, but with his birthday coming up, he pretended he was a big boy, even though he should have been one a long time.
*
As he and his eldest sibling, Faisel, went out in to the warm Dry air of the summer dawn, he couldn't help but think about their father's leaving soon.
"Now listen, kids, for 6 months I'll be gone on a fishing trip, I know this will be hard on all of you, but… I'll be back before you know it," and he smiled at them, but they could see the look of worry in his eyes, then: "I'll bring back gifts for you all"
Mona had teared up a little bit, their father had never been away that long… They were used to his coming and going, but for six months? That seemed extreme, but nonetheless, there was nothing any of the three could do about it, they just had to hope for the best and reassure their dad that he would do fine and wave and smile at him confidently as he went away.
But the truth is, all of their hearts felt like pits in their stomachs and they wanted to break down in to tears.
Fehed stared up at the golden sky, soon it would be a pale blue, but now it was all sorts of colors ˉˉ violet, red and orange, all merging with eachother like the waves of the sea.
In the distance, Fehed could make out a Hoopoe, his grandfather told him about that bird, it can only be found in the dessert and tends to run rather than fly, he stared at it's beak as he walked, then, it suddenly dug in the sand and foraged for some grubs. He then walked up faster to catch up with Faisel because he was distracted by the bird.
As they walked, Fehed saw other birds in the distance, searching for grubs or flying through the dawn sky, Crested Larks and Houbara Bustards lying under the shade of the palm trees, Fehed even spotted a Stone Curlew with its patterns of feathers blending in with the sands and rocks, and Cream colored Coursers; Chestnut bellied Sand Grouse, and Ravens circling the skies, although Faisel was still a bit upset about his father leaving soon, so was Fehed, but unlike him, Faisel didn't bother to try and take his mind off of it, so he didn't see the birds or take in the scenery around him.
*
A small building loomed in front of the two, it had a flat roof, it was made entirely of palm fronds, so it had a dusty smell to it, and it had no windows, just one old, creaking door, in which Faisel opened slowly as he slipped off his shoes.
"Salam Aleikom," he said quietly, but no one could answer him because they were all praying.
He closed the door, it creaked a little. He peered at the room, it had tiny cracks and empty spaces in the walls and roof where sunlight shone through, there were hand woven mats with all sorts of different urban designs.
Faisel turned to Fehed, "Um, do you want to pray the group prayer or should we pray by ourselves?"
"I'd rather we prayed by ourselves at the back," he whispered.
"Sure"
They tried to stay upbeat and cheerful, they tried to stay confident and brave, but it wasn't working, they were upset, and would spend their days in total gloom and depression.
Mona and their mother were praying at home that day, When she finished, she wanted to go and rummage through the box of old stuff her grandfather had given her to take her mind off of her dad leaving for the fishing trip, but even while she was praying it didn't seem very effective.
But her mum had stopped her abruptly, "Come help me make breakfast, Mona, look at that stuff later,"
"Oh, alright," she said with a sigh of annoyance, and went to help her.
She washed the fruits from the bucket of water that had come all the way from Al-Ain, it was hard to come by, but it was all they had, whereas her mother stirred the bubbling pot of Harees, then, Mona got two eggs and oil, and flour and wheat and water, she put it by the fire ready for her grandmother to make the bread.
"Is that all you'll need, mum?"
"Sure, just call your grandma so she can start making the bread, will you?"
Grandma's bread was the best in the village, no one could resist it, she seemed to know how to make it so perfectly, and everybody came by and bought loafs and loafs of it, and she was trying to teach Mona how to make it exactly the way she did, but Mona was having no luck, and her grandmother grew impatient with her.
"Alright, but I can go look at all that cool stuff now, right?"
"Why are you so interested in it?" her mother was still stirring the pot, "I mean, it's not worth it's weight in gold,"
"I just want to check it all out," she replied apprehensively.
Grandma sat by the cackling flames of the fire, and put a wooden circle to make the bread on top of it and balanced it, then used the ingredients to make the bread.
She and her daughter Bedder were alone now.
"You're missing Nasser already, aren't you?"
"He hasn't even left yet"
"Yeah, but you don't want him to go,"
She stopped stirring the pot and looked up at her, grandma could see fear in her eyes, fear for Nasser, and her eyes seemed to shine, like she was close to tears, but she knew her own daughter, she would stay strong. But she had tried to hide it and look angry, and annoyed, but grandma wasn't fooled that easily.
"Look… Just… Just forget about it!"
"Forget about it? So you're choosing to pretend he never existed for six whole months?"
"What do you want from me?"
"Want from you? Nothing. Just talking about how you feel makes it better. You know, unleash what's inside you ˉˉ"
"Don't say anymore!"
"Oh, alright then, keep your thoughts to yourself,"
*
Faisel and Fehed said nothing as they walked back home.
Both of them knew how the other felt.
But Faisel knew his duty to his younger brother, he had to cheer him up, although he wasn't very happy himself.
"So Fehed," he began, "How has making the goat jealous getting on?"
They had two goats on their small run down farm, their dad was thinking of selling it, but every time he thought of just selling it and using the money for something more useful, his kids were scream and cry and do everything to persuade him not to take it away, they loved playing there and they loved the dirty smelly animals that were there, they were stinky and didn't make good pets, but they were theirs, and that's how they wanted it to stay.
The two goats were both male and female, they kept them for offspring's, and also milk, and Fehed was nicer to the female and gave her more lettuce, which made the male one angry and chase after him, Fehed enjoyed this, although sometimes he overdid it and the goat chased him for hours. Fehed had strange ways with animals, he'd sprinkle bird seeds all over his arms, and birds would come rest on them and peck at the seeds, even g -
even goats and sheep and baby cows didn't run away or get frightened when he came.
"Eh, he's gotten bored with me flirting with his girlfriend,"
Faisel smiled and gave a short laugh. But Fehed still seemed upset, or at least, he just simply took no notice, he was deep in his thoughts.
Faisel dropped the idea of trying to cheer anyone up, and hang his head low and watched his feet make prints in the san where he walked.
He wondered how long Fehed would stay like this, in his thoughts, unwilling to speak or make contact with anyone… at all.
When they reached home, Fehed ran towards his bed and buried his head in his pillow, even when mum kept shaking him and trying to get him to move, she gave up and they ate breakfast.
There was a bowl full of fruit, freshly made Arabic bread courtesy of grandma, with Hummus and oil and goat cheese, a hot pot full of Harees and fresh milk from the goat, and dates.
It was just their mother and grandma, grandpa, Faisel and Mona. Their dad was to come home soon and Fehed wouldn't come and eat.
They knew that their dad would take ages coming and would be dead late, so they went ahead and ate, but they were concerned for Fehed.
"Oh well," said grandpa through a mouthful of bread and hummus, "Maybe the lad will come out when his dad comes for one last breakfast before the ships leave,"
"He was always skin and bones," said their mother, she often fussed about the kids not eating.
"I say let them starve," said grandma carelessly, "they'll eat when they're hungry, and if the boy wants to stay anorexic then that's his problem," This made Mona gasp.
Faisel was just about to have another spoonful of Harees when there was a knock on the old wooden door. He was about to get up and answer when, as quick as a flash, Fehed bolted Towards the door before Faisel could even realize what had happened exactly.
Fehed opened the door to greet a burly man with a scar on his left arm. He looked down at his son, smiled, picked him up and whirled him in the air. Fehed laughed crazily and smiled broadly.
"Well ˉˉ" Faisel and Mona had charged towards him and hugged him so tightly that he almost couldn't breath and might choke.
"Hello kids," he said with a smile. Then he went over to grandma and grandpa and kissed each of them on their forehead.
"Hello son,"
"How are you, son?"
He then hugged their mother and asked her how she was, (she said that she felt fine,) and finally, after he greeted everybody, he sat down to eat, between grandpa and Faisel.
He scooped some Harees and took a glassful of goat milk, and a few dates that grandpa had set down. (He was always loaded)
The three children felt a warmth inside them, and they smiled and grinned as they ate. And they almost forgot about their dad leaving and this was just a normal day.
But the emptiness soon came back when their dad got up to say goodbye.
"Please don't go!"
"I'll miss you deeply!"
"Stay a bit longer!"
The children suddenly felt sad and depressed, and the empty hole in their hearts had returned.
Tears sprang to Mona's eyes.
"Oh dearest! Please don't cry. I'm heart broken, too. I'll miss all of you very deeply. Especially you three."
Mona kept crying, Fehed went back to his bed and sulked and groped in his tiny world. Only Faisel remained, trying to stay strong, because that's what big brother's did, they stayed strong when the rest of the family were broken and were in tears, because if the eldest and strongest weakened and broke down, then there was nothing left of them.
He stared in to his father's eyes.
"Take care of them, will you? You're the one that represents the glue that holds everyone together," and he hugged him.
Then he hugged Mona, and held her hand and went to the bedroom, he pulled the pillow away from Fehed who was sobbing.
He sat at the edge of the bed, and patted Fehed on the shoulder, and whispered softly, "You're ten, remember? You're a big boy now, you need to stay strong, all of you need to stay strong, you can't be so… dependent"
And he looked at Faisel, and the boy knew that his father secretly didn't mean particularly everyone, he was fourteen, for goodness sake, he was sad, but he would not cry.
They stood at the docks with blood shot eyes.
It was late morning now, and their father had rode the ship, he was sitting next to his friend, whose kids were friends with Faisel, Mona and Fehed.
Yasser and his sister, Jawaher, came over to them, it was worse for the two of them because their baby sister, Dana, got all the attention, so they didn't have their dad, but not even their mum.
They were only nine, they weren't twins, but they were born in the same year, there were only three months before their mother got pregnant again.
Jawaher started crying, Mona wiped her tears away with the cuffs of her sleeve.
"So what did he say to you?"
"He said… he said… he said that I was his Jawaher, Jawaher means Jewel, and I was worth more than all the other jewels in the world… which made me miss him more,"
Faisel was still thinking about what his father had said to him, when his mother put her hand on his shoulder, "Quick! Wave!"
He turned round and waved at the boat sailing away on the sea in to the blue horizon and beyond.
And just a few hours ago or so, he was eating happily and glad that his dad was with him, now there was a pit at the bottom of his stomach.
And as he waved, and caught the last glimpse of his father, He could have sworn to his grave that he had seen tears run down his cheeks. -
This is about the olden times in Arabia if you didn't already know that.
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0.0 HA! epic! i especially thought the age matching the fingers was a really niiice touch :D
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Thank you Slim. I appreciate it. Dang, you're a fast reader!
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lol grandma reminds me of u a little.
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Me? In what way? o_O
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w0w this is really good ilm.
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lol her attitude is just so similar
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Thank you sick! I appreicate it.
Is it me, or do you people read really fast? o_O -
Slim, I based her off of my own grandma. >:P
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LOOL wow,
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I guess I take after her then...
>:P
Wanna see chapter two or are you bored? -
no put up chap 2 whenever you get back here
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That was AMAZING!
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