Somewhere! (Hunaak!) by Ibraheem Abbas, Yasser Bahjatt Page B

accent of a summer camp boy.
    “ You forgot to say sister” — she added.
    Her wit always manages to buy her some slack  but when her pranks go too far, I have to admit, so does her beauty!
    “ Come on, quickly take a shower and stop slaking!” — she said.
    I went to the bathroom to take off these strange clothes and took a quick bath. When I exited the shower, she was not there, instead I found a set of new clothes that she had clearly carefully picked, a white embroidered shirt, a collar and a black velvet suit with something that looked like a neck tie. I did not face much difficulty putting them on. After what I have been through to put on the mid-ages attire, nothing else seemed difficult.
    I suddenly heard knocking at the door … could Malak have gone to change and come back this fast? I got my answer from the voice coming from the outside.
    “ Open the door Husam, this is Khaled” — Khaled said.
    Khaled? How did he find me? What does he want? I was curious to ask him about everything that Malak has hidden from me, yet I distrusted what he intended to do, especially after he had tried to poison me.
    I opened the door … such look could not hide any bad intentions! He moved towards the balcony and sat on a chair as I followed him.
    “ Husam… how is Maram?”
    Maram is my little sister who has not yet made it to her eighteenth birthday. How does he know her? Was he too going through the details of my life?
    “ Maram is fine. That is … up to the last moment I saw her!” — I said.
    “ She must have grown up!” — he said as he looked towards the horizon with affection.
    “ How do you know everything about me? Were you also watching me?” — I asked.
    Khaled ignored my question.
    “ Maram has no one –after Allah- but you!” — he said.
    “… and Mother, may God prolong her life and health!” — I interjected.
    “ Listen Husam, Malak wants you to leave your family and live here! Malak does not care for any of them! The most important thing to her is for you to stay here with her! You have been away from your world for three minutes, and if you make it to seven you could never go back! And you will be stuck here forever!” — Khaled explained.
    “ You are telling me that Malak wants to trap me here? She knows how to get me back to my family and has said nothing?” — I asked.
    “ I know!”— Khaled replied just as I had moved   towards edge of the balcony.
    “ If you want to live amongst your family… you must die here! Simply close your eyes and throw yourself from here, and you will be back with your family! Do not forget, every second counts!” — Khaled said.
    With that, he turned around and left me stunned as my heart began beating violently standing on the edge of that balcony. This balcony now stood between me, my family and my life. It also stood between me and Malak and could take her away from me after my heart got so attached to hers and so had my soul. Regardless, family was more important than she was, more important than me! More important than my heart and soul!
    A strange feeling made me believe Khaled. I believed in every word he had said. Was I just grasping at hope? Or the strange comfort I felt towards him? Did he try to poison me to get me back to my family? Was that truly the only way for me to awaken and leave this world? Now I had to find out!
    I closed my eyes … I froze on the edge of the  balcony long enough to remember the details of my life, I gathered my courage and longing for my family to convince myself that I was trapped in this dream, I would not lose anything by leaving it! Only death would free me for my soul to reawaken in my body. Numbness crawled through my limbs as the winds pushed my balance around as I stood on the edge with my arms extended to fly to my family.
    “ Husaaaaam!” — Malak screamed.
    Malak ’s scream was the barrier between death here and life there! She shouted the moment I had tilted forward and she quickly