Believers of Paradise

Z A R A

    "What about him?" The voice on the other end of the telephone asked. Something in his tone signaled anger, but I wasn't exactly sure about it.

I opened my mouth to speak and tell this guy all that was on my mind. I wanted to tell whoever this person was about Mahir. Ask him to pass the phone to Mahir so I could talk to him. I'm pretty sure Mahir still remembers me. He has to. After all, he still has my picture. There is no way he could forget me.

But just before I got a single sound out of my mouth, darkness came before my eyes. The lights instantly went out, and all the sounds stopped. I looked up around me, only to find the entire house dark.

"Oh God, the electricity had to go out just today," I heard my aunt saying.

"Children, stay in the room. We will bring candles," Uncle said.

I winced. The electricity had to go out the exact second I could have found out many things about Mahir? It had to go out just now?

I saw a few little flames of light at the end of the hallway I was in. It lit up a little, but I could see aunt and ma walking towards the room where I was supposed to be.

Using the light that was way ahead of me and barely enough for me to see anything, I made my way back to the room when ma looked at me.

"Zara, where were you?" She asked.

"Uh," I fumbled. "Just down the hallway," and she didn't question much more.

The worst part?

The electricity decided not to come back and dad told us we were going to head home.

***

    Ameera and I went together to the pond that was towards the centre of Rainwater Valley. We had two buckets each just filled with clothes that needed to be washed. This duty was either Zaina's or mine, but today I decided to go along with Ameera and get it done. Housework is much more enjoyable when Ameera is there with me.

      "So what do you think about what the men have been saying lately. Do you think it's true?" Ameera asked just as we approached the pond where many girls our age sat with their own buckets. Everyone washed their family's clothes and also gossiped amongst themselves.

"About what?" I asked, completely confused and oblivion to whatsoever Ameera was talking about. She looked at me with eyebrows slightly raised.

"You haven't heard?" She asked. We both took a seat at the edge of the pond and dug into each of our buckets to take out the clothes.

"No," I shook my head. "I guess not,"

"Okay so," Ameera started after wetting a piece of clothing from the bucket. "I heard abba talking to one of our relatives yesterday. At first I didn't exactly understand what was going on. But after eavesdropping a little for a while I figured through their words about something that might happen. I just don't know if it's true,"

"What were they saying?" I asked, beginning to wash the clothes I brought. The sun gleamed against the sky and was going to set in less then an hour. It shone on the right side of my face so I tried to block it.

"According to them, a rumour has been spreading through Rainwater Valley. Apparently these goons from some big city a couple kilometres away are coming to attack us and they might reach us in less than a week," she explained.