I Remember {MJ FANFICTION}

Chapter 5

It wasn't too much longer before Seb halted the camels near a small settlement and the men dismounted.

I looked around at them all as they jumped off with ease and realized quickly that I was stuck up on the camels back.

"We will eat some of what we have now." I could hear Seb saying somewhere below me. "I will trade a portion of the remaining food for beer." He rummaged through a large sack and retrieved two colourful clay jugs before he headed off toward the small settlement.

"You can come down now Michael." Tahu called out to me. I looked about myself trying to imagine the best technique to get down, feeling too weak in the knees to simply jump down like the other fellows had done. I edged off slowly, and it wasn't too long after that, that I had plummeted to the ground and landed in a crumbled heap.

I heard laughter sound close by as I allowed my legs down from over my head and I finally struggled upright. My legs felt as though they had been locked open for years and they ached horribly when I tried to put them straight again. Flies hovered before my face and I swatted at them in my frustration.

I'd quickly decided that this life just wasn't for me. Hand me a screeching feedback-ridden microphone and a fan screaming in my face any day of the week, over this.

I swear, if I ever find that tea lady again...I ranted dangerously yet silently in my head.

"You know what I would love?" Hapi asked looking dreamily off into the distance. "A leg of cooked chicken." He salivated. Tahu shook his head slowly from left to right.

"Well you never know, perhaps we will get lucky this day." He took a sheepish glance over at me.

I watched him proceed to retrieve a set of cylinders wrapped in animal skin.

Hapi too returned with 2 loaves of bread from a sack, one of which he handed to me. "Do you play any instruments Michael?" he asked as he sank his teeth into his bread loaf. I shook my head slowly.

"No not really." I'd answered honestly and he gaped. Tahu set down his drums and began to pat them in a rhythmic, skilful way.

"A voice like that and you never learned to play an instrument? How do you stay in tune?" Hapi asked with ample fascination. I drew my lip into my mouth.

"Well...usually I just have people play the music for me." I shrugged casting my mind back to my days in the studio.

Boy how I wish I had a nice comfy air conditioned studio to sit in right now. A bug crawled up my neck and I batted it away quickly.

"Really?" Tahu cut in. "You mean you were in a musical group before?" I tried to tread carefully and not give away too much.

"I sang with people in Thebes." I answered offering nothing more. He nodded slowly. Seb marched back to us and I looked away from him, not wishing to meet his cold eyes once again.

"Thank you Seb-" Hapi began, stretching one large arm out for the jug.

"Ap!" Seb warned him off and to my surprise he didn't stop walking until he was standing right in front of me, his tall frame blocked the sun and cast a long shadow over me where I sat cross legged on the ground. My eyes rose upward, expecting nothing but trouble. He simply stood there, but somehow he appeared awkward now and looked nothing like the angry man who'd forced me to run behind a camel earlier. He even looked a tad remorseful and nervous to speak. "For your voice? Is this good?" he asked, tilting one jug to reveal glistening beer inside. I stared peculiarly at him. Was this some sort of attempt to reconcile after the cruel way he had treated me earlier? I felt a tiny hint of smugness stir within.