A Nightmare

New Moon

Crunch! The juicy sound and the sweet juice of the apple spread in his mouth as he walked down the street. On either side of him, merchants were trying to lure people to their stalls energetically to sell them all kinds of delicacies. A normal day for an eighteen year old boy. He let his dark brown eyes glide over the article of the freshly bought daily paper while the apple disappeared with every bite a little more. There! His horoscope! He would have an exciting day and make new friends. He smiled. He was on his way home and would certainly not meet anyone.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he perceived a small, barely noticeable, jerky movement. A hand crawled out from underneath the fishmongers's stall counter and moved over the surface searching for something to grab. A fish that was next to the fishmonger instantly disappeared underneath the tabletop.  As a future lawyer, Alain could not overlook this theft and stepped curiously closer to pursue the little hand. Barely a metre away, someone with fuzzy hair deftly jumped out from under the cloth that was covering the stall counter and quickly picked up speed as if the devil himself was after it. Alain was a tall, athletically built young man, who didn't like to waste any time and immediately went after the fugitive, which was quickly disappearing in the distance.

After having run through the alleys for several minutes now, he started to feel the pain in his chest become more and more unbearable. The thief meanwhile put the slippery fish into the pocket of his trousers and turned around the last corner before gradually slowing down and stopping completely out of breath in front of a yellow cover. Gently he lifted it and crawled underneath it.

In spite of the fact that the fugitive in front of Alain was relatively small and slender, he turned out to have quite a lot of stamina and had made it difficult for Alain to keep up with him. Sprinting around the corner, Alain could just make out how he disappeared under an old cover. Quite sure of his victory, he lifted the cover and made the discovery of a small, fluffy creature that flinched in shock and disappeared into the arms of a frail-looking boy whose eyes changed to defiance after a brief moment of surprise.

„You disturbed her during her meal! Who are you and what do you want here anyway?" he asked cautiously.

Slowly recovering from his own surprise, Alain let his gaze wander over the small shelter, which he estimated to be barely two square metres in size. Though taking only a few seconds this pause felt like an eternity for the boy in front of Alain.

„Hello? Are you even listening to me?!" he exclaimed with irritation in his voice.

Alain regained consciousness: „My name is Alain. The fish..." he pointed to the slippery grey heap on the floor, „You stole it! I saw it with my own eyes!"

The boy turned pale but answered without hesitation: „And now? Are you going to report me to the police and have them fine me? I don't have money to pay it anyway."

Now Alain understood everything and when the little furry ball crawled out of the shadow and stomped towards him to sniff at his hand, he surrendered completely. Gently, he settled down next to the boy and began to stroke and scratch the kitten on the head.

„No, I will not. But I do hope you understand that stealing is not right. Not even for the sake of this little stray here."

„Yes, I know,"  the boy answered meekly, "but I can't afford to buy food and the little one here needs to eat something or she will starve to death. Its mother was run over on this road a few days ago, and nobody cared a bit about the little one. I couldn't just leave the little rascal to her fate."

Thoughtfully, Alain let his gaze wander over to the boy sitting next to him. He was only slightly smaller than Alain but considerably thinner. He was wearing long brown trousers with torn hems and a few holes in the pockets, not to mention the washed-out blue shirt. His hair stood out unkempt in all directions and there was a little bit of dirt on his bony cheeks. The boy unmistakably belonged to the poorer inhabitants of Al Baha.

„What is your name?" Alain asked suddenly.

„Khajul."

The boy did not even bother to return the question. His attention was already back on the little creature that started eating again. They remained silent for a while until Alain lifted his wrist and began to decipher his dusty watch. It was already past four, and if he didn't leave immediately, he wouldn't be able to make it on time to his tutor. He quickly explained his situation to Khajul, who didn't seem to care, and promising to come back pushed himself out of the hatch and disappeared around the alley corner.