Dust Recoiling

Prologue

"Let go..." blurted Abel to two boys, around his age, whose eyes were peering over his shoulder to his two brothers. Abel tracked their eyes to his siblings ducking behind the cemented handrail of the stairs, their knuckles going white on top of the coarse finishing. Looking at them in this petrified state, he clucked his tongue, resonating within himself about what sort of brother he had been. His neck began stinging and he realized one of the boys' fists was still enclosed around his shirt's collar like an uppercut stopped midway by the folded wall of fabric. Abel was astonished about what his mouth had let out abruptly but even more baffled by the fist that still had not uncurled a single finger.

Abel stood still eyeing the one holding him by the nape. It was his only choice, his last defense, his stance of a lone-standing fort. The gate to it holding back a flood trying to push its way in yet no matter how strong the gateway was built, the water had found its way in through the gaps and over the top, dulling the color of the gate. They swiftly let go of this shirt, before Abel could register what had just happened, and they were on their way out of the building. Laughing, taunting, and imitating what had just taken place. Abel ashamed that he almost lost his composure, put on a smile and said to his now somewhat relieved brothers, wheeling around to face them, "You both really don't need to hide, just have faith in m-.... alright..?" But they had already started climbing the steps with sullen footsteps paying no heed to their brother's reassurances as it had become a hefty routine for them which went along in a weekday loop. The weekend was their great exile from this work-day facade.

Abel followed them up the stairs reflecting on a verse he was dictated by his Koran Tutor;

"Allah does not burden a soul beyond it can bear" [02:286]

He could not help but ponder what had been ripped off of him and what he was going through in this 'forsaken place', as he liked to call it, was any different from this Godly burden that seemed to be only applied to him from time to time.

No one could have helped it, It was all meant to happen in the end. The 2010 flood, hindered resolves and moving out to the higher ground. No one would dare mention but everyone had mixed thoughts about leaving their own home and coming to this sour but safe neighborhood. Abel had missed it the most out of everyone. From taking his first steps to knowing everyone in the district, he felt as if a part of him was always going to stay there behind locked doors with ankle-deep water all over the place. It all seemed like a forgotten dream living in a 3 room apartment with 7 other carbon-based life forms, humans. As God had planned, no worldly power could hold the banks from breaking and flooding the streets of lower ground which would remain there for months. This time no matter how much Abel wanted the fort-gate to hold its ground it flew open and the water came running drowning his most prized belonging; a place he could call home

yet a bird discovers it can fly

yet to fly it must leap out of its nest

Abel goes through the already unlocked door by his brothers and announces his arrival while passing, "Assalam o Alaykum", echoes through the newly painted walls. As he closes the door and faces the inside of his house, he sees a long hallway down the apartment with the master bedroom at the end of the hallway. He sees a figure throwing aside a set of papers, he figured was newspapers, and tending to the two who had just come home. The figure then faces towards the sound of the closed door, it proceeds to motion with his hands to come to the room to which Abel replies "Yes Papa". Abel's father was a religious man who lived by his ethics which never faltered even though he was friendly in the household. Trying his best to save the rotting furniture which managed to escape with minimum damage, took its toll on him.

everything comes at a cost

keep this close to your heart, beta

After a whole day of doing everything to get the water out of the foothills of their beloved possessions, he went outside in the knee-deep water to look if there had been any damage. Our house had the leisure of the gate sitting at the top of the inclined plane for automobiles to sleep. Even though the water which was, little by little, leaking from the gaps had brought havoc inside. A reptile or God knows what creature dwelled in that water all over the city, bit his father right below the bump of his ankle. This left him unable to work through the moving out and made us lose more than half of our belongings to the water. Even then Abel has never seen him fall into the depths of despair but uses the problems as a stepping stone to return back even more courageously.

"Who are these wild hounds that dare tease your brothers?" he said defiantly, as though his regard for ethics was overwhelmed by the love for his children. "Nothing to worry about Papa, just some stupid kids running around" replied Abel with fear and regret filled in his voice. "What kind of a brother are you? Your little siblings look up to you and what did you do? You let him hold your collar like it was nothing?" his father replied with contempt raising his volume with every sentence. Abel gave a quick glance of disbelief to his brothers for telling the whole story to Papa this time.

Redemption comes in different forms

And he deserved it all the way. Running away from your problems does not make them disappear, all running does is leave them behind but they catch up with you the moment you think they're long gone. Trying to save his face from his father he ended up never standing as an equal opponent to the hounds. All he could do was stand in silence and nod every time his father re-evaluated what he thought about him, every time he fell deeper into the pits of regret and every time his heart was hammered, hardened to prepare. As for the next time the hounds come around, a heart of a resolved hunter will be waiting, for the perfect opportunity...