The House of Life

Chapter 8

I've never been very good on reading people, especially those of the opposite gender. Actually, I never really took the time to get to know the person. I guess you can say my love life is not that interesting.  Which was why the only few people whom I actually enjoy the company of, were childhood friends. But if you ask me, if Isaac, Bernard, or David tried to talk to me while we were in high school, I probably wouldn't given them the time of day. 

But last night, I don't know if it was the booze or the ambiance of the night, but dancing with an intimidating person such as Ardeth Bay, you would think I was trying too hard. Dancing like I was a young naïve teenager, with no care in the world. But that's the thing, I never felt more relaxed to be myself. It was like if the old gang was back together. But I knew that it was only a fleeting moment, and the reality is that they were gone. 

On the morning of our voyage, we headed south of Egypt, following the Nile river. Ever since that boat attack from the Medjai during our trip to Hamunaptra, the boat system halted, as they were trying to find ways to avoid another incident like that. Which is why we resorted to taking our horses to Hermopolis, as to avoid any harsh punishment from anyone who tries to say otherwise. Of course, we also had to keep in mind that the search for the House of Life had to be kept secret, as to avoid people from asking out of curiosity where we are traveling to.

About six hours had passed and we stopped to give our horses a break. The scorching sun was brutal, as I tried to minimize my clothing choice to try and beat the heat. With my clothing consisting of my khaki high waisted slacks, my brown boots that I wore in our previous expedition, my black button up black sleeves, with my sleeves rolled up to try and withstand the heat. My hair was tied up into high pony tail, to avoid my hair sticking to the back of my neck. Stopping near a small area of shade casted by a palm tree, Ardeth announced, "Let's give the horses a break, we're not too far from the next city." I shooked my head as I dismounted from my horse, unhooking the small wagon from my horse to allow him to drink water from the Nile. Ardeth helped me as we set the wagon down on the floor, when I heard a small yelp from the wagon. Ardeth and I looked at each other as we both heard the same thing. I jumped into the back of the wagon to see what made that noise. A tarp that I don't recall using to cover anything, was in between the food supplies and the packed tent. I grabbed the tarp and pulled it, to reveal a familiar face. "Qasim!"

The little boy looked at me with his eyes squinting from the brightness of the day. I grabbed Qasim by the arm to help him up, he was stowed away, without us realizing it. Which meant, Jonathan was probably having a panic attack by now.  So much for my words of encouragement the day before. "Qasim! What are you doing in there?!" I asked in a stern voice. Ardeth was just as shocked as I was finding Qasim, as he translated everything I said to Arabic. We were like parents lecturing a child who knew they did wrong. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this was? What do you think Jonathan will do when he can't find you? Did you even think for a second what your actions would cause for the people around you or worse?"

Ardeth tried his best to translate everything I questioned and Qasim just standing there, with nothing to say but the tears welting from his eyes. Like he knew he did wrong but didn't think about the consequences. I pinched the bridge of my nose as I was furious with Qasim. He could have compromised the mission, or worse, he could have gotten hurt. I know he probably didn't mean any harm to do this, but this was reckless. As Qasim was starting to cry, he kept saying "anā ʾāsef" over and over again. Until he started sniffling trying to catch his breath, that was when I stopped asking the questions and just hugged him until he stopped crying.

While I was hugging him, Ardeth suggested, "Anna, we have to go back. We can't bring Qasim with us, it's too dangerous." as I was comforting Qasim, I thought to myself, yeah that would be the most probable answer to this situation, but my thoughts and my words were not correlating. "I know, it's too risky to travel with him." I paused for a beat, until I continued, "But, if we turn back now, we will lose a whole day of traveling and we are short on time. The point of us leaving on such short notice was so that we had time to search for the House of Life. I'm running out of time, Ardeth. We can't turn back." Ardeth eyes widened, as he rebutted, "So you're going to place Qasim's life at risk? We can't do that. We don't know how dangerous this venture is. Not only that, we have another person to feed." I was starting to get short tempered as I snapped back, "Then I'll give Qasim my share of the food and water. We can't stop now, Ardeth. As much as I don't want to, what choice do I have?"