The Endless Golden Dunes

Chapter 36: Stables

UMAR
  
  

‘I’m here to clean the stables.’ Umar said to a soldier past his forties. It was beyond him how he had managed to be in the army.
  
‘A dare by some of your friends?’ The man’s voice was snappy, as if he was quick to insult.
  
‘I am just willing to do something here.’ Umar was getting increasingly impatient.
  
‘Well, that’s just false. There’s no person that’s willing to clean shit for a few silvers. Surely there’s some other motivation for this?’
  
‘Well, according to the hermit, this will help in quenching the fire within me.’
  
‘Gregorios?’ the man exclaimed and shook his head. ‘You’re getting advice from the wrong person! And what is this talk of quenching fires? We have no fires inside us. Foolishness! That is what al this all is. Talking like fortunetellers; they are. Tell you a few complicated words and just grab your money.’
  
‘Gregorios desires nothing from me.’ Umar argued, trying to hold on to his temper as the mystic suggested.
  
‘Then he’s just fooling you for laughs!’
  
‘Speak not of what you know not.’
  
Sarcastically, the man held up his arms in surrender.
  
‘You’re suddenly the general I suppose. Forgive me O master for having an opinion.’
  
Umar scoffed.
  
‘Just tell me when I should start.’
  
‘Well, you can begin now if you want to. Still early in the day and all,’ he pointed to a place just behind the stable. ‘You can find the shovels and buckets there. Fill up the buckets and put them next to the right of the stable. We’ll deal with them later; give them local farms. Pay’s not good either; just a silver a week.’
  
‘I’m not here for the pay.’
  
‘Good! Then we don’t need to worry about paying you.’
  
Feeling happy with himself, the man left, laughing to himself.
  
‘Every day’s becoming stranger.’ Umar heard him say.
  
Umar looked at the stables with their horses as if they were a foe he had to duel. He sighed and walked towards it.

ABBAS

  
You find yourself in a void. Darkness is everywhere. No light, thus no shadow. The sun is non-existent, and the moon’s white glow is nowhere. But that was not how it looked. It was how it felt.
  
Abbas was amongst a crowd. No shoulders brushed against him. No one bothered to give him a simple greeting, and no one seemed to even notice him.
  
He walked and people went out of his way, but they were not even aware he existed. Yet, it felt as if they were actively avoiding him. That made no sense.
  
Abbas tried striking up a conversation, but all they did was subconsciously nod and resume their business. He found two gold coins in his pocket and bought fruits. The stallkeeper, without looking, handed him his desired purchase.
  
Now, the people were moving farther away from him. Walls were appearing.
  
Everything was black, for real this time as if the feeling had leaped out of the world of thought and existed in physicality now.
  
The sun was blocked.
  
The people were gone.
  
The surroundings ceased to exist.
  
Abbas was alone. He was in a small box increasingly getting tinier.
  
He crouched and attempted to make himself more compatible with the shrinking square.
  
Voided arms blacker than the night shot from the walls, roof and floor. They grabbed Abbas’s limbs and began pulling. Abbas wanted to scream, but found himself unable to do so. He had a mouth, so why couldn’t he yell for help?
  
It was because there was no one to listen.

  
***

‘Ya Allah!’
  
Abbas jumped out of his bed, feeling as if his throat was grabbed by one of the arms. He felt his arms and the rest of his body to make sure that none of the things he saw were real. It had been a dream. Thank God for that.
  
Grunting and massaging his head as if a headache took him, Abbas sat on the side of his bed and began to feel his face. All dreams had meaning. What was the meaning of his? Arms grabbing him? People ignoring him? What did all of that mean?
  
‘Dreams are the way God communicates with us mortals.’ was something that many people had said. Many years ago, he had met an alchemist from Egypt that had come to Syria for work. Abbas had talked with him out of pure curiosity and he had told him that he must be careful of what dreams hold.
  
‘Do not tell anyone of what God tells you through visions in your sleep,’ he had said. ‘They have meaning and are for you only.’
  
He had also said something strange, something about all beings being one.
  
‘All came from the moment, the singular point in time when creation was created. We are all one because we were made by the same immortal being, crafted by the same Hand.’
  
His words reminded him of what Ali would say.
  
All beings are one.
  
Abbas returned to pondering on what his dream meant. Was it that he was being secluded from others? Surely not. He talked with many people. In fact, he had talked with Hamza only a few hours ago, so what made him have that dream?
  
Then his thoughts went to what made him happy in the first place. The journeys that made him joyful. After that, he thought of his purpose. Why was he thinking of such different things? Unless they were all connected.
  
One of the same.
  
Abbas shook his head and rattled his brain.
  
‘Why does anything not make sense?’ he asked himself. ‘Why must everything be a mist to my eyes? Why cannot I wake up one day and understand my hadf, understand why I was created. Lord! Why must you leave me like a blind beggar? You have told in your Book that you help the lost. Have I been a sinner? Have I disobeyed you? If so, forgive me and take me out of sufferment.’
  
His heart started aching. It hurted him so much that he had to sit down and try to breathe properly, but that only increased his agony. Why was his heart doing such a thing? It was as if it was crying, longing for something.
  
After some time, though, his heart stopped hurting and he was normal again, but he was still breathing heavily. His mind was a fog through which it was impossible to see thoughts. Reluctantly, he laid down again and closed his eyes, attempting to sleep again.
  
But he woke himself up as he felt another aching in his heart. This time, he heard what it said.
  
‘The light and the darkness came from the same point and time. The fire and water are the same. Everything is one because they all came from the same moment.’
  
Hearing it made him fall into a deep slumber. His eyes became heavy and soon, all was silent to him.