Sana'a

Chapter 1

Two years ago my friends and I went into a store to get some fizzy drinks and a few bottles of water for our qat session. The store had stoles cramped into narrow lines, and my friends managed to pull me to the back of the store to get some cigarette packs. I headed first to the cashier unable to stand my friends useless arguments on which cigarette buds are better, and on my way, I saw a small girl around the age of nine clinging onto the dusty table in front of the cashier asking him for a bottle of water in exchange for her empty plastic one. He kept hushing her away, yelling at her to stop touching the table, to stop making a mess when she played with her small sticky hands with the candy jars next to him, but all she did was look outside through the exit door, then right back to the cashier begging more for water.

I stood there watching. What the hell was wrong with me standing like that? I told myself to do something, but I didn't want to feel embarrassed by my friends. We just graduated from high school, and are meeting our friends to chew qat this afternoon in our mate's house and causing a scene here might ruin the day for me when I have to hear them mock me all day long.

Finally after twelve years we did it, we passed every final exam, and I wanted to enjoy the glory of this day. As I watched this girl, my soul acting upon itself and before I knew it, I was tucking my hand into my shirt pocket wanting to just buy her a water bottle. As I took my paper money out, my friends caught me as I interjected the Yemeni riyal to the cashier.

'Dude, what the hell? What's the matter with you?' they laughed.

'I am just helping out'

'Help your buddies out first. I am running out of cash, and we need to pay for all this shit' they pointing to the basket full of water bottles, fizzy drinks and cigarettes they were holding.

I can't believe what I've done. I can't believe that I immediately swung the money back. The girl's eyes had looked directly at me after she eyed the basket sensing my retreat. The intensity of her stare was like she was looking through me, if the was possible, but before she or I could have said a word, she let out a deep breath both of us didn't release she was holding. I saw her drop the empty bottle to the floor of the store letting it click behind.

On the other side of the street stood a man in his late forties sitting on the ground, chewing qat on a disgusting mattress. I saw him yell at her, but I didn't do anything. I saw him question her about the water, about the empty one and the new one, yet I didn't do anything again. Then I saw her turn away and only God knows what was inside that little girl's head when she ran to the street in the face of a car she wasn't expecting letting out a desperate shriek. The driver had took her with him saying something about a hospital nearby, but I couldn't make out what was happening. Everything was going fast and everything was just a blur and I found myself smacking the cashier in the face.

Why hadn't he just gave her that bottle?

Why had my friend stop me?

Questions roamed around me. My temper back then was never under control. I was raised to have the whole world bow under my feet if I wished. His blood had covered my knuckles, and my friends had to restrain me buying me some time to control myself as they pulled me away from the injured cashier who was only making a living, trying to save money to live a life he only wish he could've had.

Some days later, I was told that the girl was fine and was taken out of the hospital by one of my friends, but I couldn't tell whether they were only saying that or if they were honest. Deep down inside I knew that it was my fault. Deep down inside, I didn't want to see that again happen to anyone and I knew that I needed to act against this or it will haunt me forever.