The Dancing Bud

THE DANCING BUD - A SHORT STORY

        It's every tourist's nightmare. You're on an amazing vacation, having a grand time, and so you wander off from the tour guide, with a profound spirit of adventure consuming you. Now you're in a desert, miles away from any civilization, dehydrated and starving. Except, this isn't happening to you... It's happening to me, because I'm the biggest idiot on Earth.

Go to India, my father said. Forget about that girl and just relax, he said. It's not like you will ever be stuck in an Indian desert on the verge of dying... Well, I added in that last part. But it's not his fault, he only wanted to cheer me up after what happened.

Anyway, let's go back to how insane I'm becoming as I'm on the brink of death. Exhausted and with no motivation to continue on, I collapsed onto the wretched sand. I closed my eyes to meet my fate, where darkness enveloped itself around me. At least now I could rest... Death didn't seem so bad at this point.

Darkness began to envelop around me. Death was empty. There was nothing to look forward to. There is no light. There is only emptiness...

And suddenly, I could feel something. It felt like water. I could feel?! I was slowly able to open my eyes to see a girl and in her hands, a silver bucket. I jumped up from the unexpected change in temperature and managed to get a view of my surroundings.

"Wh-what's going on? Wh-who are you?!" My teeth chattered from the cold.

"Right now, you are in our caravan," she responded. I looked around, noticing other women covered in black cloaks. She then placed a cozy blanket over my body. "You'll be okay, now. I just rescued you from that blazing hell of a desert. My name is Neha. What is your name?"

I gazed at her, admiring her features: olive skin and long, ebony hair, framing her shoulders. Her eyebrows rose at me and she slowly picked up the bucket defensively, as if she just realized that picking up a random man from the desert was a huge mistake. All of the other women in the caravan backed away. I let out a chuckle. I quickly snapped out of my thoughts and remembered my manners.

"Please forgive my rudeness. My name is Adrian. And thank you so much... for saving my life."

"You are very welcome, Mister Adrian."

"Just Adrian is fine... All of you are wearing dark cloaks and it's so hot outside, don't you all feel like you'll be burnt alive with that on?" I asked, pointing towards the black cloaks.

"It protects our skin from the sun," Neha replied. But I could see small beads of sweat running down their foreheads and the other women shuffled nervously.

I was confused and before I could ask anything else, she asked me, "Would you like some chapati? It is not much but you should eat something to get your energy back." My stomach growled.

"Yes, please. Thank you."

"I must get you out of here before she finds out." Neha glanced towards the door nervously.

"Who's sh-" She hurriedly gave the chapati to me and then gave me a glass of water. Hunger overtook me and I decided I could ask questions later. It was plain, but when the soft chapati hit the roof of my mouth, saliva instantly burst through to digest it. I felt so relieved to be alive. This girl was so kind, rescuing a complete stranger from near death. I couldn't imagine myself doing such a questionable task. I was extremely grateful to Neha.

"Wow, you know what they say, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! And what better way than to be fed by a gorgeous woman?" I said with a wink. Her eyes sparkled in astonishment and I could see a faint blush forming on her cheeks.