Beneath The Veil

Aladin Meets Abu

" I knew I was close to the markets because the heat started to shift around my small bare chested frame. I was barefoot, dirty, my hair boyishly cut and oily. I hadn't a care in the world as I crossed the scorching sand watching all that was ahead of me. I couldn't wait to watch the curve of the mason blades. Maybe I would thieve one. Stealing is punishable even unto death in my land, but I was only a child and male. I was free to do everything I wanted. What I wanted most was to stay watchful for the only enemy in the world I had ever had, or so I thought."

" I did not hesitate to take full advantage of my new found freedom. I had never been here before. I only knew of it's existence from father's beckoning and mother's warnings. Looking around it was all my mother was afraid of for me. The market place teamed with men and lined both sides of the narrow passageways. The few women that seemed to float through like black ghost were in closed-in groups. I was told a woman should never go to market, but that if she had permission from her husband or father she could only go with a group of other women and they all had to be fully covered. Even their eyes, hands and feet."

"I watched these women and felt no desire to join them, nor any compassion for their restricted lives. I watched them become swallowed up by a storm of negotiating males and almost missed a movement of thievery so subtle, by someone so small I was intrigued to follow and watch. I knew their would be more of this, not having enough is a fact of life where I am from not just a fear."

"This boy was quick, so far I had witnessed him thieve from several fruit stands and even a coin merchant. All around men were shouting, hugging, selling and ripping poor people off with their prices and I knew that this boy was to be my friend. Even if he didn't want to. I am bigger than him.

"He was on the move again but in a secluded direction this time. The crowd began to thin out, their were more women in this section. Many of them showing their faces. I had been told about these women. They were the banished. These women were frowned upon by the cultured of society. Even by the dirty men that slept with them. I wanted to know how these women became chosen by a merciful god to be nothing more than holes for the vile liquid of the perverted."

"The boy went behind a thick long carpet that seemed to just be apart of the wall and not a real entrance. After following I became aware of the truth of my thoughts. This was an entrance to nothing. It looked as if someone fragile tried to make an opening in the wall just big enough for a small child to hide themselves from the heat of the day and the extreme cold of the night. The boy lit a stubby candle and knelt in the lap of a girl that was dressed in rags and bruises. The boy gave her all he stole and fed it to her slowly. Neither of them had noticed I was behind the curtain with them, just as ragged and bruised. The girl did not eat much, but drank the fruit dry. I learned much later she could not have eaten if she wanted to. All of her teeth were yanked out and possibly sold by her father."

"The girl drifted into a coma like sleep and the boy picked up the coins and turned to leave the curtained wall when he saw me. His eyes were dark and not angry, but morbidly bitter. He looked the way I felt. He took a menacing step toward me then and though I was bigger than him by a head I took a tentative step back and ran for it. I dashed back out into the busy market crowds, I dodged chattering men, and prodding black ghost like women in their groups. I ran hard, fast and smart. I grabbed a canteen of fresh cold water along the way and made it to the beginning of my favorite place, solitude, or as travelers know it, the desert."

"Panting and shaking I stopped short to take a drink from the canteen when just before the first sweet relief of the first drop could hit my dry and bubbled tounge I was rammed from behind. I held onto the hair of my attacker who seemed light as we rolled down a steep sand dune. We hit the bottom and he jumped up quicker than I and lunged at me. It was the boy and he had tears and fear in his eyes.

"I dodged his first frontward attack and cried out 'stop, I did not follow you to hurt you. I wanted to know how you were so quick in {I looked down ashamed to say thievery} in your surviving, I just wanted to know how to survive too.' Both of our chest were heaving. I wasn't sure if he would lunge for me again. He did something completely unexpected then. He picked up my canteen, poured it's contents onto the dead sand, turned with not a word and walked away".

"I made it back to the widows door, and felt anger and defeat. I hadn't gotten a job, brought back any food and the sand drank my water. Would she believe me? I didn't know and suddenly I had no desire to find out. I had been to the markets. Had a fight with a boy and thieved a water canteen. I wanted to see the streets at night. I turned right back around and ran into the embracing desert. I would earn the respect of this boy and that was that."