The Other Side

2. The Man With No Name

I fell for the longest time and wound up back on the same cliff, except this time there was a man sitting on the edge next to me.

It wasn't my brother and it wasn't someone from my village. He looked like he was in his early twenties, maybe a little bit older than me. Black hair and perfectly scuplted eyebrows defined his long face and a tattoo of a black rose with spiky thorns peeked from the side of his neck. I wondered where the tattoo started but he interrupted my thought with a cough.

"Life is so confusing." I said after a while.

"It is" he replied.

“Sometimes I can’t wait for the day my life will just make sense. I can't wait for it to get boring."

“When you’re older… maybe…”

I noticed a streak of grey in his hair. Was he older than he looked or just stressed to the core?

“Is your life boring yet?” I asked and pointed towards his hair.

“No, not really… I think that when we’re really old, like 50, we will just be happy with what we accomplished. Like there’s some massive realization waiting that it’s all been pointless and worthwhile at the same time.”

We said nothing for a long time. The orange sky turned into a deep mauve as it slowly got darker. If I squinted my eyes a bit I could see see Dabih glowing. 

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“I don’t know” he confessed quietly.

It felt too personal to ask him if he’s been in a coma or something of the sort.

“Would you like me to choose one for you?”  

“Please,” he replied instantly “but, don’t tell anyone else what it is."

He got up and stood a few feet behind me. I couldn't see him, and the winds howled so loudly, he could have walked away and I'd never know. But I knew he hadn't left. I could feel him there.

I continued sitting by the edge, my feet dangling off. Staring up, now into a pitch black void with tiny hints of starlight here and there. The sky reminded me of a dress I once wore to a ball. It was a true, solid black with small diamonds sewn on like constellations. I didn’t like when black things looked dark grey. Black should be black, liked the charcoal slate which was now the sky.

“Come with me” he said suddenly.

“Where?” 

“To the other side, where the sky is white and the stars are red and where we don’t need our names.”

I hadn’t the slightest idea what he was referring to. Was this place some sort of a distant nebula or was this guy mental? Either way, home was never going to be the same again, with my brother being dead and all, so I hadn’t much to lose.

“Okay, let's go.”

He extended his arm towards me and I proped myself up. We stood by each other and he grabbed me by the hand. When his fingertips brushed against mine I suddenly remembered. I remembered everything. Him, us, the other side, where the sky is white and the stars are red. It all came back in a torrent.

I squeezed his hand as hard as I could and looked into his eyes for the first time since the man appeared by my cliff.

“Will it be alright?” 

“Yes” he answered, and then after a few seconds added “someday."

He let go of my hand and threw himself off the cliff. Just like that, without a warning. 

I dropped to my knees and looked over the edge as much as I could without falling. There was no sight of him. The dune below me was nothing but endless heaps of smooth, uninterrupted sand.

I never got to tell him the name I chose for him. But I screamed it several times, he wasn’t there. I sat back on the cliff with my feet dangling off the edge. 

I missed him. I was sad to have lost him and angry for how he reminded me of everything and then left. He always loved a good game.

I guess I have to figure out where the Other Side is and how to get there...