Nomads

Chapter 1, Pt 3- Mahha

It had rained for two hours and after it had died down, he made his way to the inn. When he reached the inn he was staying at, he felt that the atmosphere of the place to be different than usual. It was filled with more vibrancy and ecstasy.

“Al Saqr! Brother, we have something really good for you today.” An ecstatic merchant from his group greeted him when he saw him come through the entrance.

Al Saqr immediately felt disgusted at the overwhelming smell of alcohol.
“What is it Qasim? Are you drinking like a wild boar again?” he asked exhaling and inhaling quickly, trying to breathe the alcoholic air as little as possible.

“No… Yes. But this is different! We have arranged for some entertainment.” Qasim said with a smirk.

Al Saqr tried to process Qasim’s sentence as he suspiciously looked around the pub and saw a few half-naked women dancing around, drinking and laughing with his fellow merchants and sailors. He immediately realized what was happening. “I don’t have to anything with prostitutes.” He said.
“Oh come on! Fear becoming a man?” Qasim taunted and laughed.
Al Saqr smiled at him, “And what kind of men are you? Disgracing women by buying their bodies for a night or two?” He taunted back and headed upstairs. “My room shall be locked. Don’t send anyone upstairs.”

He went to his room and latched the door. In front of the entrance, across the small, square room, was a windowed wall with a bed on the right and a small table on the left. He sat on the bed and looked out the window, it was dark. The shops were closed and the cloud cover had darkened the sky too much to see the moon reflecting on the sea. He took the candle jar from the table, unlatched the room and went out to the corridor to light it from one of the torches.

He was about to light the candle when he heard a familiar voice. His eyes widened in horror. He placed the candle and the jar down and immediately made his way downstairs. He looked intently around the pub. His eyes fixed at a chair near the bar where he saw the same, uncanny, deep blue eyes, vividly in contrast with her deep brown skin.

She was sitting on the lap of a fellow merchant. She was laughing, and kissing the man as they spoke, and Al Saqr stared in disbelief.
Mahha eyes fell upon him, her heart sank and she immediately bursted into tears. The man, on whose lap she was sitting o, got confused and tried to comfort her.

Al Saqr walked up to them.
“Zafar, let her go with me.” He said in a soft, yet stern voice.
“Do you know her, Al Saqr?” the confused man asked as Mahha covered her face in embarrassment.
“Yes.” Al Saqr said, as Zafar held Mahha’s shoulders to help her up.
Al Saqr took her hand and led her through the crowd, upstairs. He lit the candle, placed it on the table and made her sit on the bed.

He, himself, sat on the floor and waited patiently for Mahha to calm down. When she was done crying, and had wiped her tears, he offered her a glass of water. She drank from it and looked out from the window at the night sky. She did not want to talk about anything, or look Al Saqr in the eye.

Al Saqr looked at her for a while and then fixed his gaze on the floor. He knew the importance of silence. He had so many questions to ask, but he understood how crucial it was to give someone the time and space to breathe properly.

After a long hour of silence, the air in the room gradually started to feel lighter.
“Mahha”, Al Saqr said.
“Don’t say anything. I know you despise me now.” She said, looking down.
Al Saqr stood up, and walked up to the window and saw that the clouds were scattered now, revealing the incomplete moon.

“I do not despise you, but why are you doing this?”
“My father…” she paused.
“Your father makes you do this?” Al Saqr looked at her in horror.
“Heavens no!” she exclaimed, “My father has been lost at the sea for over two weeks now. He was a fisherman, by profession.   He ventured out into the sea, everyday, but was always back ashore before the sun set. But this time, he never came back. Some said that he must have drowned; some said that the Sea Goddess took him as a sacrifice to avoid disaster. Some said that a sea monster devoured him. And some say that he may still be lost at the sea, alive, fighting for his life.”

“And what do you think?” Al Saqr asked, sitting back on the floor again.
“I don’t know what to think anymore. He… he married my mother after I was born. My mother used to be a whore. When I was born, the whorehouse kicked her out. She had no one to go to. No known father to love me, no one to give her care and proper shelter; but he saw her condition, married her. He gave us the love that we needed; he may not have been my birth-giving father, but he was a real father to me. Then they had a daughter too, my little sister.” She said as she felt the frustration built up in her, release slowly.
“I see. Why pursue this path of trade?” Al Saqr asked.

“Do you think that I like selling my body?” she said softly, “My father would have been a true father figure to me but I am merely an illegitimate daughter of a whore to all the others. No one gives me work; all of them say that my place is in a brothel. I have a small sister to feed. I may be a fatherless child, but she is not. She does not have to live on the streets, beg for alms or have to get raped for money. I…” she broke down as tears rolled down her cheeks. All the frustration, sadness, stress, and anxiety were coming out at once. “I will do whatever I can to feed her, to keep a roof over her head…” She started weeping profusely.

Al Saqr patted on her shoulders to comfort her.

“Where is your sister now?” he asked.
“S…she is in this house tonight.” She said, wiping her tears off.

“You brought her here?!” Al Saqr exclaimed in shock, “where is she, in the pub?!"

“No! She is helping in the kitchen.” Mahha replied.

“Go; fetch her for God’s sake! I will find a vacant room. You should rest for now.”

“I can… not take anything from you, I cannot do that.” She said, getting up.
“Yes you will.” Al Saqr said as he left the room to go to the innkeeper to ask for vacancies. He was relieved to know that a room was still vacant.
In the morning, next day, he woke up with the memories of the past night still lingering in his mind. He washed his face and drank the little water that was left in his canteen.

He took a fresh green robe from his trunk, to wear. He wrapped his belt and adored his Damascus sword before sheathing it. He checked his leather bag; almost all of his items were sold. It was time to search the area to find new items to sell at his next destination.

He left his room and went up to the room where Mahha and her sister were staying. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer. After a sort while, he called out Mahha’s name and knocked again.

After getting no response, he headed downstairs and found out from the innkeeper that they had left in the early morning.