The slight rays of sun travelled in the air and rested upon Shireena’s eyes, making her wake up. She felt a heavy weight rested upon her shoulder and so she figured out that it was her mother leaning on her, fast asleep. She lifted her mother’s head from her shoulder, lay it on one of the blanket and departed the tent. Outside the tent the sun was buried in the clouds but still she had to rub her eyes to adjust her vision to the brightness. The camped territory now seemed nothing like it seemed the day before.
Shireena started pacing forward and towards the other tents. The ground was all covered with mud in which walking seemed unmanageable, it felt like quick sand that would sink your feet down leaving you all muddy and filthy. Shireena looked all around and she didn’t know where to start since so much was going on. Everything seemed to turn black and white around her and people walked in slow motion. That’s when Shireena started observing the reality, that’s when she read minds.
Several people walked around rushing here and there and all that Shireena could read from their faces was grief. All the expectations, the bliss and the brightness of the faces had elevated leaving behind dull faced people roaming around in search of help and food. She viewed around and everywhere she gazed she could see immigrates with frowns and the colors off their faces had vanished. In the entry of the tents stood mothers with their weeping children in arms. They had that one look on their face, the perplexed look. They probably had a dilemma of taking care of their lament children or clean and organize the items in the tent. For a moment she thought about her school, If this was the situation in the camp then the school must have also been affected. Oh Allah please let it be fine.
As Shireena kept walking forward, she could feel that she could not come to a halt. She had this peculiar feeling as if someone or something was controlling her and making her walk further and further although she would stop once a while to free her shoe from the mud. Farther away some men started to pour out of their tents and head towards the boundary of where the camps lay.
“Goodbye Father! Make sure to bring maximum supplies in!” A girl from a tent called to her father. So indeed the men were going to see if the supplies had come.
The youngsters sat near their tents, wanting to go out and play but the mud splattered soil didn’t allow them. The mothers and grandmothers warned the children to not exit the tent in any case and if they did, a harsh punishment was to be implemented. Shireena kept progressing ahead further more studying the IDP’s, however; she halted the moment she saw the herbalist, the herbalist she had helped weeks ago on their way to the camp. The herbalist was still in worn-out clothes though she had updated her shoes into better ones. The herbalist had a frown on her face only her condition was worse than that of the others. The aged herbalist took damp herbs and leaves in her hand placed them on a chair in an area where there was sunlight. All of her valuable herbs had gone wasted. The herbalist looked as if she was to start sobbing that instant but she was much more courageous, she could not give up that easily.
“SHIREENA!” a voice broke her from her thoughts. She turned to see her brother standing a few tents away yelling at her to return to the tent and help their mother. Ultimately Shireena head back to the tent. This time the ‘peculiar thing’ was not making her move without her will however her deep thoughts continued. On her way she saw a tent pulled from its hooks and was lying flat on the soil. Several men tried to fix it back while the rest of the family stood at one side. An elderly woman sat in the mud waiting for the tent to fix back to its original state.
“Mother I am back-“
“Where on the wide earth were you wandering? We have got work to do you silly girl! Get the blankets into place now!”
