At the Souk

Taking shelter from the sand storm raging outside, she was acutely aware of the number of people crowded together in the small tea shop.

The streets of the old souk had been quickly deserted.
The air was sand; to breathe was agony and seeing was out of question.
Screeching, merciless storm had blown away the ragged awnings of all the peddlers' stalls in the old souk even before people had found some shelter.

She felt the panic rising in her, she did not know where her mother was and she had no hope to find her before the storm abated. She tried to calm herself down by trying to count the number of people in the shop. Next she made a game of guessing the trade of people in there by looking at their garb.

It was not working, she could not fool herself. It felt as if her mind was whirring with gruesome possibilities and her body was very slow on the uptake of the requisite reaction.

Battling with her rising sense of dread, she waited out the storm. Once it was over, she almost got crushed in the stampede of people straining to get out.

When she finally made it out of the shop, she started looking for her mother. She took a quick look at the other possible shelters in the souk. Then she realised that her mother could be looking for her, so she went and sat down for sometime near their usual baqala; mother dint come.

It was getting dark now and she had not yet spotted her mother. It was the jinns, they had taken her mother from her, because she had not been a good girl of late. She wanted to cry and scream for help, but she was not sure if anyone would put up with her tantrum, right now.

She was scared to go home without her mother. What would Baba say? She had misplaced his wife in the sand storm. He will not believe that it was not her fault, he will tell her that she had invited the attention of the jinns which had now cost her, her mother and his wife. Oh and the baby's mother too.

Despairing, she started walking towards her house. She regretted slipping away from her mother to look at the glass bangles. After the bangles, her attention had been captured by a snake charmer who was putting up a show nearby. She had completely forgotten about finding her mother and then the storm had made it impossible. She had been deposited to safety by the wave of the crowd rushing to take shelter.

She could now see her house. She resolved to go and tell her Baba bravely that she had lost her mother and could not find her. As she entered the house, she heard her mother's voice. She was home! It was wave of welcome relief that washed over her. Her mother was safe at home. She rushed to meet her.

Mother was singing a lullaby to the baby, she turned and noticed Azza running towards her and realised with a start that she had forgotten her at the souk.