Amina (inspired by A loop in time – Wally Brill)
Obscure visuals flashed before
her eyes…. Splashes of red, purple and
maroon seem to block her view… the desert seems so full of colour now (like
how she had always imagined) - and did she see some plants towards the market
side? Small and green shoots growing in the distance like some hope in the
middle of nowhere…. The green mixed with the sky’s palette to produce a
beautiful shaded effect against the setting sun…
Suddenly, hollow figures and
figurines kept chasing behind her…grey, lanky, hollow and lifeless…. One pulled
her hair from behind… the other one caught of her right leg and began pinning
it to the sands… she could feel the nails piercing through the flesh of her
feet, then her Hijab was dragged and removed from her head… her hair seemed to
come off as well.. she felt strange… looked down, and she was slowly getting
consumed by the cacti from her ammi’s courtyard… then she saw ammi standing at
distance calling out her name ‘’ Bibi, ruk ja… ruk ja…’’ – Abbajaan stood by
the wall and stared on… she knew she could not stop now…she knew what would
happen next… She just could not imagine
going through it again…
She kept running and running for
hours …. She felt thirsty, maybe hungry even… but she could not stop now… the
figurines seemed to have vanished and followed her no more… the pain ,the
weeping noises, the shrieks receded too…
now she was just on her own against the silhouette of the night sky….
Fear and pain gave her strength
to carry on…. By midnight she finally made it to the border…. She could see the
light from the village …
Amina finally stopped. She had
made it to the good side…. The torture, abuse, whiplash, Abbahjaan, Ammi,
Sakhina all seemed to dissipate from her memory…. She tried and smiled through her slit parched
lips for the first time in her 10 years.
