“Where are we?” he asked me. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. I looked up to the sky as well, and realized I didn’t see any familiar constellations. I saw one that looked like the Big Dipper, but it was upside down and backwards. Then I looked across the darkness. Cassiopeia was an “M” instead of a “W”, and on the wrong side of the heavens. As I tried to wrap my brain around that concept, I pointed it out to Ahmed.

He caught on to the difference, and looked for more constellations that were reversed. I watched as he started to smile, and relief washed over me. We still didn’t know where we were, but at least we had an idea of which way to go.

We walked for most of the night, while it was still cool. As the false dawn faded and the sky started getting lighter, Ahmed pointed to something in the distance and I could barely make out a dark spot on the horizon. We would have to hurry to make it before the sun was up too high.

After a couple hours we were close enough to be able to make out tents and a few trees. All I could think of was water. I hadn’t had anything to drink for a long time. I was so thirsty and dusty from climbing up and down the dunes, I needed water and rest. I felt I was so close to collapsing, the only thing keeping me going was Ahmed. I was sure getting plenty of exercise during this grand adventure of mine.

I heard children’s voices yelling in excitement. I pictured in my mind the scene from my arrival in Ahmed’s camp. It felt like a déjà vu, like watching a movie that had been rewound. My head began spinning and I took maybe two more steps before I fell to the ground.


Ahmed turned around to see Dira crumple to the sand. He went back and carefully lifted her up and began carrying her toward the tents. Her face was red and her breath was shallow, but her skin felt chilled.

He looked to the people coming toward him. He noticed it was mostly men, and that they were holding weapons. He stopped short, and waited for them to come to him. The leader of the group came up to him and after determining that there was no threat, motioned him to follow them back to the camp.

He was directed to the largest tent, and still holding the unconscious Dira, kicked the flap aside and went in. There was a group of women there and seeing him come on with the girl, a large older matronly woman pointed out a bed.

Another woman and a younger girl brought water out to bathe her and soon had her stripped down and cooled off. Dira’s eyelashes fluttered as she came back to the waking world. The young girl brought her a wooden cup full of water and she drank it down almost in one gulp.

He had been worried about her, heatstroke and sunstroke were common enough in the desert if precautions weren’t taken, and they had no chance to prepare for the next world. He was interested with this whole phenomenon, never in his lifetime had he thought he would ever have a chance to do anything except lead the tribe. This was a life story to tell his grandchildren.

Looking down at her, he realized that she was becoming very important to him. He sat down on the bed next to her, and reached out to touch a lock of her hair. Her eyes opened and he found himself drowning in a sea of blue. She reached her arms up and he leaned down to her and held her closely.

The tent flap opened and a man motioned to him. He laid her back gently and smiled at her. She closed her eyes and he got up to go out. The man was standing outside the tent. Ahmed looked closely at him, and for some reason, he looked very familiar. He realized that the man looked just like his younger brother Ali that he had left in charge of his own tribe.

“I am Ali Fa’hallah, I am the headman of this tribe.” The man said to him. Ahmed felt stunned. He stared at the man for a few minutes before finally being able to say, “My name is Ahmed Fa’hallah, and I have a brother who is also named Ali”

Ali’s eyebrows came together as he scrutinized Ahmed’s face. “I also had a brother named Ahmed, he left many years ago with a woman.” Ahmed thought about that for a moment. Years? It had only been a few weeks at most since he and Dira had left his nomad camp at the oasis. It had taken five days with the caravan to get to the coast, six days while they were at sea, and then perhaps two days more for the last two trips.

“How many years?” Ahmed asked.

“”Let me show you,” said Ali and led him to another tent.

They went inside and a woman stood up and greeted Ali. She looked past him at Ahmed and gasped, pulling her veil up to cover her face. “Call the children,” Ali told the woman and she did as he requested.

Three children cam out to the middle of the room, the eldest appeared to be about nine o ten years, the next about seven and the youngest was about four years. Ahmed looked at them then looked at the woman.

“Hello, Anaar,” he greeted her. She blushed a bit and nodded to him. She turned back to what she had been doing, which turned out to be cooking. Ahmed could smell roasting lamb and his mouth started watering.

“Anaar, Ahmed will be staying for the meal as well,” Ali told her and led Ahmed over to the low table to be seated. They each began speaking at once, and then laughed at each other.

“You first,” Ali said and Ahmed began to tell his story. He explained how they had only been gone for a few weeks, and could not understand how years had gone by. He told them of being on a ship, of seeing strange trees and lush gardens and about the long toothed cats and the dark skinned hunters in the grasslands.

“After you left,” Ali began, “There was a terrible storm. The sands came up for days and the oasis was nearly destroyed. I had all the men of the village dig to get back down to the water and the trees. Then the stars began to fall from the skies. There were red streaks in the sky and we found many strange rocks in the sand after the falling star storms.”

The two men talked late into the night, catching up it seemed. But Ahmed couldn’t shake the feeling that something was not quite right with this world. Many things seemed familiar, but there were too many differences for it to me really home. The night skies really bothered him. The stars were all in the wrong places and he felt turned around on the inside as well.

He needed to get back to Dira, so he said his goodbyes and went back to the tent where she was resting. Lifting the flap, he went inside and found her sitting up talking with Anaar. She looked up at him and smiled. She looked much better now, as much as her pale skin could look healthy to him.