My eyelids felt like a heavy weight of metal was resting on them. I could feel my breathing faint like a mild air. My chest was heavy, painful and full as if something filled it. I coughed, water sprouting out of my mouth like a tap. It splashed on my chest.

“Noor” a voice called sounding as though it was in the background.

My ears sounded like bursted speakers, their sounds suppressing the constant call of my name. I felt cold palms on my check, my name still being called. My eyelids flustered forcing themselves to move up. It was hard because they felt heavier. My vision was blurry like I had a thick forge over it. Something soft and plump clamped over my gapping lips and air flowed through it. I coughed again letting out water.

“Noor” the voice became clearer sounding so unfamiliar but the fear that laced it was undeniable. I tired opening my eyes but they droop and open again. I could feel someone leaning over me and my back was resting on something soft but unpleasant. The palms on my cheeks moved, tapping my cheeks gently, my name still called. Every second, I fought through the unconsciousness that wanted to consume me. The voice became clearer and my vision unclogged.

“Noor” the voice sounded familiar and thick.

Coming out of darkness, I tried getting up still coughing out water. Now, I could see.

“Are you okay?” Amir asked.

No word came out of my trembling lips except loud exclamations. I coughed, my chest hurting less.

“Ya Allah! Ya Allah!” I slapped my husband’s chest, my body felt like paper.

“Are you okay?”

“Do I look okay to you? We….we….” I glanced around.

I was sitting on a dry land. The sand beneath me was soft like beach sand. Before me, blue water stretched out with no end and behind me was a forest with tiny foot path. Deep inside the tall trees and green vegetation was darkness, darkness that exuded fear.

“What happened? Where is the car? Who saved us?”

“I did and the car is gone. We are stranded in a strange place”

“What?” I stood up on wobbly legs, my eyes nipping around.

There was no road and the bridge we had fallen off was nowhere to be seen. I can’t even see a living thing except mountains, water and forest.

“There have to be a way” I voiced walking towards the water.

“There have to be a road, somewhere we can go through. Where is the road?” I walked around looking for a way.

“There is no place to walk through except the forest” Amir stood up.

His clothes were wet and sand had stuck to them. The black wet hair on his head fell back slickly.

“There has to be” I was shaking. The air was freezing. With my clothes wet, warmth was something I will never get. “Your phone. Where is your phone?” I matched to Amir, my loosened scarf fluctuating in the wind.

I wanted to get out of the place. It was strange. I was stranded. That was a known truth but I wanted to believe there are other ways to get out of the place. My phone was in my purse and my purse was in the car. Amir reached into his pocket. I snatched the phone from him before he gave me. I expected light when I pressed the power butting but nothing showed. I pressed again and again and got a similar result.

“What’s wrong with your phone? It is not switching on” I pointed the phone at him.

Amir tried. Line furrowed on his forehead and his wet eyebrows creased together.

“What’s wrong?” I asked stepping closer.

“Water has entered the phone” he said calmly.

The news shattered every hope I had gathered. Frustration, anger and annoyance embedded every part of my cold body. My breathing shuddered when I exhaled. Biting my lips hard, I ran my hand through my loosened hair, my scarf falling to my neck.

“How could you not have a water proof phone?” I shouted throwing my hands in the air. “You have money to get one and you did not” anger coursed through my veins. I threaded away from him.
“Help! Help!! Help!!! Help us!!!!” I screamed into nature expecting someone to hear us. My voice reverberated through nature bouncing back at me. Black birds flew out from the trees at the echo of my voice.

“Shouting will not do anything. We have to find a way out by ourselves” Amir explained and I shot him a glare that could make anyone quiver. “You can stay there and scream for your imaginary help or you follow me” he made his way to the forest.

I stood watching his retreating back. The wet shirt had glued to his back outlining the muscles underneath his skin. Cold wind blew his white crisp shirt to the side. Without reasoning twice, I was following him. We walked and walked through the forest. I was tailing Amir, sulking and muttering to myself.

When the sun sinks down the horizon above the top of the tall trees, it sends a message. It meant darkness was coming soon. In both dazzling and vague shafts of lights, light flashes through the space in between the big branches. Mass of dry brown leaves covered the dried dirty floor of the forest. I huffed, fisting my hands by my sides. For once, nature never looked appealing to me. The moss on some of the trees looked disgusting like fungi on them. I looked up trying hard to swallow my growing anger which hurts in my clogged throat because I could not voice it out. We were trapped in a forest with no way out and my husband became a mute.

Amir had said nothing. He kept moving forward like a man that knew the forest. I was vexed. He did not say anything and kept threading deeper into darkness and I who had no option followed. He should at least say something. My limbs grew numb, their muscles turning stiff. Only Allah knows how long we had been walking. As a result of anger and frustration, tears streamed into my eyes. I could not believe this was happening. We do not even know when next we would see a living being. I swallowed fighting back my tears.

“Amir, I can’t go anymore!” I shouted then tears dripped on my cheeks as I fell on the floor not minding if my clothes got dirty.

They were already dirty and the top I wore had torn when it hooked a thorn. The white trousers had become brown at the tip. I had not bothered putting my scarf over my head because there was no one to see us. Amir stopped. Silent tears streamed down my burning face.

“Everything is just annoying including you. You kept walking as if your body is made for the forest and had not said anything to me” I cried out and buried my face into my hands.

When I wept, I did not hear the shuffle of feet or any sound coming towards me. I raised my head from my palms to look at my husband through my blurred sight. Amir was standing where he had stopped, hands on his sculpted waist and his gaze remained on me.

“Are you going to stand there and say nothing? I am very serious. Everything is just annoying”

“Crying won’t solve anything. It is best you get to your feet and let’s go” his voice was flat. Water sprouted out of my glands like a fountain, rolling down my cheeks. I returned back to my former position and wept like a baby. My cries echoed through the forest.
When he could no longer take it, he stood beside me and rubbed my back repeating his apologies. I stopped weeping after what felt like eternity.

“Are you sure?” I hiccupped not wiping my tears with my gazed fixed on his tired face.

“I am sorry. You sort of annoyed me that was why I ignored you”

“Your ignorance hurt so much” I cleaned my tears with my flipping scarf. “Why will our car break fail?” I sniffled wiping my tears away with the back of my hand.

“I really do not know hayati. It is still amusing. Don’t look at me like that”

“How am I looking at you?” the angles of my lips stretched.

“You know what I am saying” he groaned while I laughed. “Hop on” he bent down in front of me.

“Now, you are being a gentleman” I wrapped my hands around his neck climbing onto his strong back.

“I have always being a gentleman”

“At times, you are not” I pulled his cheeks.

Darkness rolled in slowly like an eclipse. We were out of the thick forest and walking down an open green field. Amir still had me on his back where I felt sleepy. My stomach cried pinching at a certain point. My throat felt so dry like a sand paper. Since the water I had at the ranch, a drop of water had not touched my tongue. No food had gone down my throat since breakfast.

“I am hungry” I grumbled into my husband’s back.

“I think we might be approaching a village just endure” he kept walking.

The night was starless with a crescent moon hanging on the layer of black that had gathered. The late spring wind fluttered my veil that had been pulled over my head. My skin felt so cold. Owls cried into the night and the creatures of the night were out. I began to sing a lullaby I knew since I was a kid to while away time. My head felt so heavy as if it was no longer filled with brains but stones. Amir’s shoes stomped the floor gently. It was obvious with the way he walked that, his legs were going numb. I shut my eyes.

“Moo!” I heard the cry of a cow. I opened my eyes at the sound. “Moo!” the cow cried again.

Amir walked out of the light forest we had entered pushing away branches of trees aside. The view in front of me elated my troubled mind. I raised my head from his back and looked around. There were small houses with thatched or stone roofs. The bulbs in front of most houses had lights splashing into the dark night. Behind a cottage, there was an open land where cattle were kept. I jumped down my husband’s back and hopped forwards, my feet sinking a bit into the soil that felt spongy but that was the last thing on my happy mind. I raced towards a house with brown slates above it. I inhaled before knocking on the wooden door hoping to see somewhere to stay for the night.

“How may I help you young lady?” the old lady who had opened the door asked.

I looked at her. She was white in complexion with blond hair streaked with silver. A woollen blanket was draped over petite shoulders. Her pale blue eyes gazed at me from head to toe. For once, I prayed the woman was not a racist or someone who have bad thoughts about women who cover their hair. This place must be far from the city but Islam phobia was something I was sure had spread wide like fire.

“Good evening ma’am” Amir greeted her resting a hand on my shoulder.

“Evening young lad” she answered with her thin lips up.

Amir told her what happened and how we needed a shelter over our heads for the night. The woman did not remove her eyes from him and her smile kept growing wider. Without hesitation, she walked us in.

“It must have been terrible for you” she said with sympathy leading us into her living room. The living room was moderate in size with a cushion, fireplace that had a rocking chair, an old mat with a wooden coffee table.

The old lady’s hospitality was good. She was overly nice. We ate some English food which I made sure the chicken she gave us was not pork. Amir and I spoke as though they knew each other when my bones were cracking and joints were hurting. When she wanted to retire to bed, she led us to a tiny hallway with just two doors.

“This was my Seth’s room” she opened a door. Seth is her son whom she said was a farmer and lives ten houses away from hers with his wife and son “The room opposite is mine. You can spend the night here”

“Thank you ma’am” Amir and I chorused.

“Ma’am, can I use your telephone?” Amir asked after I had entered the room.

“Of course, you can” he followed her back.

I sauntered into the room and closed the door. The room was not big but furnished simply with double bed, a table and chair at a corner. The opened window looked out at the farm opposite her house. I opened the shutters to allow fresh air in before entering the bathroom. Ya Allah, the bathroom was small reminding me of the type I saw at a friend’s place in Nigeria.

I needed to say the prayers I missed and thank Allah fervently for sparing our lives. I did not know where to get a praying mat. The clothes the woman had given us to change to, I do not know if they were befitting for prayer. I sat on the bed, the mattress dipped in at my weight. Somehow, one way or another, we prayed. I stayed longer than usual thanking Allah for having mercy over us and sparing our lives in an unknown forest and should bless and reward the old lady abundantly.

The bed dipped behind me as I dozed off. I opened my heavy eyelids looking out at the window into the sky. The night was quiet as though no one was present in the village.

“I called Fawaz and Vincent” Amir said.

“Hm really?” I garbled.

“They will be here tomorrow morning” he adjusted on the bed which creaked at his movement.

“Isn’t it suspicious” I closed my eyes. “That the car break failed. It was a new car. Someone must have tampered with the break”

“I have been thinking about that”

“And what have you thought about?” I turned to gaze at him.
Amir had his muscular arms folded under his head, his eyes set on the ceiling.

“I will deal with that when I get back to the city” he closed his eyes.

I took that as the end of the conversation. Tiredly, I shut my eyes and fell into a deep slumber.

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