A short story by Fatima Azeem

 Short Story

There were heaves of dusk clouds brewing in the air, stifling my breathing and stinging my eyes. So much for the cloth covering most of my face and hair…still, the mundane smell of dirt and maybe something else felt so nostalgic, I almost wanted to close my eyes and sleep on the warm ground. I didn’t– I kept walking through the expense of nothing– pushing through the wind pulling me back, as if it were telling me to get away, run away, from where I was headed, from what I was seeking. The taste of salty, earthy sand kept me preoccupied as my stomach grumbled for something, anything edible to digest. Rotten animal flesh of God knows what is not ideal food to eat, so I’m out of luck, not that I didn’t expect it.

A shadow, ah yes, there it was. What I was looking for. The looming, sky piercing, Gothic castle in the distance was still unimaginably large from back here, kilometers away, though it kept hiding behind the visible fog of sand flowing about. I was so close to where I wanted to be, the one place I would die happily, Taqdeer Ka-Dil. The only thing guiding me here was the red sun and now this, the shadow of my destination in the far expanse of land, distorted by heat waves and the aging of time. My body felt detached from any ache, any reality, any feeling telling me to stop and rest. I would not falter, I would not be weak, I would keep moving until I reached the place I wanted to. My feet? They told me otherwise. The only thing dragging me down was myself, my feet that kept lagging behind my body, and all of a sudden, I tripped. 

Ironically, this was embarrassing and downright humiliating, for I could hear the snorts and laughter of those who didn’t believe in me, reaching my ears again. In fact, I didn’t believe in myself, either. What kept pushing me was my pride, forward. I wouldn't learn my lesson this time, if there was something I was supposed to learn from this, anyway. My pride would pick me up, the blisters would be no more on my feet nor my hands, and the pain would crawl forward with me, to the place I called my destiny.