shall rest.
I awoke to the droning of my camel, after feeding her I came to grips over what I had done.
Did I really run away? Did I really leave without a note of explanation to mother? Mother would
be worried sick about me. But the freedom that I had was so amazing, I could lie in and relax
without fear of mother coming in and lecturing me on my laziness and how I should be more like
the other girls in the village.
Well putting my guilt aside, I am proud of myself, I finally did what I longed to do for so long.
I knew where the end of the desert lay, but that place in relations to where I was, was difficult to
find. Perhaps I should have thought this through more. Not smart, really not smart. “What do I do
now?” I wondered.
In the end I decided to continue onwards in the direction that I was going, the desert had to
end sometime and I was quite sure then that I was going in the right direction. Little did I know
that I wasn’t…I suppose even mother would be proud of my optimism then.
Presently I too felt famished, this was after a nap. The sun had reached the highest place; I
suppose that would be around noon, and I ate and drank little from my gourd skin flask, water
was precious, sure I had a lot left, but I still had days to go before I find water again. I knew how,
its just I’d never done it on my own then; perhaps it was fear of not finding water.
Two days passed uneventfully, I must say the novelty given by freedom has worn off, and I
feel the loneliness more than ever. Also I was running out of rations, fear of starvation shook me
as I began to search for water.
It was always the tribe men who would dig for water, the actual ones who gathered the water
were the women. The men would first pray to the gods of water for guidance and help in seeking
it, they would then place holy objects onto the ground nearby the place that they suspected that
water would be found, and they then would start to dig. It took them sometimes 20-30 minutes
to find water, other times hours. They said it depended on the gods, and how they felt about our
people’s behavior.
I was hoping the gods were on my side when I started to pray, I knew that I had violated a long
tradition of the tribe staying as one, but I was hoping that the gods would consider the fact that I
was following my heart for once and I was going to die of thirst within a few hours without water.
I followed what I had seen a thousand times, I placed the holy objects nearby and as I started to
dig, the knot in my stomach tightened with every load of dirt, I must say, after 30 minutes, I felt
like giving up. The heat was so intense and the sweat burned my eyes, but something in me was
fighting, fighting to stay alive. My throat was burning and I am only going to admit this to you,
I cried when I saw the damp earth after an hour of digging, I thanked my lucky stars and all the
gods that I knew. I took a quick break and drank the last few drops of water.
I suppose I was energized by the thought of finding water. I dug with such fury that I
surprised myself, but I must say, the moment that I took water from the hole in my hands and
brought it to my parched lips and drank it was like the freshest and clearest water I have ever
drunk in my life, sure it was muddy but when one is as parched as I was, slightly muddy water
isn’t a problem, especially as I am used to it. I probably should have boiled it though. Mother
would have lectured me about that.
Mother, I wonder how she is...is she lonely like me? Is she worried sick? Would they come
looking for me?
Nonsense, they wouldn’t, they don’t know which way I went and they wouldn’t risk splitting
