After I stared at my feet, I stared at my papa. He was smiling ! I couldn’t believe it ! After he
had forced me and my sister to marry some guys we have never seen, he was smiling like he had
won some kind of award. I was overwhelmed with a burning feeling.
“I will not endure this child cruelty anymore !”I shouted to everyone and leapt off the platform.
I raced across the desert sending sand flying. I didn’t know where I was going, but just knew I
had to keep running. I ran until I could run no more and by then I was already far from the wedding.
I had escaped unharmed. I know my parents’ dreams would be crushed but I’m going to stay
here, the place with no rules or parents. My mama angel will look over me and protect me from
any harm. I am now a free spirit of the desert, and I’m gonna stay that way. I don’t need to think
about the future, because right now I’m free, careless and don’t have a worry in the world. Now
I’m burying my diary because I don’t need to think about my past. I hope whoever finds this will
understand how I felt and look at this desert as more of a home and less of a prison. I hope that I
will remain here forever and never go back to that different, cruel world.
I sat there, speechless. Her speech at the end made me look at this desert in a whole new way.
A place without rules. A place of no worries. A place of freedom. I hope the best for Nabarun and
that she didn’t have to go back.
I am sitting here in the exact same spot as where she was standing. This wasn’t great treasure
or an old artifact but it had a deeper meaning. One that spoke to my soul. I laid down on the sand
and gazed at the blazing sun go down. I thought about the amazing memoir I had just heard.That
innocent girl being dragged into marrying an unknown person. I knew that the parents were only
trying to keep their children safe but by the sound of things, they were making them endanger
their own lives.
I’m lucky I can marry whoever I want to. That thought made me think of my family. I
wouldn’t know if they were alright or if my wife was still alive. But wherever they are, they will
always be in my heart. I drew their pictures in the sand. While I was drawing their pictures in
the sand, I suddenly felt something moving on my hand. It was a bright red worm, the colour
of salami. It was as long as five feet. It looked like a giant sausage with no head or legs. It was
difficult to tell its tail from its head, because it had no eyes, nostrils or mouth. Just when I was
trying to get out my sword, I started feeling tremendous pain on my arm. I felt the world spinning
around me.
I closed my eyes slowly and felt a whole bunch of weight lifted off my shoulders. My arm was
no longer painful. There was a breeze blowing and birds were singing lullabies. I could hear water
flowing down a river ; I could smell the scent of ripe strawberries. And far far away, I saw a girl
with a red birthmark across the side of her face. She was dressed in raw silk and a messy horn
hairstyle. The silk was torn and smudged and most of her horn hairstyle had become undone. I
watched her race across the soft grass. The free spirit of the desert, Bayarmaa. Suddenly, she came
running towards me.
“You kill my mama”, she suddenly said.
I am startled. There is no difference in the people I have killed.
“You kill my mama ”, she added insistingly.
“I … I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I stammered nervously.
“You set fire to our house”, she said, her deep brown eyes looking straight into mine.
Blazing fire and people shouting filled my brain. I saw children and mothers weeping while
men made desperate attempts to put out the fire. People were surrendering and the mayor of
