19 Chapter 19

The children watched in terror as the buses gained more speed and disappeared out of their sights, leaving them behind in the lonely street beside the riverbank which nobody seemed to utilize at that time of the day. "What do we do now?" Umair asked in an alarming tone and looked at Thasneem and Mu'az, who had been still gazing in the direction where the buses had disappeared from their views.

"We are lost!" Mu'az said hopelessly, tearing his gaze away from the bend and sitting down on the middle of the road with tears streaming down his tanned cheeks. "We can't go back home now! We are lost!"

"Mu'az, please don't cry!" Thasneem said, kneeling beside him to look at his face. "We'll do something."

"No, we can't do anything now!" He said as he shook his head with a sob. "The buses are gone!"

"But they'll come back, looking for us!" She said in a promising manner even though she doubted it.

"What if they don't come?" Umair asked with fear lacing his voice and he looked like he would burst into tears anytime soon.

Thasneem let out a sigh and looked at the woods where she had finally seen her sister and her intense dark eyes scanned through the wild bushes and overgrown grasses, trying to find a sign of her. "Thasneem!" Umair shook her shoulder to get her attention and the determined look on her dark eyes gave him somewhat courage like a distant light seen in the darkness. "What do we do now?"

"I think we could find someone if we walked along the street." She said thoughtfully, still staring at the woods.

"And they'll help us to go back home!" Umair said with a hopeful smile on his face. "That's a good idea! Come on, let's start walking down the street!"

"What about Maryam?" Thasneem said in a small voice. "I don't see her anywhere in the woods."

"We'll find someone who'd help us to find her, Neem!" Mu'az suggested as he got up from the street with new hope rising through his chest.

"What if something happens to her in the woods before we find someone?" Thasneem asked him, her eyes desperately searching everywhere she could see. "What if that peacock eats her up like it ate that long snake?" Both Mu'az and Umair shuddered at the thought of the huge peacock eating the snake. The children didn't think that the peacock was fascinating like they had believed earlier. Just a mention of it gave them a shiver and made them want to leave that eerie place as soon as possible, but Thasneem stood cemented to the place.

"I can't go home without my sister," She said with tears sparkling in her dark eyes. "Where is she? She's not there in the woods!"

"Let's go near the bushes and call her name loudly, Neem!" Mu'az suggested her. "Then she'll come back."

"Okay!" Thasneem agreed and they went back closer to the bushes but they dared not to open their mouths when they sighted the peacock again which was still moving here and there gaudily, nibbling at the wild plants. The children went back to the lonely street again after a while when they had lost the courage to stand close to it.

"What do you suppose we should do now?" Umair asked Thasneem as if he was expecting her to have a plan and she looked at him with a sigh. "I reckon you and Mu'az should go and find a grown-up to help us find Maryam." She told him.

"Then what about you?" Mu'az asked her expectantly.

"Maryam might come back when that scary peacock goes away." She said with expectation. "I'm going to wait for her here until she comes."

"Aren't you afraid of that peacock?" Umair asked her with widened eyes.

"I'll stay hidden from it." She said determinedly.

"Then I'll lend you my binoculars," Umair said as he took the binoculars out of his backpack and gave it to her. "It'll help you to find her easily when she comes out of the woods."

"Thank you, Umair," Thasneem said, smiling for the first time since they had gotten down from the bus.

"Neem, we'll come back soon with a grown-up, okay?" Mu'az said to her apologetically without having the heart to leave her there alone.

"Okay, Mu'az." She said and waved them goodbye as they both started to walk along the strange lonely road. They turned around and looked at her when they reached the bend and Thasneem felt like wanting to race towards them from behind the enormous ambarella tree which she had selected for hiding, but the thought of Maryam made her stay rooted to the spot. They both waved their hands at her for one last time before they turned around and disappeared from her view.

Thasneem felt a chilled feeling spreading through her chest when she couldn't see them anymore. She heard the noises of the woods from all around her; the crickets that chirped endlessly, the swishing wind which rushed past her small body, the birds twittering from the tree branches high above and the burbling river which ran only a few yards away from her.

The sounds of mother nature somehow seemed to ease her emotions and helped her to collect her thoughts. She had only one intention in her mind now; she needed to find Maryam, her most beloved sister and the best friend who had never left her side. Besides, she felt like it was her fault that Maryam went missing in the woods because she's the one who had suggested to leave the bus even though she hadn't wanted Maryam to get down from it. And she knew that she couldn't go back home to her parents without her. Above all, she missed Maryam! She missed her company, her smiles, the sound of her voice and everything about her and she needed to find her!

She took the binoculars and focused at the woods with attention. She carefully examined the riverbank through it and saw a rabbit scurrying through the thickets, a mole scuffling through its hole and a skink climbing up a stem of a plant. She redirected the binoculars towards the bushes where she had seen the peacock and to her surprise, she couldn't find it anywhere near the thick bushes and overgrown grasses. She checked for it carefully throughout the woods and after a while later she felt sure that it wasn't their anymore and she felt free to go out of the shelter of the wide ambarella tree.

She carefully stepped closer to the woods and shouted Maryam's name and begged her to come out of her hiding. "Maryam! the peacock is gone now!" She said loudly, hoping that she would hear her. "Please come out! We need to go home!" But to her dismay, she didn't get even a single response from her even after she had called her over and over again until her throat started to ache. And it made her doubt that she wasn't there, and a gush of fear raised through her body and tightened her chest. "Maryam! Are you scared to come out?" She asked even though she knew that she wouldn't get any reply from her. "Okay, I'm coming to find you then!" She said before shoving the wild grasses out of her way and stepping into the woods.

She walked towards the riverbank and peeked at everywhere she could see through it. She was desperate and hopeless when she turned to look at the opposite side of the river, but to her astonishment, she saw a blue colour bag hanging from a low tree branch and it didn't take her long to realise that it was Maryam's backpack! Her dark eyes widened with surprise at this and she wondered how her blue colour bag had gone to that side of the river. A moment later, it occurred to her that it won't be possible for a bag to get on that tree branch unless someone brought it there and she conceded that it must have been Maryam who kept it there, hanging on that tree branch even though she couldn't understand the reason why she had done it or why she even crossed the river. But she knew for sure that she had to cross the river if she wanted to find her sister before the sun left the horizon and darkness surrounded the woods that enclosed the river.

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