Under the merciless sun

The escape

It was just an ordinary day for everyone in Belgarath, expect Tamina. She didn't know whether to call it a good day or a bad day, but she was the happiest person on the Earth because like any other mother, she was content and happy to receive her newborn bundle of joy in her hands.

She held her baby closer to her chest. Tears of pain and joy flowed down her cheeks. That short moment of happiness was replaced with anxiety and fear. She had an ominous feeling in her heart and it grew by each second. Her intuition told her that something wrong was going to happen to her son. Tamina tightened her hold on the baby and it yawned at her. Amidst all the fear and anxiety, a small smile crept on Tamina’s face.

'It’s a boy'. Her mother, Aisha whispered. Her eyes held warmth and love for her grandson, but her face was pale of worry. Aisha looked at Tamina for her to say something but Tamina avoided her gaze.

'What are you going to name him?’. Aisha asked in her calm voice.

‘Arham'. Tamina said looking at her son lovingly.

‘Arham, kind and compassionate. It suits him'. Aisha said and a small smile appeared on her lips for the first time after her son’s death.

'Just like his father'. Tamina thought to herself. Farah,Tamina’s cousin and childhood friend entered the room with a large bowl of water and a towel on her shoulder. She smiled at the baby boy and then at Tamina.

'Let me wipe you clean. Give the baby to Khala. You can look at him after I am done.’ Farah said dipping the towel in the bowl. Ayesha took Arham from Tamina’s arms and left the room. Staring at Aisha's disappearing figure, Tamina’s heart began beating wildly. She didn’t want to be apart from her son, even for a minute. She told herself that her fear and anxiety are the jitters of becoming a Mother for the first time, but deep down she knew it was a lie to comfort herself.

'Have you decided the name?’ Farah asked breaking Tamina’s chain of thoughts.

‘Arham’. Tamina said smiling.

‘Beautiful. It suits him. It was hard, wasn’t it?’. Farah asked wiping Tamina’s forehead.

'It was, but I am not alone anymore. I have my baby boy and that’s the only thing that matter now, Fari. Tamina said.

'I haven’t seen Kamran khal anywhere here. Hasn’t he come back yet?. Farah asked furrowing her bushy eyebrows.

'He hadn’t been home for the past three days'. Tamina’s words where laced with worry for her father. It really hurt her a lot, that her father had never approved her relationship with Arham's father, and when she got pregnant with Arham, Kamran had turned into a total stranger to her. The man who was once her hero had became someone who hated her existence. But despite all the hatred her father showed for the past nine months, there was a little bit of love still left in her heart for him.

'Don’t worry he will come back. His anger will be gone once he takes a look at Arham's face'. Farah knew it was a huge lie, but such words were the only comfort she could offer her best friend. Aisha entered into the room holding Arham, her face more paler than before.

‘He just opened his eyes.’Aisha held Arham towards Tamina and she took him in her arms. Arham yawned and wiggled on her arms, looking around him. Tamina was spellbound to see Arham looking straight at her and that’s when she noticed his eyes and suddenly she knew the reason for Aisha's pale face. Her breathing stopped. Arham was having dark green eyes, just like his father.Those dark green eyes which resembled a deep forest was once her greatest comfort. She had dwelled in it and it was her heaven once. With a single look everyone will know that he was a boy born out of wedlock, because naturally her people had Amber Eyes. Belagarath was an isolated village at the outskirts of the desert, so they have been marrying either there distant relatives or within the village itself until the foreigners came. The people of the village were unwelcome and introverted, but they were beautiful,with Amber eyes and bushy eyebrows. Tamina knew her son was an anomaly among them.

'He has green eyes’. Aisha said looking at Arham.

‘He is so beautiful’. Farah whispered mesmerized, touching Arham’s face.

‘Mmm’. Tamina said thinking. A part of her was happy because Arham resembled his father, but she shivered at the thought of the hatred those green eyes would bring him.

‘ I have finished. My mother has called for me to stop by the market. I will come back later'. Farah said putting back the bowl and the towel on the nearby table. She gave Arham a kiss on his forehead and smiling at Tamina, left the room. Aisha came and sat beside the bed.

Silence filled the room as both of them were busy staring at Arham. Tamina caressed his small head and Ayesha watched it.

‘ He has your lips.’ Aisha broke the Silence and Tamina just smiled at that. She knew what her mother was implying. Other than his lips, Arham resembled his father. They stayed like that for a few minutes when Arham snuggled closer to his mother’s chest.

‘ He is hungry. Feed him'. Aisha said looking at Tamina. Tamina held him closer to her chest as she fed him. A sense of pride as a mother rose in her heart and she caressed his small forehead as she watched him sucking her milk.

Time slipped by. Arham had fallen asleep but Aisha and Tamina haven’t moved from their Spots. Seeing her son sleep peacefully had temporarily put Tamina at ease, but her anxiety has not completely disappeared. Tamina remained cautious as something unknown, stirred up in her mind. They both stared at Arham and suddenly Farah burst opened the door and entered the room startling Aisha and Tamina.

‘Tami, you should leave now, quickly.’ Farah said in a single breath.

‘What?’. Tamina asked confused. Without replying, Farah walked to the cupboard and pulled out a long scarf and wrapped it around Tamina’s head. Seeing this, Aisha stood up from the bed startled at Farah's behaviour.

‘What do you think you are doing, Farah? ‘. Aisha asked as Farah tried to pull Tamina out of the bed.

‘Owais is here. Go, leave this place as soon as possible. I saw him on my way back home. He is heading towards here with his men.’ Farah stopped for a second and in a guilty voice continued. ‘Kamran Khal is also with them'.

Tamina’s eyes welled up with tears. ‘How could he?’. The words left her mouth as a whisper. She held Arham closer to her chest. She wanted to curse her fate but she knew that her time was limited.

‘Not my daughter too.’ Aisha stood frozen at her site.

Tamina had only heard stories about Owais, their village chief. It all depicted him as a gruesome animal. He was the most influential person in the village, corrupt and greedy. In his younger days, he was a butcher and he still keeps his love for his old profession by butchering people instead of animals. Owais will do anything to become rich, even selling his own daughter to anyone who offer him money. Nine years back the terrorists attacked the village for the first time and the government was forced to seek help from other foreign nations. As a result, a special unit was assigned to Belgarath for protecting the citizens as well as to fight the terrorists, but the soldiers never had good intentions towards the villagers, especially towards the women. Gradually, Belgarath was completely under the foreign military rule and Owais became their henchmen. He was smart and crude and ordered the villagers to send their women,especially young girls to the soldiers to please them once in a while and in return, the officials offered him weapons and money. His power grew enormously and so as the fear of him. He was the sole reason why Belgarath was ruined. Owais was the greatest curse of that village.

For the past nine years, he had forced the villagers to offer their women to the soldiers. Those who resisted him had disappeared from the village without any evidence. No one dared to question him. Girls were sent to the military camps and Only a few came back alive. Those who came back were raped and bruised and were pregnant. Those who died were found in pits and bunkers. Since Belgarath was an isolated village, the government and the police had neglected the people here and their influence was less which made Owais the most powerful. But his luck didn’t last much long as he got arrested and was put in the prison for illegal transactions with the foreign officials. Thanks to his witty brain, he turned the whole story to his favor after he got released from the prison. He convinced the entire village which comprised men as the head of most of the households that what he had done for the soldiers was due to fear and told the villagers that he hated the foreigners as well. He asked for forgiveness and shared a part of his wealth with the villagers who accepted his apology happily. He didn’t stop there. He told the villagers that he was a sinner and in order to get rid of all his sins, he came up with an idea. He asked the villagers to handover all the children who were born out of wedlock to the foreign soldiers in Belgarathian women and thus convinced them, that it was the only way to restore the village to its former glory. Owais was a master manipulator with his sweet talk and the elders once again fell in his trap. He and his goons took those children away from their mothers and nothing about them were known after that.

Tamina knew that one day he will also come looking for her son and she was prepared to leave everything,but she never expected him on the day itself her son was born. It has only been twelve and a half hour. Hearing her father’s name among the men who were coming to murder her son was the next thing that shook her. She knew that her father hated the foreigners, but never imagined that hatred will become a vile thought of killing his own grandson.

'What are you thinking Tami?. Get out of here as soon as possible.’ Farah yelled at her. Without a second thought, Tamina took Arham on her one hand and wrapped her head with the scarf Farah had given. She put on her slippers and tried to stand on her own. A striking pain erupted between her legs and she stumbled backwards but Farah caught her before she landed on the bed.

'You have to bear the pain Tami, for him.’ Farah said nodding her head at Arham. Aisha had collected herself and walked towards the drawers and was desperately searching for something. She came back with a rosary in her hand. Aisha placed it in Tamina's hands and said. ‘ Go, leave here. Go far away as possible. Whatever happens, live and raise him well, as a true human being, As a man who understand the pain and sorrows of a woman. Don’t let him become something like his grandfather or Owais. Don’t let the pain you endured for five hours giving birth to him go in vain.’

Tamina had last seen her mother cry when she lost her son. Aisha was a strong woman. After her son’s death, grief had engulfed her, but her prayers kept her alive all these years. She had shut down herself from the world, spoke less and smiled rarely. She knew that she was about to lose her only daughter and her grandson too. Aisha's voice cracked, tears ran down her cheeks, but not a sound of weeping left her mouth. She was trying hard to keep it all within her.

Sparing a last glance at the two people she loved, Tamina, without any goodbyes, left the house through the back door. She ran bearing the pain on her legs through the familiar unpaved roads of her village. Her path was getting unfamiliar by each passing seconds. Her hands ached carrying Arham, who was fast asleep unaware of everything happening around him. She told herself that the pain was nothing and she needs to live and raise Arham as her mother had asked her to. Her feet followed her decision and she ran aimlessly for hours until everything around her became strange and new to her.

'Oh God! Where am I?’. She asked herself.

Belgarath was the last village in the outskirts of the desert Bukhara. The roads have ended and the ground has started to show cracks.She looked around but not a single soul was seen. Tamina shifted Arham on the other hand and sat down on a nearby boulder. It was noon and the heat was at it’s peak. She properly covered Arham with the bundle of shawl to protect him from the sun and then put the rosery on his head which she had held on her palms untill now. The heat has begin to sweep past her slippers and her whole body ached. Even sitting on the boulder was uncomfortable due to the heat. She knew that Owais will not give up the search for them that easily. So, in order to be safe, she has to cross the desert into the next village far away from him. Without thinking more, she turned to her left, guessing it was the east of Belgarath and started walking hoping and praying for her son’s safety. All she could see from where she was standing was kilometres of sand stretched like an ocean.