Somewhere! (Hunaak!) Read Free Page A

seems like a dream? If this was not a dream, what else can it be? How will I know where I am? And what brought me here?!
    No one had the answers other than her…

 
    (2)
    Somewhere with Malak

 
     
     
     
     
    M y memories are like rain drops echoing in my head, each drop encouraging her other friends to jump after her and quench more of my memory cells.
    I am Husam; Husam Khaled Alshareef, my Father passed away five years ago from pancreatic cancer, may God bless his soul. My Mother is Afaf Alabdaly; I ask God to bless her with a long and healthy life; I live with her and my younger sister Maram. I graduated from King Abdulaziz University (KAU) with a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science. About nineteen months ago, I worked in a trivial job in a construction company. I live a humble life that only allows me to toil and dream without ever seeing any of my dreams come true.
    My Mother had to be both Mother and Father at the same time. In the mornings, she is a teacher and at night she sells beakers. On top of it all, she is raising Maram and me as a full time job. Maram has just finished High School and she dreams of things that overlook her age, gender and circumstances.
    Everything I remember had nothing to do with this time, place nor even the person that I am talking to from within this mind and new body! I could only remember the broad lines of my life, but it was disconnected from where I find myself now. The palaces, gardens, rivers and a beauty queen snagging me on a white horse. Every dream that could ever occur to a human was embodied here.
    Yet, at this moment, I only dream of getting back to my mother & sister and to be me in my own body; the short and chubby, dark-skinned Husam who labors in his humble job to support his mother and sister. Husam who dreams of things that never happen.
    “Humans are truly weird.” — she interrupted my line of thought as she slowed down the mare, as if she was sitting inside my head while I was talking to myself when she completed my thought while ignoring my astonishment.
    “ Nothing is ever enough! Always running after phantom dreams, and when they come true he turns his back on them to run after others!” — she added.
    I was astonished both from her interruption as well as the scenery that I just realized its details when the mare slowed down. We made our way through the city ’s neighborhoods, assorted houses covered in glass and plants. Some of them even had red bricks and wood. While it had a modern design to it, yet it refused to overshadow the amazing nature around it, it did not even seclude itself behind walls.
    The mare was walking with pride in these alleys just as people began greeting us as if we were the King and Queen. Could all of these details truly be just a dream? What I see here is much clearer than my real life! She turned the mare towards the water stream passing through a pathway of trees that were covered with so many flowers that I could barely make out the green on its leaves. The pathway guided us towards the gates of a small floating island where there was a man wearing a dark purple velvet suit and a long brown leather jacket with golden embroidery. I would have been terrified had it not been for his welcoming smile. He held one of the mare’s locks and guided us calmly up five white marble steps to a long aisle where I could hear the slow knocks of the mare’s hooves on its polished floor all the way until we arrived to a huge rackety hall where we climbed down the horse as she stopped at its entrance.
    “ Your table is reserved in Americano Grille”, said the giant as he led us through the hall that I would simply describe as an enormous food court with hundreds of five star or above restaurants surrounding it. She held my arm tightly and pointed at a restaurant with a gigantic burger wearing a cowboy hat sculpture hovering above it.
    “ Husam, That is our restaurant.” — she added.
    At that moment, I remembered our small