The Sand Fish Read Free Page A

They flapped against her waist as she led the way up the gentle slope of their mountain. All the while, she tried to spot the sand fish.
    “How do you think it got here?” she asked once they’d reached the broad, flat plain at the top.
    “I don’t know,” Sager said, remaining a few steps behind her.
    She stopped and turned to face him. “I mean, the desert is so far from here.”
    “It’s not important,” he said, his face as rigid as stone—a young face trying so hard to look old. “And who cares anyway.”
    He did care though. She had seen the anguish on his face as he’d tried to save that wretched creature. His features hadcrumpled as if he had squeezed the juice of a bitter lime into his mouth. But now he was putting on another face, one that could hide his emotions, one that would prove him a man.
    Noora watched the loose stones tumble under his feet as he stomped past her. That march, so determined, was telling her he was leaving his boyhood frivolity behind.
    He’s so serious with me nowadays , thought Noora, as she followed him. She understood that Sager worried about their family, his sense of duty, now that their father was slipping into another world. But why he was pushing her away, she could not understand.
    “We are so alone, so isolated,” she muttered to herself. “That should be enough to keep us always close.”
    “What?” he said, throwing a cool glance at her over his shoulder.
    “Nothing.”
    They stopped at a sharp decline, which overlooked a cluster of desert acacias. There, behind the trees, was their hidden water source: an ancient cistern hollowed out of the rock.
    Sager pulled his dishdasha just over his knees and knotted it at the waist before zigzagging his way down. Then Noora did the same with her dress and prepared to descend sideways. It was the safest way.
    As she stretched her leg down, her serwal ripped, exposing her knee and shin. She twitched her brows into a scowl, as if her tightened face might somehow pull together the gash, make whole the little, pink flowers that sat on the washed-out blue fabric. It was then that she spotted Sager’s disapproving look.
    “Hide your legs,” he ordered.
    “It’s a rip,” she cried. “I’ll fix it when I get back, but I’m not pulling my dress down. It might get stuck under my feet. ThenI’ll trip and fall.” She started to mimic the irritation in his voice. “And anyway, why are you looking at my legs, being disrespectful like that? Just turn away. Don’t look.” She caught the rush of blood to his cheeks before he dropped his eyes to the ground—and Noora snorted her joy at having ended his bullying. Sager turned to the trees, but she hadn’t finished yet. She slid down the crumbly bits of gravel at the end of the descent and slammed into her brother’s back.
    Sager stumbled and fell, his head just missing the thorny limbs of the acacias. Noora gasped and slapped her mouth. She hadn’t intended that. It was meant to be a playful shove. When she bent over to help him up, he elbowed her away.
    “The problem is you don’t know when to joke and when not to, what you should take seriously and what you shouldn’t,” Sager said, as he got up.
    “I didn’t mean to push you like that.”
    “It doesn’t’ matter. This…this…the way you are, it just won’t do.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Look at you…,” he began, waving all five fingers at her. Then he paused and the pout of his mouth was filled with mortification, a shamed aversion to what he was about to say. “You’ve got curves,” he blurted. “Everywhere!” He swung his arms in the air. “You’re not a girl anymore; you’re a woman. Those curves are there to remind you to stop running and jumping, for you to slow down and turn domestic. So start acting like a woman.”
    Noora gaped at him. “And if I am a woman, what does that mean? What happens now?” She pulled her shayla over her face and let it drop to reveal only her eyes. She knew