Fatiha

I will share with you a short story that I wrote. Here is Part 1

She is six years old and loves to listen to stories on the moonlight. Pure and innocent daughter of the Sahel, she loves to play with her friends on evenings and help milk the cows in the morning. Knee-high, the only type of life she knows is happy-go-lucky. Fatiha was her given name in remembrance of Arabs who came to visit her land years ago and with whom her dad has kept a friendly and strong bond. Her skin, shiny and light was common to the Tuareg girls and some say explains the beauty and delicacy of her features.

Very traditional, the Tuaregs are fond of milk and dry meat. Nomad by nature, they move where the water is very mild to their herd. This is how, at the age of six, Fatiha had alredy lived in different places. In those areas, the landscape was always the same, only the people were different. The landscape was always similar, every part of it reminding the visitor of the one he just left. On that land, bonds and relationships never lasted. Sometimes right after meeting somebody, you realize that they have to go on their separate ways. People are leaving on a daily basis and wishing each other good luck and saying to each other: 'May Allah guide you'. Most times, they hope that destiny would reunite them somehow, somewhere, some day in a similar place, in an identical scenery.

It was during one of the numerous trips that Fatiha met Munir. Munir was eight years old but he was already thinking of himself as the head of his family. Because he was the eldest of his siblings and the only boy, he held a lot of responsibilities. Every morning, he milked the cows and one morning he was walking his flock near Fatiha's. Very quickly, they became inseparable. A strong bond grew between them and they made promises to each other while their only witnesses were cows whose only worry was where to find a greener grass. Despite their youth the two of them thought they knew everything they needed to know about love and swore faithfulness to each other. They exchanged rings, made by themselves and were secretly engaged. They kept their secret from everybody, not wanting to share those stolen moments of happiness.

As inevitable as it was, three months later, Munir's parents thought that the grass was greener in the East and decided to migrate East while Fatiha's parents decided to go west. Fatiha and Munir had to go their separate ways. Fatiha watched as Munir and his parents went East. Just the day before, they swore their love to each other and promised that they will reunite one day when they were older. They planned to then get married and have lots of children, hundreds of children...

( To Be Continued)