Juan Ramon Sereno: The Wise Slave

Chapter 23: The Uninvited Guests

The whole place was filled with darkness. I couldn't see a thing, except for two large, red eyes staring at me from afar. I wasn't sure if I was standing or lying down; it's as if I'm floating in space. Moments later, the red eyes suddenly rushed to me and I heard a rough voice that said...

"You're mine!"

I threw myself up from my lying position because of that nightmare. It has escaped my mind that someone else was sleeping beside me. I immediately apologized, but I saw that there's no one there.

"Alana?" I called her.

Alana came out from our bathroom as I called her. It looked like she spent a great deal of time inside because she was sweating like mad.

"John, is there a problem?" Alana inquired.

"Oh, nothing... uh, I woke up to see that you weren't here and... um..." I stammered. I then yawned for a long time before speaking again. "Wait, it looked like you spent a long time in there."

"Not really," she answered slowly while sitting back on our bed. "Something I ate last night must have disagreed with me. I dunno, I just felt really dizzy when I woke u because of that."

I faced Alana and said, "Alana, you know I get worried sick when that happens to you. I don't want you to get sick because of what you eat."

I would have continued what I was saying but I decided against it. Of all the things you could tell a woman, never tell her that she's getting fat, even if this is a joke. But I can't deny that her waistline is getting wider because of this.

"You shouldn't worry, John," she said, caressing my cheek. "This isn't that serious. Anyway, I heard you scream before you called me. What happened?"

I would have wanted to continue our conversation regarding her health, but I just answered her question because I also think she might be right. "I must have dreamed about something. Uh..."

But I couldn't remember anything regarding my dream. I couldn't even remember why I woke with a start.

"I think it's because of work stress," Alana told me. "You should take it easy sometimes. You remember what happened to Father the other day? That's the exact reason why all of us will go out today. You should grab the opportunity to rest from all your responsibilities."

I could vividly remember what happened a couple of days ago. Alana and I visited Potiphera (who, if I haven't mentioned it yet, has been my father-in-law for five years already) the other day. We arrived at his place with him looking depressed; it appeared that he was in very deep thought.

We just found a bit later that he came to visit a childhood friend to catch up a bit. His friend's relatives told him that his friend has already passed away because of old age two years ago. Potiphera told us that he's worried for himself because it might happen to him any day now.

In my case, I can really say that I got very busy with my responsibilities, but this hasn't really affected me in a negative way, I think. But Alana has a point in what she mentioned earlier.

"You're right," I said after pondering for a while. "Nothing will really happen if you just sulk in a corner. It's better if we have some fun sometimes, right?"

As soon as the drought started, Joseph's and my labors tripled because we were in charge of rationing grain among the citizens of Egypt. Foreigners should also go through us before they can buy some of our grain.

And because many foreigners have been going here from faraway countries, I also took advantage of this. I rallied some citizens of Egypt with skills in creating handicrafts out of wood, clay, or other materials to sell some of their products. I know for a fact that many of the people in Egypt are just poor people that might not be able to afford buying grain from us. But because of my idea, even more people come to Egypt in order to buy handicrafts. Because of this, almost none of our citizens stayed in poverty, and I was even able to give them work. This goes without saying that I took the responsibility of governing trading here. It's really exhausting to sum it up.