Deep Sleeper

Chapter 2: I want lunch!

On any normal day, Arish would never wander far from his tiny farmhouse alone, but today would be anything but normal.

He was moving along the dirt road with a combination of frustration, anger, and weakness. Littered with holes and the occasional stone, Arish managed to navigate the road while kicking some of the stones aside as he passed. Finally, one of the stones refused to move, and his kick opened a small cut on his foot. "Aiiiieeee!" Arish yelped as he hopped about in a circle on one foot.

"Nikomak...Nikomak..." he grumbled the harsh Arabic profanity usually directed at the mother of your worst enemy. The pain shot up through his foot, making him fall onto the dirt road. He pulled his well-worn but calloused foot toward his face so he could examine the damage.

"Mannagge!" he bellowed in a perfect Neapolitan dialect. He put a finger in his mouth and then wiped the spot of the offending wound with his hand and some spit. He hopped back to his feet, swiveled his head back and forth between the farm and the town, and thought, "Was this a mistake"? Was he thinking straight and making a sound decision?

It had been so long since he last ate that his hunger had morphed into weakness. His tiny body craved nutrients and the electrolytes necessary to survive the heat and exhaustion. But he was committed, and there was no way he could give up now. Arish was already hot and tired from the morning work in the sun, and his body was simply not prepared. He tried valiantly to summon up images of his beloved and tireless father to help him gather strength.

His work on the farm always gave him a strong sense of satisfaction because it brought back bittersweet memories of working alongside his father. He held those memories close, vowing at his father's funeral never to let go. He even had a cherished daily ritual of looking longingly skyward, closing his eyes, and asking his father ever so formally if his day's work had pleased him. For the rest of his life, and in everything he did, Arish would always and forever seek his father's approval.

Life's simple pleasures would be more than enough to fulfill Arish as long as he knew his father's approval would smile on him. However, the challenge at hand remained. Would the adrenalin summoned by his father's memory be enough to carry him through the day?

With the extreme physical fatigue and more road in front of him, the mystery of his missing family added a new and unfamiliar burden. He was confused and unsure of how he should feel about being abandoned by his mother and sister. It was these unsettling feelings that irritated him the most. Like a mother waiting frantically for her overdue child to return home, he was caught between a fit of brewing anger at having been denied breakfast and some quality time with his mother. A real sense of fear that something terrible had happened to her lay close to the surface. This tension was in stark contention with an image of his mother and Jasmine on a wonderful adventure.

Forging ahead with the day, he had struggled hard to concentrate on his work as he milked the cows and weeded vegetables in the hot sun. In an absolute sense, Arish was a very good boy – the hardworking and reliable man of the house. For life to test him this way seemed so very unfair.

Pushing his feelings aside again, he looked back at the dusty road winding toward their farm. He took another glance toward the sun, and the giant yellow ball was touching the top of a tree that marked the corner of their vegetable field. As sweat beaded on Arish's forehead, he tried to gulp whatever little saliva he had. He had never seen the sun aligned in this exact position before, and he examined the flickering yellow rays as they wrapped around the treetop.

Still fighting the weakness in his knees, he dipped and weaved his head around as the sun peaked through the leaves, creating a brilliant light show. The glare created a surreal haze that hypnotized him a bit, and he soon felt a general uneasiness. A queasiness in his stomach rose as he realized the sun was suddenly shaded by the tree. The lateness of the day was never so salient. Where was everyone!?