Somewhere! (Hunaak!) (3 page)

“
I am all ears!” — I exclaimed.

“
I can only answer you with either a ‘Yes
’
or
a
‘No’. Trust me, I can’t give you any more details unless you agree to one thing.” — She explained.

“
And what would that be?” — I asked.

“
If you decide that you would never go back to your past, I can only then reveal everything to you. Otherwise, I can’t say a thing. All I will try to do is hint to you some of your life’s details so that you can remember and help you know how you got here and how you can get back.” — she added.

“
You are telling me that if you gave me any details whatsoever, I would be permanently stuck here?” — I asked.

“
You would live here with me…” — She replied.

“
Forever?” — I quickly tried to clarify.

“
Forever!” — She exclaimed.

“
No, no, this is impossible! Ok, I will ask you and answer me with a ‘Yes
’
or a ‘No’” — I added.

She gently rested her cheeks on her palms and looked at me with her killer eyes and said in a
Shahrazadian flirty way:

“
At your command Sir”

“
Am I dreaming?” — I asked.

“
I told you… No!” — She said.

She increased her flirty dose this time as she emphasized the word (
Nooh) saying it slowly as she pushed her tongue against the top of her mouth and then releasing it with the slightest hint of an H sound at the end… I ignored the dizzy feeling I got from her flirtation and went on with my questions:

“You mean I am awake?” — I asked.

“
Yes” — She responded.

“Everything here is real and not a figment of my imagination?” — I asked.

“
Yes everything here is real
”
— She responded.

“Are you a Jinni?
”
— I asked.

“
Hahahaha… No, of course not, I am not a Jinni
”
— She responded.

“Am I in a science experiment that through to the future?
”
— I asked.

“
Hahahahah No No… stop it you are killing me!
”
— She responded.

“Am I on another planet?
”
— I asked.

“
No No… you are deeply affected by all those movies you have bored me with!
”
— She responded.

“Am I dead?
”
— I asked.

“
God forbid!
”
— She responded.

“Then where am I? tell me!
”
— I demanded.

“
Should I tell you? Have you decided to live with me forever?
”
— She inquired.

“No, don’t say… I will find out myself!
”
— I jolted.

The glimmer of joy that had glanced off of her face was quickly replaced by stark disappointment
… I only quipped by reflecting how mean I could be sometimes… mean, nasty, despicable and ill mannered! How could I treat this angel with such cruelty? I stood to leave the table, and she asked with worr
y
— “Where are you going?”

I did not answer her, and I walked towards the lead singer
… I came back to her, and stood in a theatrical pose as if Anwar Wagdy had jumped out of one of his Don Juan roles:

“
Would you allow me this dance?”

The band started playing the song that I had
requested. Her eyes widened in surprise and joy and she almost jumped out of her seat to hang on to my arm, we moved towards the stage as the lights gently dimmed and everyone in the restaurant shifted their attention towards us.

“
The words were written by Nizar Qabbani, the music by Ihsan Al-Monther and it was sung by Majida El Roumi, you would listen to it in your car and hide the CD under the seat in fear of getting caught by your father
”
- I told her.

I smiled as I gazed into her eyes, I care not about what she knows about me, I do not want to spoil this moment with anything that would distract me from her eyes, I pillowed the
palm of her hand under mine and my arm wrapped around her waist. Our bodies connected as she surrendered on my chest as I danced with her to the words of Nizar. Despite her tall body and high heels, I was still standing taller even if it was by just a few centimeters. How amazing to have this advantage!”

“
How tall are you?” — I asked her.

“
176 cm, why?!” — She replied quickly.

“
That means I should be around…” — I said out loud only to be interjected by her…

“
189 cm!” — she said it playfully and then started singing along the band in clear delight. —

“
I hear from him as he dances with me, words that are not like words, he takes me from under my arms, he plants me along with one of the tunes.
”

She sung with such an angelic voice that I almost forgot the voices of Majdah and Fayrooz and every feminine voice I had ever heard in my life… I used to feel frustrated every time I heard that song because it is the summary of a moment that one, such as myself, would never live…  One who has no money, power, beauty nor body… I used to listen to this fantasy only to spoil my mood and yet here I was living it to the letter. I was now dancing with a beauty queen as she joyfully sang it to me. We were dancing to this tune and the music seemed to be playing us as much as it played for the sake of the song itself. Her gaze embraced mine, and her breath held onto my breath. Droplets of topaz flooded her wide eyes and held on to her copper red eye lashes for a moment just before they flew off as she spilled between my arms. Shouldn’t those tears affect some of the makeup around her eyes as they do to all girls of the world I came from?

“By the way I have no makeup on!” — she exclaimed.

“
Why not?!” — I asked my idiotic question, and she responded with a begging look in her face:

“
Don’t you like how I look? Would you like me to put on some makeup? What look would please you?” — she asked me.

Does this crazy girl not know that her beauty mocks our Human standards? I tried maneuvering my questio
n
—
“On the contrary, I could still not believe that a creature of your beauty was actually created, let alone that such legendary creature is dancing at this moment between my arms?”

At that moment, I realized that the reddish hue
on her cheeks had nothing to do with makeup, as it ripened right in front of my eyes as she turned shy and escaped to my chest from my gaze;

I asked her
—“you can read my thoughts, true?”

“
No” — She replied.

“
Then how did…” — I began asking.

She removed her head from my chest and interrupted me with her look before her word
s
—“You could say instincts”

“
Instincts? You sound like my Mother” — I told her.

“
Love gets hearts closer, and hearts see before eyes and hear before ears.” — She explained.

Her words froze me, she returned to my chest and closed her eyes until the song was over
… and we stopped… but our heart beats went on the same rhythm. The restaurant stopped its smooth float, she raised her head and said in a sad ton
e
— “We are here…”

I looked out of the balcony and realized that the restaurant was now next to my room
’s balcony where I had woken up. She led me to the restaurant’s balcony where a path was erected from its edge to my room, I got off of that floating island but she did not come with me.

“
You are not coming?” — I asked.

“
I need to go. There are a lot of things that I need to prepare for you.” — She explained.

“
OK… will I see you again?” — I asked gently.

“
If you want me just call for me and I will come to you!” — she said, just as the island started to move away.

She was standing on its edge and the wind was
gently waving her dress and hair, I yelled so that she could hear me:

“
How should I call for you? You did not tell me your name!!”

“
You asked me a thousand questions and never thought of asking me for my name… my name is Malak!”

Her voice began fading just as she moved further away inside that flying thing until it completely disappeared into the horizon
… and with it, she did as well.

(3)

Wake me up!

M
y brain cells had never felt so exhausted as they did today.  They were under a lot of pressure as I squeezed out every memory drop within them… to no avail! I searched in their mazes for a logical explanation for what was happening to me and I failed miserably… my memory was still drawing a blank. Other than the events that I lived here, I could not remember even the smallest details. I believe that memories are clear when they are still fresh but they get foggy and dissipate with time, however, the memories of the events that had taken place in here are different. They were so clear that I could not really consider them memories, it was almost as if Malak was still melting me within her arms and blanketing me with her eyes. Damn! how beautiful she is! I could tell she was trying to refresh my memories indirectly! She reminded me of my favorite clothes, the songs I would listen to and the meals that I adore. That could not be a mere coincidence!

              But why was she avoiding my questions? Why does she claim that she cannot face me with the truth? Was she following someone’s orders? Or those of an organization? Who are you Malak? By God! Who are you??

             
Here I was again in this large empty room… I will try to get used to it… to explore it… I will use my intuition and fingers… I moved with speed to every corner passing my fingers and tapping just as Malak did. All of a sudden, the room changed to a totally different world! Whenever I touched something, doors would open, drawers would appear and lights would shine. In short, the room was equipped with everything you could ever  dream of or imagine!

             
The crystal domes began opening to reveal the sky. The curtains retracted and all the glass doors opened; the balcony became an extension of the room. The dressing room’s gate shifted and revealed next to it what I was ashamed to call a “bathroom”. This was more luxurious than the most luxurious palace I had ever seen. Two round openings appeared in the middle of the room. When the first of them appeared,  it was reminiscent of a white lazy boy seat and to its side, there was a small table. The second opening raised a cylindrical transparent fridge filled with countless rows of my favorite drinks. Bellow them was an assortment of chocolates that I adored. On the other side of it was a machine that I deduced from the aromas escaping it, made coffee, tea and all other drinks that are sure to fix even the worst of moods.

Beneath it was an assortment of sweets and nuts. In short, there was a full Caf
é in my room. I could not resist the temptation, I passed my fingers over the small screen attached to the machine and navigated its graphic user interface with ease. I made myself a Cappuccino topped with a small mountain of whipped cream decorated with diamonds of toffee. I also picked up a picture of a chocolate cake and the moment I touched it, the cake appeared to be bleeding a flood of molten chocolate; a scoop of ice cream landed gently on it and it was topped with a real vanilla flower.

The aromas of coffee, toffee, chocolate and vanilla all danced in my nostrils. I took that carnival of goodness and sat on the chair that bended to the exact curves of my lower back as it sunk into it while a fluffy cushion appeared underneath my feet; it was all designed to make me even more comfortable than I could ever have imagined possible while I set my coffee and cake next to me.

From the floor, four thin columns appeared and surrounded me, and before I even had a chance to think about what they could be, they all fired beams that surrounded me with a glowing cylinder, it was a holographic display. If I was a billionaire in my real life, I would spend my entire fortune to invent something like this.

In front of me appeared some pictures that I understood were choices between movies, music, games or books, they were so real I could almost hold them, I reached out to the cinema roll and my hand just passed through it as it started to move, I pushed my hand in the air and the images reacted to my gestures.

I thought out loud “Internet!
”
I need to get online to figure out what was going on here! I must communicate with someone to ask for help! The screen in front of me changed the moment I said ‘Internet’, and everything changed all around me to look like a web browser!

I thought to myself that I
’d finally be able to solve this mystery! I must remember my email… or my facebook account… or twitter… I must remember my passwords… what I had regained of my memory so far was useless… I opened news sites to find out the date:
Friday 6
th
Jun 2014
… yes I remember… this is today’s date! Thank God at least I am in the right time. I searched for my name: Husam Khaled Alshareef; I finally found me… I found my twitter account… yes there is my picture… I remember that profile picture vividly… I found my last tweet eight hours ago: “Tonight we will either go to the fish market or have a play station challenge; what a tough choice!” How can I access my account? I will just start a new account… I must first create a new email account, I tried to create an account on Google, everything stops when I click SUBMIT! I tried again with hotmail and yahoo and every other free email site I can think of with no success! I think it is encrypted, I will use the internet in a different way then, I will search for methods of wake up from sleep or comas, I spent hours immersed in studying everything related to sleep, dreams, comas and even hypnosis, and more importantly how to awaken from them. The best way to awake from a dream is to sleep while in that dream to then awake in reality!

While in the room, I watched dozens of YouTube videos; they were all in 3D playing around me, my mind was working with such efficiency and concentration that I had never dared to even dream of during my toughest collage exams, I felt as if I had become the world
’s top metaphysics scientist in just a few hours.

But I was shocked! Time had not changed! After all of these hours nothing had changed on any site, my tweet was still eight hours ago! Not a single new video was added to YouTube, no updates, no comments on none of the sites! All sites still said it was
Friday 6
th
Jun at 12:23am as if time had decided to freeze at that specific moment! This Internet seemed to be a fake! It is a database that is not connected to the internet, but includes everything on the internet until this date or in other words until the date I moved to this world!
              It only meant that my joy of being in the same time was false! How did I not realize that it was midday! It’s impossible that the time was still 4am!

I could only guess that the only hope I had left was to sleep and realize that this was all just a dream!

I removed myself from the comfort of the chair to sink into the bed. I then closed my eyes, I began relaxing just as I usually do to let sleep just attack me before I even call out to it… but today I failed for the first time to call upon sleep… more than an hour passed while I was laying there on the bed with my eyes closed. I squeezed them with no result! I got tired of thinking and trying… OK, I guess I had found out enough for one day… since I am stuck here I will enjoy everything around me until I am so exhausted that sleep would be forced to come!

I moved around my wing, I leaned against the balcony
’s transparent edge taking in the city view, it seemed full of life —even more than yesterday—, the clarity of things here was driving me crazy, everything I saw, heard or felt here was confusingly clear, I threw my gaze towards the sand beach, and although it was hundreds of meters away I could still see the people and make out their faces and hear their laughter… can anyone resist this beach?!

I moved towards the dressing room and it had a section for sportswear and equipment. I picked up a short of
the Oakley brand that I used to flirt with and a pair of sunglasses that had the same flare lines that decorated it along with a turquoise polo shirt and a towel that I threw over my shoulder and then went downstairs.

The band of musicians was still playing in the lobby
… but they were playing classical playful tunes that made me feel as if I was in a Miami sixties resort… one of them pinched her friend as she shifted her eyes towards me… their admiration smiles gave them away and they almost stuttered in their symphony when I returned the gesture… their confusion encouraged me to move closer, and their phony indifference collapsed when I stopped directly in front of them and crossed my arms as I watched them in admiration. They were so shy that they stopped playing… I clapped with excitement and admiration of their talent, and of course their beauty, in an effort to ease their emotions. The girl who was sitting in front stepped off of her marble seat in the middle of the fountain, I spread out my arm to help her, and the others followed:

“
I am Layan.” — she said.

I was afraid I would crush their delicate hands as
I shook them.

“
This is my sister Leen… and our youngest Leena” — Layan added.

“
I am honored to meet you… I am Husam Alshereef” — I said.

They exchanged shy surprised laughs as I introduced myself, and
Layan stated:

“
Mr. Husam, everyone here knows you!”

“
Here? Here
…
where?! The disaster is that I do not understand anything that is going on here, what is this place any way?!” — I asked.

“
This is the Guests’ Tower that is connected to the shopping center in H Universe.” — Layan explained.

“
I did not understand a thing you said! H Universe?! You mean that this H logo that I see everywhere symbolizes it?” — I asked.

“
Exactly” — Layan replied.

“
I thought it might be a Hilton from some future era” — I said.

The girls laughed although I was not joking, I went on with my questions:

“So how do I get around here? Do you have Taxis?” — I asked.

“
Everything you imagine is available, would you like me to get you a car? a yacht? a plane?”

She took me by the hand as she was saying that and guided me to a chair in the lobby to sit, she passed her hand over the table in front of us and a 3D image of the H logo appeared:

“I guess if there is a car that would be more convenient so that I can drive it around as I please” — I added.

She gestured with her hands quickly and a huge collection of 3D cars appeared, as if we were in the car selection phase in one of the computer games, she asked:

“Was there a specific car you had in mind?”

I replied with the same reply I always give the car rental representatives:

“Any nice small affordable car.”

Layan
and her sisters could not hold in their laughter, I noticed a luscious car amongst those on display it made me drool, Layan noticed my reaction:

“
Did you like the Ferrari?” — She inquired.

I could hardly hold my drool in place as I slowly shook my head like a shy girl on a first date!

“Would you like to change its color? Or is red fine?” — Layan asked.

My dumb silent head shake continued
… Layan smiled as she said:

“
It will be here in a minute.”

She barely finished that sentence when the car
’s thundering sound hit my ears and saw it stop right in front of the building’s main entrance… I forgot all eloquence behavior as I left Layan and her sisters without even thanking them and stormed towards the Ferrari all barefooted and with my towel almost flying of my shoulder.

I started off by achieving my long life dream of ignoring a convertible
’s doors and jumping directly to it’s seat, and I whispered to myself “Please forgive me dear Camry!” my elbow slammed against the car’s edge but I did not ruin the moment with my elbow’s pain and my arms shock, I only waved to Layan and her sisters who stood there watching me with joy from behind the glass wall. I fixed the mirror in front of me… wait a moment! Where is the steering wheel? There was no steering wheel! Nor pedals! There was only a start button and a glowing red sphere and a holographic screen. What is this?? I want to drive a real car! I got really upset… but I quickly adapted to driving this toy, as that weird ball responds smoothly with my hands’ movements, as I roll it left and right to turn and push it forward to speed up and pull it backwards to go in reverse and press on it to slow down or stop. It felt as if my right foot and left arm were totally useless, I am not used to this much laziness while driving.

I loved the sound of these wheels on the road and the sweet shiver from the square bumps; I did not go as wild as I normally would as I do not know the traffic laws of this place. So, I sufficed with the law that says
“Be well mannered” —until further notice! The rocky road cut through the garden that separated the building from the beach, and it then moves along the coastline and next to a building that looked like a seashell covered in a waxed pearl-like substance. That building was a commercial complex, my car slowed down as I passed next to the window displays, I am not sure if those standing behind them were holographic images or lively sculptures or even real people! My curiosity got me to press on the ball forcing the Ferrari to stop in front of the building’s entrance allowing the handsome deprived barefooted to charge into the place! My emotions now are similar to those I felt in the only time I visited Dubai when I saved the first two salaries I had ever collected in my life to travel with my mother and Maram. The gasp that I had that day when I entered the Dubai Mall for the first time was almost one thousandth that of the gasp I had today!! I lingered into this mall for a few hours, mall? No
…
no I insult it by calling it that, this must be something else! A paradise of shopping and entertainment! And to top this heavenly luxury no one asked me for any money! No money, no credit cards and no ATMs! I forgot that pesky heart-aching colon-swelling word:
Budget.