(NO) Mid-morning… the three of them are leaning on the peeling wall… – Why do we bury ourselves in this dusty forgotten village? – How about we travel? – To where? – The world is wide… there are always horizons to reach. – Aren’t we going to be consumed by nostalgia? – Nostalgia to this wasteland?! To the sandstorms?! To a country its people are always in a hurry but do nothing?! (ST) The taxi station… each one of them rides a car… each one of them sits in the backseat… each one of them blows vapour and wipes the […]
Aqila
Ahmed Yousef Aqila: Whisper (Short Story)
By: Ahmed Yousef Aqila 1 In the classroom, he glances the teacher and his stick. He whispers without looking at me “give me a ruler, my ruler is broken” 2 In the army, he glances the officer that is parading us in the courtyard. He whispers without looking at me “my shoes are not shiny as they ought to be. Will he notice that?” 3 Before reaching the revolutionaries’ checkpoint, he whispers in my ear “will the new revolutionaries stay for forty years under the pretext of revolutionary legitimacy like the General did? Or will the Islamists grab power under the […]
Ahmed Yousef Aqila: Our Old Radio (Short Story)
By: Ahmed Yousef Aqila 1 When I was a child I listened to the radio announcer saying before the Sultan’s speech “whenever the Sultan speaks, water springs gush, the land becomes green, and palm trees yield dates”, so I prayed longevity for the Sultan. 2 When the Sultan began his speech through our old radio, I climbed over the roof and gazed into the field, and palm trees, while my mother carried her bucket searching for the water spring. 3 The Sultan finished his long speech, though the fields remained barren, roamed by sand storms, and my mother’s bucket returned empty, […]
Ahmed Yousef Aqila: Just a Matter of Time (Short Story)
By: Ahmed Yousef Aqila (1) They Fled to the mountains, and chose a deep endless cave to hide. They walked inside a long tunnel for many days… I meant nights, or more accurately a long dark period of time, while touching the walls. They were seven men and the eighth was their dog and the ninth a mobile phone and the tenth a laptop computer. A beam of sun has emerged somwhere from the roof of the cave at the end of the tunnel. (2) His Majesty the King wore a general’s suit; even his subjects were confused what to […]
Ahmed Yousef Aqila: The seventh soul (Short Story)
By: Ahmed Yousef Aqila (1) His eyes were shining in the dark, glowing like embers on the tree top, inspecting lustfully the distracted female cat. When he felt that the moment was suitable, He jumped in the dark void. He grabbed her neck with his teeth. She sent a sharp shriek trying to escape, while his fire was raging. (2) The scream burst into all the houses. Exposing that frantic moment. The woman laying beside her husband raised her head. She felt a delicious shiver while she was listening to the screaming female. She looked to her husband who gave […]
Ahmed Yousef Aqila: The Clock (Short Story)
By: Ahmed Yousef Aqila (1) We were waiting for the time to reach five o’clock. Actually we were waiting for the General. We Came and went, checking the stag and decorations, It’s true that the stage is slightly humble, and will nearly fit the General and his companions, but what can we do more than this, here in our village we don’t have any experience in preparing celebrations, and despite this, the organizers notified each other to any mistake, what ever small, and to tell the truth, the General is meticulous in these things, notices anything, doesn’t allow any […]