Free Desert Stars by Joe Vasicek

shoulders, unencumbered by any
headscarf.
    “ Jalil Ibn Sathi? Mira
Bint Shira ?” the woman
asked.
    “ That’s us,” said
Jalil.
    “ Habibi!”
    The woman threw her arms around him
and kissed him several times on each cheek. Jalil tensed a little
at first, but soon returned the greeting.
    “ Welcome, welcome! I’m
your cousin, Sarah. We spoke this morning over the shortwave—and
you must be Mira.”
    “ Yes,” said Mira, smiling
as she rose to embrace her distant cousin. After passing through so
many crowds of strangers, the presence of family felt wonderfully
reassuring, even if this was their first time meeting in
person.
    “ What a beautiful young
woman you are! Your parents must have gotten it from my side of the
family. But come, what are we waiting for? Follow me.”
    With that, Sarah grabbed one of the
bags and started off into the crowd. Before Mira knew what was
happening, she was holding Jalil’s hand again, struggling to keep
up as they followed her old cousin away from the marketplace, into
the narrow, winding streets of New Amman.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Jalil leaned back in his chair and
gazed out at the valley from where he sat on the roof of Sarah’s
white stone house. The last rays of the sun had already faded
behind them, and the beautifully clear twilight sky was fast
changing from yellow to orange to purple. The house was perched on
the edge of a cliff, giving them a magnificent view of the glass
mountain, only a few miles away. A stiff, cool breeze blew up
across the ridge, while behind them, the call to prayer sounded
from half a dozen worship halls, carried on the wind.
    It was glorious—but still, it wasn’t
home.
    “ I’m happy to hear that
old Sathi is doing so well,” said Sarah, taking her seat after
pouring Mira some tea. “I haven’t seen him for so long; it almost
feels like half a lifetime.”
    “ Do you miss him?” Mira
asked.
    “ Occasionally,” Sarah
admitted. “But I hear about him often enough, as well as the rest
of the family. It isn’t easy being a widow in this town, but Allah
has been good to me.”
    Jalil nodded. Off to his right,
fireworks exploded over the white stone buildings, while the beat
of music carried softly on the wind.
    “ Is there a wedding?” he
asked.
    Sarah chuckled. “More than one; this
is the season for them, after all.”
    Mira glanced from Sarah to Jalil and
blushed. He didn’t think much of it—she was that kind of girl,
after all.
    “ Is every night like
this?”
    “ But of course,” said
Sarah. She glanced down at his cup. “I’m sorry; can I get you some
more tea?”
    “ Yes, thank you,” said
Jalil. He held out his cup as she filled it from her ornately
carved plasteel thermos; steam wafted up before dissipating in the
cool evening breeze.
    “ Thank you so much for
letting us stay with you,” said Jalil. “We greatly appreciate your
hospitality.”
    “ Certainly, certainly,”
said Sarah, nodding to them both. “It’s always good to hear from my
old cousins—and such a pleasure to meet their children! I’d heard
many things about you, Jalil, but I didn’t realize your hair was so
blond. Wherever did you come from?”
    I don’t know, Jalil thought to himself, resisting the urge to
finger his birth mother’s pendant. That’s
what I want to find out.
    “ From the stars,” he
offered instead. “My parents’ ship—my real parents’ ship—crashed in
the desert when I was just a boy. If it wasn’t for
Sathi—”
    “ Yes, yes,” said Sarah in
her chatty voice. “I’m sure Zayne was overjoyed to have a son to
replace her Asi. Not to mention the old man’s happiness at having
an heir again. Can you believe it? Two wives and eight daughters?
Aie! What a blessed dilemma.”
    The conversation soon turned to
lighter subjects, such as Lena’s recent marriage and other matters
of immediate interest to the Najmi family. The camp was doing very
well: several new merchants had negotiated routes through Najmi
lands,