Tarik's Home

Tarik leads Shade to his home where he meets Tarik's family. Shade tells Tarik what had happened to him in the desert and Tarik reveals that all of Egypt may be at stake.

Chapter 6 tarik's home

 

Tarik opened up the rotted wooden door that led into his house. Shade followed him inside. The house consisted of two rooms separated by a thick curtain. There was a master bedroom and a common area that was combined with a small dining space. There was a dusty brown rug on the floor with the shadow of a flower pot that stood in the opening of the frame that leads outside. There were three cots set up in the corner of the common area. Three large glowing candles burned above the small dining table lighting up the entire room. Around them was Tarik’s family, sitting down, eating dinner.   

“It’s not much, but we’re better off than a lot of other people,” Tarik confessed.

“No it’s great, it looks good.” Shade gestured not trying to be rude.  He closed the door behind him and moved closer towards Tarik feeling uncomfortable.

“Tarik, who have you brought home with you,” Tarik’s mother asked.

“He’s a friend, a northerner…I think.”

Shade stood paralyzed for a second, then spoke, “I'm Shade, nice to meet you all.”

They stared at him for a few seconds, while he stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. A silence that seemed to last forever was finally broken by Tarik’s feeling of Shade’s discomfort. “He was about to go through Jabari’s gate when I caught him. He’s not from around here and it looked like he needed a place to stay.”

Tarik’s mother smiled “Hi Shade, I’m Emuishere. That’s my husband Heru, and our youngest son Najja.” They waved a hand to him but said nothing. Emuishere continued, “Welcome to our home, would you like some duck?”

“Heru stood up and shook his head, “Not gunna happen, we don’t have enough food to support this foreigner.”

Emuishere waved her hand, “Nonsense, a friend of my son’s is a friend of mine. We have enough food don’t you worry. Come, sit at the table.”

Shade moved forward, but Heru blocked his way, “I don’t think so, I don’t mind you staying here, but no freeloading. What do you have to offer?”

Tarik waved angrily, “Are you serious? He’s our guest!”

“Not if he doesn’t pay, we can’t support him, we can barely even support ourselves.” Heru grumbled.

Tarik shifted, “Shade can help out in the field with me tomorrow, won’t you Shade?”

Shade nodded, “Yeah of course, it’s the least I can do.”

Heru argued, “The least you can do is right, I really don’t want you staying here.” Heru motioned to the door.

“Please sir I got nowhere else to go.” Shade uttered.

“Of course you don’t, look at you. A shirtless beggar tricked my son into feeding you and letting you stay in his own home.”

“That’s enough!” Emuishere cried. She stepped in front of Heru, “I sorry for my husband’s rudeness, please feel free to stay as long as you want.” She turned towards her husbanded and whispered something in his ear.

“Ah… Whatever,” Heru retreated to the table and continued his meal.   

“Don’t mind him Shade. He’s just been in a bad mood since our daughter moved in with a Jewish man. But anyways…Oh honey did you get sunburn?”

Shade shrugged, “Yes ma’am, but it’s really no big deal. I’ll be fine.”

“Najja, would you go get the burn oils.”

The young boy at the table groaned, “Yeah, but after I’m finished.”

Emuishere nodded, “Shade please, sit down and have some dinner.” She motioned him to take a seat. “Tarik you too, you haven’t eaten all day.”

            They both took a seat at the table. Emuishere placed a duck leg on Shade’s plate and a duck thigh on Tarik’s.

            “Thank you, Mrs. Emuishere.” Shade said uncertain.

          Heru laughed, “Get a load of this, he just called you Mrs. Emuishere.”

            Emuishere giggled, “Emuishere is fine, a northern tradition I assume?” 

          “Yeah a northern tradition, it’s a uh, polite way of addressing others.” Shade stumbled.
            “Well, thank you. Mrs. Shade.”

            “Uh… mister.” Shade explained.

            “Oh,” she giggled some more, “I’m just gunna call you Shade if that’s all right.”

            Shade smiled and laughed along, “Yeah, that’ll be good.”

            Emuishere took a sip of dirty water. She smiled at Tarik for a split second and looked at Shade, “So what brings you to Egypt, Shade.”

            Shade looked up from his plate, “I'm just traveling, lost all my supplies and my friends in a freak incident. I’ve been on my own for a while now.”

            Emuishere frowned, “That’s terrible. Did those nasty desert tribes get to you?” 

            Shade hesitated, “Yeah you could say that, they took away pretty much everything I had, I was lucky enough to see those great structures in the distance.”

            Najja rolled his neck and then spoke up, “Yeah the pyramids, they are building them for our pharaoh, Khafre. They’re gunna be the greatest structures in the world.”

            Shade nodded, “No doubt about that, How many slaves are they using to build them?” The table then got quite. They all looked at him confused.

            “Slaves?” questioned Emuishere. “Who told you they were using slaves to build the pyramids?”

            “Oh, I was always taught that Egypt used slaves to hull the blocks up the sides of the pyramids.” Shade pointed out.

            Tarik laughed, “Well, who ever told you that is wrong. My dad has a few friends who are working on the pyramids, they receive a pretty good pay too. In fact, if I can’t become a guard for pharaoh, that’s what I plan on doing.”

            Heru shook his head, “Tarik, you don’t wanna do that. They work long tiring hours, the pay is good, but the strain on your body isn’t worth it. You’re better off staying here working in the fields.”

            Tarik lowered his head, frustrated. Tarik remained silent for the rest of the meal. After they had finished eating, Emuishere cleaned the table and applied the burn oils to Shade’s burns. She told Shade that he could use their daughter’s old bed as a place to sleep while he stayed there. Shade was given a thin blanket and a bag full of feathers to rest his head on.

             After Emuishere and Heru had gone to bed, Shade and Tarik talked quietly before they went to sleep, While Najja laid in bed next to them.

            “So you’re willing to stay?” asked Tarik.

            “Yeah, but I got to do something important, really important.” Shade answered. “It’s why I need to get into the city so badly.”

            “Why what happened?” asked Najja.

            “Quiet Najja, this doesn’t concern you.” Tarik hissed, “But yeah Shade, what happened?”

            “When I was traveling towards Egypt, I stumbled upon hundreds of holes all just a few miles away from the city.”

            Tarik nodded, “Yeah the excavation holes, they were looking for an ancient sword, which was lost in a severe sand storm. They call it the Blue Moon Sword, legendary and used by the gods.”

           “Well that’s the thing… I fell into one of those holes and was trapped, I tried climbing out but the hole was too deep, so I tried digging my way out. But while I was digging I found something in the sand…”

            “No, you can’t possibly mean.” Whispered Tarik.

            “I found the Blue Moon Sword in the sand. I didn’t even know what it was at first. Some guy found me in the hole and offered to help me out if I handed him the sword first. He took the sword and left me in the hole, he said he was going to kill your pharaoh.”    

            Najja clenched his fist, “It’s not funny to joke around with something like that. You may not be from around here, but the Pharaoh is our king, and we don’t care for people joking around about killing him.”

            Shade frowned, “It’s the truth, that’s why I arrived at the gate so late, because I spent practically the entire day digging myself out of that stupid hole.”

            “Dad was right, you shouldn’t be here.” Najja jeered. “Why’d you bring this lying sack of crap home Tarik?”

            Tarik remained silent for a second, “Did you catch the name of the man who took the sword from you.”

            “Oh you can’t be serious,” snarled Najja.

            Tarik waved a hand for his younger brother to be quite, “Shade, what was his name? Who was he?”

Shade nodded, “It was like, Nour Fenyang or something. He was a really crazy guy, ranting on to me about him killing your pharaoh and something about a black sun.”

“Shade…you should have never come to Egypt.” Tarik said in a grave tone.

Shade panicked, “But I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying.”

Tarik nodded and hesitated, “I believe you, but Nour Fenyang is head of the royal guard and a personal body guard to Khafre. If what you’re telling me is true,  well King Khafre may no longer be our king if we don't do something quick.”    

Author's Note

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