Once In a Lifetime Chance

Descriptive essay I had to write for school.

The sun beamed despondently down upon my face, as the sweat had almost evaporated as it left my pores. Wind swept dunes as far as the eyes could see surrounded the area. “An ocean of sand, a vast void of nothingness like the ocean I suppose. Too bad I cannot smell that ocean salt rolling through the air on a breeze to shore. Only this damned sand, this sand that kisses my lips roughly, unlike a lover. I have been here for five minutes and I already feel this was a bad decision.” I thought to myself abruptly as I walked down the tarmac. Mirages came then left on the horizon, the sun played tricks with our heads. My nostrils began to burn as the smell of oil invaded my senses. The taste of tar jolted onto my tongue as I began to wonder if it was all worth it. “Of course it is!” I shouted out.

A feeling of solemnity fell over me as I smelt the freshly roasted lamb floating through the air. “I hadn’t eaten in hours”, I thought to myself. I ran over to the merchant like a bird to its nest. The juices on the meat poured out as he made his cuts, a dammed river of nectar. My mouth watered unnervingly at the sight of this lamb leg. My stomach rumbled as the smell burrowed deeper into my senses. “Come on!” I heard a shout from behind me. “We will miss the van if you don’t hurry up!” This was my first trip to a country outside of North America, so of course I took in the sights and smells, especially the smell of that lamb leg. I threw my money at the vender and screamed “KEEP THE CHANGE!” My colleagues bellowed out in laughter as I ran towards them, lamb leg firmly in hand. “Better keep up next time, don’t want to lose you in a crowd around here. Just remember, this is Iraq, we need to stick together”, said Geoffrey with a snicker. He was that excavation team’s leader, and had done these things many times before. He was a tall skinny man that had a powerful voice. A great leader of sorts some would have said. Always on the forefront of a new discovery and I wanted to be there with him on that.

            The roads were rough. Every bump was pain felt in my back that was different from the previous. “THUD!” The entire van went airborne, as we all held on for dear life, after we hit a hole in the road the size of Texas. I didn’t know what was worse, nails driven in-between the bones in my back that I was feeling from the potholes or the unbearable heat that was being shone down upon us in that god forsaken van. There was no escaping the sand either. With every new bump more sand flowed into the van like a river to the sea. “It is all worth it.” I thought to myself as the others looked over the map. “A chance to dig where the once great Babylon stood, a gateway to another world that existed on a plane of history we still are trying to piece together. Yes. Through hell and high water, well sand, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.” We started to get further and further from Bagdad and away from that tar smell that had overwhelmed my nose. It had turned into a long day already and it was not even 3 pm yet.

            When we finally arrived at the site outside the ruins of the once ancient city we all let out a sigh of relief, for we had all made it there safely. The smell of fresh air coursed through my lungs as I took a deep breath and stepped out of the vehicle. Riding three hours with a group of people with no air conditioner in a van and heat that seared did not make for a great smell. As I looked around it seemed that everyone else was just as happy as I to be out of that locker room of a van. The landscape was much different in the area where Saddam once called his “Summer Palace”. There were sparsely populated lush green trees that dotted the pale sand swept grounds. An oasis of sorts stood out in the middle of the grounds between the building and our dig site. A well of fresh water in this paradise was the central feature and a welcomed comfort in case the bottled water ran out. I splashed my face with cold water to wash away the grit and sweat from my pours. The aroma of the water, which was lingering in the area, comforted me in that barren place. As I dipped my rag in the water I pondered, “What new objects are yearning to be found?”

            Dirt began to build up underneath my fingernails as we started to excavate a site near a mound. Section by section we took out more dirt and sand. Slowly but surely we had a mini Pyramid of Giza next to our dig site from all the material we unearthed. The smell of that dirt was nothing I had ever smelt. Pollution free I had assumed, because at that moment I felt more at earth and in connection with it than I ever had. Sweat continued to drip down my face as the sun finally had hit the horizon line. At that moment a howling voice in the distance was heard. “COME QUICK!” As I climbed out of my pit, it felt seemingly bottomless, the rush of excitement soared through my body. “What could of it been for them to yell that loudly, that ear wretchedly loud. One of Hammurabi’s glistening chalices of gold perhaps, or maybe a Bagdad battery that powered an ancient machine? A giant monolith of old cranks and a skewed pulleys that went down to a secret chamber of lost treasures?”

            I turned the corner of the mound and saw a friend crying hysterically and other gathered around in a circle. Tears streamed down her soft sunburnt face. My walk turned into a jog, and the blood began to rush through my veins. A jog turned into a run. A run to a sprint, until every muscle in my body ached for oxygen.  Geoffrey was standing still with everyone around him silent. “What is wrong? I thought someone had gotten hurt, why is she crying?” I yelled out in anger. Everyone looked down and pointed to the jagged sandy ground. A plate could be seen with crude wires running under the sand going to nowhere, or everywhere. The sense of fear in the eyes of Geoffrey was palpable. I knew exactly what this rudimentary old world plate was, an explosive device. A device left in the ruins of a former tyrannical dictator, whose only mission in life was to hurt. Now he had hurt us, even after his death Saddam had still struck. Panic took over as everyone suggested ways of dealing with the situation. “We should just call the military, or police.” Spoke one person. “That would take hours and in this heat even at night I don’t think he will make it standing still for that long.” Another added. “Just cut the wires.” Someone joked. It had been said as a joke, but we took it to heart and started to think of ways to perhaps cut the wires.

            “Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock” is the only noise I heard in my head as everyone yelled at each other. “Who is going to do it?!” proclaimed Geoffrey. “You” He said as he pointed to me. “You have the steadiest hands.” Anxiety and fear coursed through my body like a disease. I began to shake and my hands became like stones. “I don’t think I can… I can’t what if I cut the wrong one?” I spoke with a quiver in my voice, as tears began to curl into my lids. Rolling down my face a single tear dripped like a wild horse escaping from a pin. “Give me the cutters.” The smell of fear was indubitably strong as I bent down to make the decision of my life, of our lives. My hands shook as I brought the clippers close to the wires. “Blue or green? Blue or green?” That was all that I heard in my brain as the weight of the world fell down to my head. I closed my eyes and took that leap of faith. The air smelt extra crisp and clean as my hand moved even closer. The world seemed to have stopped spinning and all voices slowly disappeared. After this I would have been the phoenix that arose from the ashes that was this dirty, sandy, gritty land. The shears touched the wire and I took a deep breath as I thought, “This could be it.”

I closed the shears, cut the wire and floated away on my cloud of fear.

Author's Note

Let me know what you think.

Reviews

[T. Sorrell]

You have a natural ability, but you try too hard to write well sometimes and I get bogged down in description that doesn't go anywhere. That said, keep writing. It'd be a shame if you didn't.