Short story: The End of the Waiting

Written by: Asghar Malang

Translated by: Uzair Mehr

He and his associates were fatigued. They wanted to repose under a cool shade but they couldn’t see such a shade in that broad plain except a half-green tree which was confabulating with air afar.

Moving a few steps ahead, all of a sudden they saw a dome. They approached to it and saw a water skin dangling under the dome. There was a drinking-cup on the water skin and a lantern was located under the left side pillar.

There was nothing around besides the internal gleam of the lantern glass and the very half-green tree which was timidly communing in reticence with the far away air. Every one of his fellow was trying to relax, saying:

“Let’s rest here for a little while and then start heading toward our abodes because we cannot stay in this desolate place in hope of a water skin.”

He poured a cupful water from the water skin and drank it and went to sit behind the dome’s shade. Gloomy weather, abandoned fields and his solitude reminded him of Mahkaan’s memory. He was dozing off in the paradise of his thoughts when suddenly a dusty wind woke him up. He walked around the dome In search of his companions.

He realized that his fellows deceived him. Now neither a water-skin with drinking-cup nor a radiant lantern remained except the half-green tree which was communing with air far away. Once again, he yielded to his feet.

“Now I don’t know when I will reach my destination and encounter Mahkan.”

He consoled himself, standing there before moving through the wide field. Nothing could be seen for miles. Melancholy was his only companion. How would a lonely journey pass without rumination? He therefore recollected Mahkan and the words of her father:

“If you don’t marry Mahkan within 3 days, you will not be my son-in-law and she will not be your fiancée.”

These binding obsessions tremendously inflicted his soul. The lost way, solitary journey, and his pensiveness about Mahkan thrust him into a place where nothing existed except haze and dust.

Similarly, It was an abandoned place where a green tree appeared far way. However, the tree was doleful and noiseless here. As noiseless as if a tree leaf fell, making a strident noise of a sword on ground.

He didn’t complete his journey until night befell him. A flickering fire appeared to him in a corner far away. He was too exhausted to move ahead. Therefore, he passed a sleepless night there. He woke up with the first ray of the sun and inhaled the morning breeze. Meanwhile, he thought that he saw a fire here last night.

He thought “I wonder whether the person who made the fire is a lost traveler like me, or a person who lives in this area”.

He took the shoes from under his head, stood up and looked around. But he couldn’t see anything except a half-green tree which was breathing in the morning breeze from afar.

But then he noticed a girl sitting under the very half-green tree of that area. Nothing appeared around her.

He had an impulse to ask her about last night’s fire so he slowly approached her and asked:

“I saw a fire aflame here last night, but why are its coals and ashes inexistent now?”

“Last night’s fire was my heart which was burning on my bosom. What you have seen was just my internal gleam.

The coals and ashes are within me now, so I can’t show them.” she replied.

Puzzled, he asked her, “What’s the reason that you were set on fire last night?”

“It was the behest of my father that if my fiancé doesn’t come to marry me within three days, I will be married to this half-green tree.

Last night was the last night of the promise, and the end of the waiting.” She said sobbingly.

Note: Originally this story has been written in Balochi language and it's the English translation of it.