MY ROCK FRIEND
By Khatri Abdul Hadi Ashraf
(Third place)
Though making sand castles under the hot sun had its own charm, being much too inquisitive for his age, Ali wanted to explore more of the beach, preferably on his own.
His six-year-old feet on the burning sand felt a lot like what he had been told about lava. It was trying to suck him into the ground, but with some skillful legwork, he was able to counter it. Just as one of his legs was close to being swallowed whole, he would raise the other one high up, splashing grains of lava about him, and land it a step forward for the process to repeat itself. He was quite enjoying teasing his enemy like this.
Before he knew it, he was a few feet away from his family, and his mother was calling his name from behind, ordering him to return.
“Ali! Stay here son, you remember I told you not to wander too far away from us! There are bad people around here, it’s not safe!”
But Ali paid no heed. He was quite used to this constant scolding, don’t do this, don’t go there, don’t don’t don’t. Overtime he realized that the only function it fulfilled was to make things less fun. He remembered the time when his mother had repeatedly told him not to take candy from strangers, but once when he was waiting outside his school because the van was late, a strange man offered fizzy candy to him, the kind that bursts like fireworks inside your mouth. He remembered how he placed it on his tongue and closed his eyes waiting for the pop, and his tongue turned into the night sky and each firework released oh so much sweetness and color inside his mouth that he had decided that the next time there is a wedding tent in the street outside his house and it’s time for fireworks, he would surely look up directly at them with his mouth wide open, hoping for one to land right on his tongue, no matter how much his mother told him not to get too close. Of course, he did not tell his mother about the man and the candy, for she would surely get angry. She might refuse to get him the toy gun that she had finally agreed to, or stop him from playing with his friends outside, or if she got really angry, she might even tell Dad.
But for now, he was swiftly moving through the lava, his mother’s voice fading away. Surely, the other kids must be wondering what he is up to. Maybe they thought he was being a bad child by not listening to his mother, but little did they know about the important lesson he had learnt, that the things that adults tend to call not safe are those fun things that they want to keep secret for themselves. For example, she was wrong about there being bad people around here. There seemed to be no one else in sight, maybe the lava had swallowed them all. Except a big rock in the sand which looked oddly like a smiling face, and sparkled like his mother’s necklace that she always told him not to play with. At least this rock was much more interesting than the other kids, and playing in the hot lava sand instead of making the same boring castles with the wet sand. Even Dad had gotten bored of it and walked back into the hut. It was time for Ali to be the hero and save the day.
“Don’t you worry Mr. Rock! I will save you from the lava!”, he exclaimed, and bounced his way till he was directly above the rock. He dug his fingers around it, and plucked it out of the lava before it could dissolve into the earth. It was quite heavy, but a hero must demonstrate his strength, so Ali held onto it even though it hurt his fingers.
“That was close! See, I told you I will save you. Now we must cool you down”, Ali said to the rock, and carried it towards the water. As the waves washed the lava away, he could see the rock’s smile widening, and it shone even brighter than mother’s necklace.
“Ali! That’s enough! Don’t you remember how many times I told you not to go near the water? And drop that stupid rock right now! If it falls, you’ll break your feet!”
Ali knew that his mother was scared of the water, and would not be able to catch him if he went inside. So, he strode into the sea, while recalling his father’s swimming lessons earlier in the day, how he had said that the water suddenly gets very deep at one point, and even he does not go that far so Ali should not either. The water was almost about to reach his rock friend tucked safely under his right arm, but Ali was mindful enough to offer comforting words.
“They want to take you away from me. But don’t you worry, I will be your best friend. I will keep you safe!”
“That’s it! I’m calling your father!” his mother shouted behind him, and she ran back inside the hut.
As soon as the rock was submerged inside the water, it felt much less heavy.
“Oh boy, you didn’t tell me you knew how to swim!” Ali sprang with excitement, and with his left hand held his nose shut just the way his father showed him when they were dunking their heads under water to look for jelly fish.
Right as he felt his hair getting wet, the ground beneath him disappeared, and Ali dropped down in slow motion like the heroes did in movies, until his feet landed on sand which was just like the lava in which he found the rock, except a bit colder. Like when they had come to the same beach many days ago and instead of the sun there were many clouds. He thought to himself that maybe the water is just like clouds and maybe that’s why the sky is blue and sometimes he had seen waves in it.
As he took step after step assisted by his friend’s swimming, he wasn’t much worried about his father. Sure, his father knew how to swim, but what did he know about walking on lava? Ali looked up at the surface, where light was bouncing back and forth like it did on the wedding tents. But suddenly he realized that the water was darkening, it was turning into the night sky.
At that moment, Ali wished that he could take his hand off his nose and speak. For if he could, he would have told his smiling friend to look up. And since he wasn’t feeling too secretive, he would have even given away the spoiler.
“There might be fireworks.”