THE LAST WAR
The appearance of the holy girl and the satanic crystal
HANAN KANAAN
Surprise choked her words when she saw her name beautifully carved on it. She put
it in her pocket when she heard an old man’s sobs. She stood up to ask him:
“ Can I help you, sir? “
The old man approved: “ Yes, I knew you would go to the devil’s crystal. That’s
why I have been waiting for you to ask you persuade my only son to come back to
his family.”
Tala replied: “ You are mistaken, sir. I am a stranger here. I don’t know how to find
The old man interrupted her to say: “ You are Tala. Everybody knows you and is
waiting for you to save your parents, our lands and folks from the grip of the satanic
crystal. For buildings, souls; young and old all were set ablaze because of it.
Tala screamed when she heard her parents’ names. She looked back at the raging
fire behind and cried: “ Daddy, mummy, where are you?”
The old man suddenly disappeared. Odd enough that he was the only living soul on
that damned city. She was determined to look for her parents. The tree sheltering
her lowered one of its great branches until it touched the ground. It spoke to Tala: “
Sit down on my strongest branch! I’ll take you to your first station on your way to
look for the satanic crystal. You will be able to save your parents and the local
people. After hesitating for a while, she obediently took a seat on the great tree that
cracked to let her in. Tala was astonished to see it held scores of boys and girls. She
cried bitterly at their sight. She asked one of the girls: “ What happened to you?
Why are you here? How did you let your city burn to ashes?”
She answered coldly: “ We are waiting to join the satanic crystal.”
Tala insisted: “What is this crystal? One of the boys volunteered to answer: “ No
one knows its shape. All we know is that those who live inside don’t feel anything at
all. They become just senseless bodies.”
Tala asked unbelievably: “ But, why don’t you like to feel anything? “
Tala was eager to know more and more but the branch she was sitting on pushed
her to its roots. She got out to find herself in strange marsh polluted water. She was
surrounded by stinky smell and all kinds of summer, spring, autumn, and winter
weeds, yellow, bitter and thorny leaves.
