A Night To Remember

A Night to Remember.


In the distance dogs were howling and electricity was being consumed by a running motor. All these sounds seemed to amplify in the silent night. I lay tossing and turning in my enclosed smelly sleeping bag, trying my best to hold on to all my body heat. Waleed conveniently lay sleeping in his large warm sleeping bag; Mom and Dad slept in the tent besides me. The only one awake was me and the night.

The ground was hard and cold. The cold seemed to seep in through my clothes; there was no position in which I could sleep and stay warm. Time passed slowly and painfully, eventually my brain shut-down and I went into an uncomfortable slumber.

I was standing on the edge of a cliff which had a beautiful scenery. I extended my arm and took a small step forward. I felt my body lunge forward and a sudden adrenaline rush took over and my body jerked; I opened my eyes with surprise and found myself in the igloo-shaped tent.

I held my head and assumed that any minute now I would hear the birds chirping and the sun would rise spreading its splendor and glory on the earth. I took out my Ipod and checked the time “11:55 pm” it wasn’t even midnight yet. We still had 6 hours and 5 minutes of more pain and cold to endure.

My tossing and turning began again. Suddenly Waleed woke up; he needed to use the bathroom. This is was just the sort of thing I was waiting for to happen. On his slightest moan I heard mom immediately reply. Dad was still fast sleep. A small argument began on whether to go home or make Waleed use the glorious splendor of nature as his bathroom. Dad woke up in middle of this confusion and asked us what the fuss was about. After a long debate and mom’s every second urge to go back home we came to a decision – mom and dad were going to shift into our tent. Even after this decision was put into action and some warmth entered into our bodies, mom was still drumming in our ears “Lets go home.” We looked at the clock and finally in all this fuss we had managed to waste an hour.

We decided to call some of our family that lived in the States. No one picked up, until finally my brother did. When we ran out of people to call, mom and I needed to use the bathroom urgently. After a long and difficult wait, I managed to go- don’t ask how.

Now that I was “relieved” and relaxed, I came back to my mom talking to Samina Aunty. Mom was so happy and excited (I bet that was her only highlight of the trip). By the time mom finished she was back to being impatient about going home. I checked the time and (VICTORY!) it was almost 2 a.m. We decided to sleep (or at least try).

Waleed fell fast asleep instantly and soon I heard the synchronizing snores of mother and father. I took this disturbance as “music” to my ears and went into an uncomfortable sleep.

I woke up again with a jerk and found mom sitting up straight. After me Waleed woke up and then finally Dad. I checked the time it was 6:10 am. (YES!) in another few minutes we heard the Fajr prayers and that was our queue to pack up and leave. Mom still needed to use the bathroom. Knowing that the caretakers of the farm would be awake, Dad and Waleed left to use the “proper” bathroom. Mom and I started to fold up the sleeping bags, glad that we were leaving soon.

It was 6:30 am when we started walking down to the bathroom. By the time we went back to the tents and starting packing them up it was about 7:15 am (I would be getting ready to leave for school by now). At 7: 30 am we drank hot “chaa” and fed SherKhan a bit of “Gur” and (FINALLY) left for home.

On the way we welcomed the first bite of oily “Halwa Puri” into our stomachs at Zakir Tikka. When we went home we immediately bathed in hot water got into our warm, comfortable and soft beds and dozed off. This adventure was indeed an unforgettable night.

I was standing on a cliff which had a beautiful view, but I stood quite far from the edge.


Palvashae Hussain.