Escape!

Escape? I laughed bitterly. I would have jumped at the word some years ago; but now it did not stir any hope within me. For I had tried; not once, not twice but thrice to escape yet all of my attempts had failed. Each attempt had blown up in my face always leaving me worse off than before. I had learnt that hope is a distraction and its after effects hurt. Yet when I looked at the old prisoner beside me I found him to be in earnest. I opened my mouth to answer him but the old man put a finger to my lips saying: No, my boy. I have a feeling you will escape this time. And you can hardly reject an old mans last wish.I wanted to tell him how hopeless it was to try escaping this dungeon. He had been here longer than me; he should have known. Would it not be worth it if you ended up meeting your family? The old man coughed out. I long gave up catching a

glimpse of my family. But now my last memory of my family rushed back to me. My petite` daughter Jeanne watching me with her innocent blue eyes wide open in fear. My wife clutching Jeanne as she blinked away tears. The reminder sent a surge of anger trilling through me. These soldiers had dragged me away from my own home, in front of my family without any proper reason. Suddenly I was determined to escape. It did not matter whether I finally escaped or died trying. But I had to try. Try to return to my family. How must they be copping? I wondered. Now, I turned my face towards my fellow prisoner in the lonely cell; a man I had grown to like. My eyes softened. I saw him take his last breath though not before saying: Take this Francis, uhh.It will help you. and he handed me the lid of a tin can; it was still sharp. And with his head on my lap life escaped his lips. Tears pricked at my eyes but I held on waiting, moving to the shady corner of the cell leaving the old mans corpse in the middle of the dingy room.

Eventually a guard came; kicked the old prisoner to arouse him for dinner, but the prisoner was dead; he could not move. The guard kicked him again for good measure and satisfied by the outcome; shouted to another guard who came with a sack propped on his shoulder. Together they hauled the old prisoner and went to fetch a rope. Meanwhile, I took out the old man. Set him in a sitting position against the wall. I looked once again to my fellow prisoner and crept into the sack. I heard the watchmans footsteps coming closer. It felt as if death itself may be coming closer. I held my breath, tightened my eyes shut but still my heart rate quickened. The guard tied the sack and the little light that did seep through my shut eyelids too was gone. But that indeed did not stop me from feeling. I felt the sack being dragged yet I could betray no movement. I was face down in the sack; my cheek was burning. I felt the cell floor end and a rougher landscape begin. I was scratched by loose stones. My nose and hands bled, yet I knew I could not move. The next second I was in the air being tossed into the sea. I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs but fear of captivation halted me. Splash! I crashed into the water.

For a moment I totally panicked. The water was in the Sack, I could not breathe; I was drowning. Then my mind reeled back to the tin lid. I blindly cut through the sack. And then, I was free! I surfaced and looked to the sun. The light blinded me; I had not seen the sun for seven years. I felt the freedom, the freedom only people lucky enough to escape feel. And I swam away from the cell and its misery to my family; my wife, my daughter, my life. If I was thrown into prison again I knew I would face any hardship, give up even my life for freedom; the sun and its warmth and just a glimpse of my family. Ayman Ahmad X