Thirsty... Only when the thirst invades and scraps the inner epithelial lining of the pharynx, do we realize the prominence of the elixir. I was no better.

I had wasted ample amount of water - never closed the tap while brushing, took a long and unnecessary showers, spilled it like crazy, you name it - for all my childhood.

When I came to the desert for the first time, four years ago, I still didn't understood the importance of water. As I had always been around water and always took the necessary precautions to stay with handful of water, I had never really encountered such a major crisis for the whole of my twenty six years.

"What are we going to do? I can't move an inch without water," he said, panting and sticking his tongue out, like a dog while litters of sweat coated his skin.

Even after, a whole day without the intake of water, our bodies still discharged sweat and I wondered, where the salty liquid was coming from. It was good to know that my brain worked even in such acrid condition, without water or anything to eat for that matter.

I knelt down on the hot sand, it's heat pinched in through my jeans, burning my knees. Worrying about the burn didn't make sense, when we had other priorities to look over, the thirst. What are we going to do? my mind mimicked my friend's question, resonating it throughout my system.

"We are going to die," he hollered over the raspy wind, his voice rough than it used to be, I supposed, from the absence of the flimsy coat of saliva.

The hot desert sand that swiveled along with the wind, blown from the west, got intense by the minute. There was a negative vibe in the air and I could feel that in my bones. Something powerful was coming in our way.

"No" I said sternly, giving him a pointed look, "Just take a break. We'll move ahead shortly."

"Are you fucking mad, Hensley? There is nothing here, except sand and storm. We traveled south as you have insisted, for hours, yet I didn't see a single life. Do you even know this desert?," he bellowed, his anger laced every word that left his mouth.

I knew the dessert like the back of my hand. After serving in the army for four years, in the same desert, I could pinpoint every village, caves, water puddles, underground wells, but it was strange that even I couldn't recognize where we were. It was like the desert had went through a massive change over night.

"Ben, Five and then we move," I said, adjusting the fabric that covered my nose and mouth, "Make a face mask out of your turban if you don't have any other fabric on you," I ordered.

Without turban over our heads, we would have lost all the water content in our head, the first lesson I learnt in the desert. And my mask was always on, unlike others who felt it wasn't necessary.

After the respite, I ushered him to move and we set out again through the sand storm. Few more hours passed while it became unbearably hot, impossible to see over the winding storm, but still not a sight of water.

I had lost all hope for once. It had been more than twenty hours, since we both had last drop of water. Few minutes passed when I got a glimpse of a tree, green and flourished, a considerable distance away to our left, like a mirage.

Maybe it is my dry mind playing tricks on me, I told myself and processed the image in my head for a second, before deciding to move in that direction. It was after all something to hold on to for a while, even if it was just a fabricated image.

Directing Ben towards the tree, I really hoped for the image to be real and at the same time there was a voice at the back of my head that stated clearly, what was to be expected.

My doubt was cleared when Ben showed no interest or excitement when we changed course, even after looking at the distance, scrunching his eyes.

With great struggle, we'd reached the spot but like I had anticipated it was nothing, a huge rock in the middle of nowhere. The only thread I held on to, just broke, pulling me into darkness, a messy Crimean shade. Ben fell near me, like a wood on the sand, his eyes closed and tongue out of his mouth.

The eternal sleep was welcoming me, with two huge hands and my eyelids were half way to meet each other. I fell to the ground with a thud. Before my eyes were fully closed, I saw a tumbler filled to its neck with water.

I heaved myself up, tumbling towards the tumbler and when I reached I lost my balance. I fell exactly over the tumbler and I thought, there goes the last hope of survival.

To my astonishment, I fell right into the tumbler, swimming in the excess cold water, drinking it ravishingly and composing myself against the sudden burst of water on me. Satiating the thirst never felt so heavenly before, not in all of my life. The dirt on me and my dress was washed away.

Soon, the unconscious Ben joined me in the water, opening his heavy eyes a little, to take in his surroundings. He drank and drank the water without catching his breath. Only when satisfied did we realize we were translocated to another world, evergreen and opulent, through the tumbler.

Tumbling into the tumbler, we'd got a second chance in life, no doubt, but the question remained was, 'How to get back to our own world?' which we never got an answer to.

⭐⭐⭐

Akiprabagar (05/04)