Short story

One day, while I was taking my breakfast at home, someone knocked the door. I was startled. It was Sunday, so normally no one came to visit me on Sunday. I opened the door and it was my neighbor. I was wondering what was wrong. I was not that kind of person who is so sociable with his neighbors. That is why I was wondering “what does he want for me? ”

I was surprised when he asked to me to take care of his daughter until he came back, he seemed hasty. I did not know what to say because I did not want to take the responsibility of a little kid .But; he had assured me that he wouldn’t be late. So I accepted. He went. I started talking to his daughter and playing with her. But, she seemed scared. I asked her so many times if there was something wrong with her. She didn’t answer.

After a while, I went to the kitchen to prepare something for her to eat. When I came back to the living room, I didn’t find her. I searched everywhere, but in vain. I was so muddled. I didn’t know what I should do. That was a horrible day. Suddenly, I heard a screaming in the garden, I went out to see who. I found her. I was so thankful. She was playing with my cat Lily.

We got in the house. She was playing with my cat , she looked comfortable. Two hours passed, and her father  was still not here. I felt insecure. Every once in a while, I stared from the window to see if he was coming or not. I started playing with her. She was so lovely. Her name was Kate and she was eleven years old. Five hours passed, and he was still not here. The little girl slumbered. I looked forward.

After about thirteen minutes, someone knocked the door. It was him, my neighbor.

He thanked me, and he accompanied his daughter home. It was too late. I didn’t understand where his wife is. But in anyway, I just forgot about it. While I was trying to sleep, I heard a loud screaming. I was scared; the first thing I thought about was that little girl. I stared from the window and I saw that my neighbor’s door was open. I was wondering what happened? So I decided to discover it by myself... I went out and I walked slowly towards the house... Everything was obscure... I was so afraid. Suddenly a dog attacked me and as I was not that good with dogs I started howling and screaming. So I just scrammed quickly to my home before that someone caught me up. That was really like action movies, what a horrible night!

The next day, I woke up so early because I did not sleep well. I was so scared the night before. While I was preparing myself to go to work someone knocked the door and I felt like I am going to live the same fear of the night before. I opened; it was just the seller of newspapers. So I comforted.

After about fifteen minutes, another knock at the door made me startled and muddled. I opened the door, and it was my neighbor with his daughter again. Before he talked, I interrupted him by telling him that I couldn’t take care of his daughter because I am not a baby sitter and also I had work. He was so sorry, and he went running to an unknown place.

On my road to work, I observe that I had claws in my hands. Then, I remembered what happened to me with that dog last night. I laughed at myself, because that was funny but scary.

After work, I came back home and I observed my neighbor Max with two man. He wasn’t with Kate... So, I was wondering where she was and why he was not with her the two strong man seemed upset... They seemed like there was a deal between them all. The two men went.

Plenty of questions had crossed my mind.

“What do they want from this old man? Where is his little girl? What about his wife? “

I was so confused, and afraid about the little girl.

After a while, I decided to go and ask what happened exactly and If I could help him.
I knocked. He opened, I asked him about the little girl and if everything was ok. Because I saw him with two man who seemed angry.

(Me:) “are you… into drugs?” I said.

(Father :) “What? No. Of course not. There is nothing to worry about. I thank you for your concern. I just wanted to look for a job, that is why I wanted to leave my daughter with you” He replied.

(Me: )” Oh. Alright. I’m sorry. I hope that the little girl is doing well.” I said.

(Father: ) “She is. I’ll pick her up in a while from my neighbor’s house.”

(Me: )  “Alright, have a good day. And tell me if you need something.”

(Father: ) “Thank you.” (He felt well when he knew that someone cared) 

After my discussion with the old man, I noticed that there was something hidden. I was so curious.

I thought about the little poor girl, so I decided to get into this and try to know what was wrong. The next day, as every day. The father knocked and asked if I could take care of his daughter for some time. I did not accept. I had a purpose. After that, the father left his daughter with other neighbors. He took the road to somewhere. I then, decided to follow him.
It was so far and I was scared. I kept thinking about where  he was going and why.

I followed him. He was so stressed and he looked right and left to see if someone was following him. He stopped his car in front the Glazy forest..Which is a forest that we had bad memories of when we were kids because our parents often told us that this forest was haunted by ghosts..I was really scared but I followed him.

He walk about one hour to get into an ancient cottage..I followed him and I was so afraid. I entered the cottage. I was looking for him but I did not find him. He disappeared. There was a filthy smell and lot of corpses thrown down. Suddenly, I dropped a box on the floor. That was unexpected! And someone took me by the hand and he surrounded me with a rope. I was so scared! It was the old man. I asked him what he was doing here. He didn’t answer. And I asked him about why he surrounded me with that rope. I started explaining for him that I was just carrying about him that is why I followed him. He was silent and didn’t answer. He seemed so upset and I was so scared. It was clear enough to understand that I was going to be killed…

The little girl was home, she felt so bored and as she found me like her older sister she wanted to visit me. She came to my house and she found that the door of my house was open.

Kate had always doubts about her strange father, because her Mom disappeared suddenly and when she asked her Dad, he answered: “She will come soon». But the truth was that, her dad had killed her Mom for an unknown reason.

Kate came back home, when she did not find me. She was looking for old pictures of her Mom and the surprise was that she found a big box and she tried to open it. She was amazed about what she found. She discovered that her Dad was a killer. She found plenty of pictures of corpses that he had killed. And she noticed that he was in the same cottage where she lived when she was so young. She was so shocked! Even, she was thinking of killing her dad. She took a gun and she came to the cottage. She was surprised that she has found me there. She killed her dad and we scrammed together. Of course, she was sentenced for one year and after this, she came to live with me safely.

Monday morning 8:00 AM, I woke up frightened because of this horrible nightmare…

Written by : Hafsa Bouhout

 

Where Is the Father?

In 2005, in a small town in the north of Africa, an old man lived there. He had been alone for twenty years. He was called Ali.  He was 65 years old, he was married, but his wife and his children left the house maybe forever!

Ali felt sorrow and afraid, and sometimes he cried when he remembered some of his old memories. Of course there are some questions in your mind, dear reader. Do you want to know why this man was alone, and why his family left him? I will tell you:

Twenty years ago, Ali and his wife Naima were happy with their children .They had two girls, Salma and Salima. They were twins. They had two boys as well, Mohamed and Ahmad. They were twins too! Ali was a teacher at a university, but his wife was a housewife. Ali loved his family so much and he did everything to make them happy.

In 1985, the girls turned sixteen, and the boys were nine.

One day, Ali did not come as usual to his house, his wife was worried, but she did not tell anything to the children. She knew well that all her husband’s family was dead, so she could not think that her husband was visiting someone.

“Your father called and told me that he is not coming to night early.” Naima said to the children

 “You must eat your dinner and go to bed; your father will come late tonight.”

After one hour, the children ate their dinner, kissed and said good night to their mother, and they went to bed .The boys trusted their mother, so they believed everything she said.  But the girls did not believe her.  They checked their mother’s phone, but they did not find any call from their father.  The girls became worried.

 “Is there something wrong? Did something bad happen to our father.” They taught.

They could not sleep, they turned off the light of their room and they stayed awake. One of them looked down silently, she saw her mother walking around the living room.  She was holding the phone on her right hand, and she held her pale face with the other hand. The girls understood that there was something wrong. Perhaps their father was in danger!  After midnight the girls went to sleep.

The light of the sun entered the room through the window. It was a sunny day but what was going to happen was not as good as that sunny day.  Naima did not sleep last night; she was very worried about her husband. Early she prepared breakfast to her children. At 07:50 the boys went to school, they forgot about the day before. Salma and Salima had no school today, so they stayed at home with their mother. They did not wake up until 10:30. After they had breakfast, they saw their mother, she looked very tired. Then they understood that she did not sleep last night.

“Mother,--Er sorry but last night we checked your phone, but we didn’t find any call from father.” At last one of them spoke to her mother

“We think that you have no information about father and you don’t know where he is.”

There was silence for a moment. Then the mother spoke.

 ‘Yes , you are right my dears ! I don’t know where your father is , but please don’t tell your brothers” she said

 “ They are too young to be told those things ,You are adults that’s why I want you to help me, But what can we do?’ she added.

After few minutes Salma spoke 

“First, you must have some sleep mother, then we will make a plan or we—“

” Are you crazy? Listen, I said that I need your help not your advice.” The mother replied angrily.

 Salma and  Salima felt afraid for their mother . After a short time, Salima said:

 “Mom, why don’t we tell the police, perhaps they will help us.”

 ‘You are right, but I   think we must tell your father’s director first, the director of the university, perhaps he knows where Ali is.” The mother replied.

“Salma, bring me the number of your father’s director.”

 Salma went upstairs slowly. After few minutes she went downstairs with a small piece of paper. Naima took it; she dialed the number and called the director of the university. Their girls heard her saying:

 “I’m Naima Kindaz, I am Ali’s wife, he teaches at your university …………..–What?? ….–How is this possible?? “

  They also saw her face became pale and she was frightened. She ended the call, she was shocked and she looked very sick. She fainted. The girls did not understand what happened, but they were sure that something terrible happened  

Salma brought a glass of water and a medicine to her mother. After half an hour, Naima woke up.

 ‘Your father disappeared.”  She started telling them what had happened.

 “Some students tried to kill him, the director told me that he escaped.”

Then the mother stopped talking. Then salma said

“And what did he told you after?’ Salma asked

Then Naima continued,

 “He said he thinks that Mr. Ali has no enemy, but he doesn’t understand why those students wanted to kill him, he doesn’t know where your father is now.  That’s very strange! Your father does not teach those students but why did they want to kill him?  He is a good and friendly teacher; also those students never did some terrible thing in the university.  That is what he said.”

She stopped talking for a minute, and she said:

 “What can we do? The director told the police and they caught some of those students, but they didn’t find Ali, he has disappeared since yesterday morning.”

 Her eyes were full with tears.

 

Written by: Fatimazzahrae Khalid