Chapter 14 "Humor in the Break or Make Moments"

May and Red were exhausted as the clock’s small right hand slowly reached out to the three and its’ faster left hand brushed up against the last gray slash of the two o’clock hour. The sisters slightly dreaded the upcoming hours when they would spend the rest of the humid afternoon learning the streets of the capital with their language helper, Jamela. They had been in The Sandbox for less then two months and had not picked up more then a few phrases and a handful of vocabulary. Jamela spoke only Arabic and the sisters found it difficult to understand anything deeper then simple greetings. As one may assume, the language barrier alone was enough to bring frustration or humor to any given circumstance, depending on the attitude of its’ subject.

The sisters and Jamela crammed into a rickshaw, a vehicle equivalent to half a car and motorcycle entwined to make a buggy on wheels. May and Red tucked their skirts between their legs in order to protect their threads from the wheels of the rickshaw. They exited the rickshaw and waved down a bus. The bus stopped to the snapping of their fingers, five minutes after it rolled away from the side of the road. They walked in a single file line, Jamela in front, Red in the middle, and May in the back. While they walked, Jamela explained the idea of a red light meaning “stop” and a green light meaning “go”. May smiled and thanked Jamela for the insightful lesson.

May inwardly recited the vocabulary words for fruit and vegetables as they picked up the pace. They crossed numerous roads and intersections before the intersection at which the light gray car was stopped, waiting for the red light to change in order that it may continue its’ journey. As the pace became brisk, Jamela could be seen slightly turning her head to see the sisters listening intently, with fake comprehending nods, for they knew nothing of what she was saying.

May’s skirt had a different agenda that day and decided it would rather be wrapped around the car she was passing then her legs. It ever so sneakily grabbed the corner of the license plate as she continued walking. May noticed the next few steps more challenging and soon she found she could not place her left foot in front of her right foot. She glanced up at the stop light that had just turned green and then down at her skirt, which refused to impart from the license plate. She reached down to the license plate and began to fight for her skirt back as the cars around her began to move. She made eye contact with the driver of the license plate’s car and noticed he was perplexed but did not care that she remained standing in front of his car. In a small panic and with a big huff, she grabbed her skirt mid length and yanked it free from the nemesis license plate to quickly put an end to the tug-o-war.

May turned to the forefront and noticed both Red and Jamela ten feet in front of her, on the sidewalk, glaring at the situation with baffled expressions on their faces. All they knew was May had slowed the pace and somehow managed to put a gaping hole in her skirt, her white leg glaring out from the red, brown and green striped cotton.

May returned home and stitched up the skirt, with a little bit of resentment towards it for causing her such an awkward encouter in the middle of the city. She laughed, thinking the skirt had put up a good battle but she still had won and had ownership. Little did she know the skirt had a few more tricks up its’ sleeve…