Ordeal

The belting sun towered over us like a watch-dog, surveying its premises. The landscape was barren with shimmering distortions on the horizon. My swollen tongue, swallowed with incredible pain as the physical barrier of dry air chewed at my chapped lips. The walls of my mouth soaked up the saliva like a greedy sponge. Beads of sweat burst to the surface of my brow, like air bubbles racing to the top of the sea. As they coalesced, they ran down the contours of my face as rivulets of salty water. The taste of the salty sweat sucked the sweet saliva from my dry mouth. As the beads of sweat dropped from the end of my nose, like a relay race, another would occupy its place. The scorching sand ate at my ankles with every step, and at every stumble, the sweat from my aching hands would pick up hot sand, like a wet spoon in a sugar bowl.

My body ached with innumerable pains, and my mind slurred, as the yellow orb of sun sapped my energy, like a straw in a thirsty-child's drink. The sea of yellows, oranges, browns and reds, mingled together in a blur, with an ocean of blue, crowning them, and that unforgettable penetrating light, focusing on me, wherever I stumbled. I longed for the paradise of shaded land and a place to rest my spinning head. The blood rushed through my throbbing veins, which, like a network of converging railways, coated the backs of my hands, and 1ike the skeleton of a dry, wine-red leaf, covered my whole aching body.

My teeth ground together like mill-stones, as I fought against the virtually impenetrable heat. The sweat matted together my bleached hair, and my eyes were like a half opened door. A permanent frown creased my forehead like a ruffled piece of paper.

I crawled up the hot side of a sand-dune, stumbling like a baby, coating myself each time with white crystals of dry sand. Suddenly, the sea of yellow and orange became violently interrupted as an intruding colour of sparkling blue and green. It was unbelievable. Was this yet another mirage of shimmering water? Yet there was a real sense of sparkling reality. It was water.

I began to run like an enthusiastic child. Suddenly, the saliva shot into my mouth, and my aches and pains vanished, like an actor after a performance. I began to laugh like an immature kid.

As I made contact with the small, muddy water-hole, my whole body tingled with delight. My spinning head reversed in acknowledgement of my delight. The refreshing shade covered me like a blanket of delight.

I was still alive.


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