A Wind of Change(17)

People had started building a bonfire about thirty feet away from the tents, and Hassan beckoned me over to sit down beside him. My sisters, grandfather, Yusuf and a whole crowd of people gathered round the fire. I was surprised when Yusuf pulled out a giant sack of marshmallows. Soon we were all toasting marshmallows while sipping date and banana smoothies.

We chatted around the fire until about 9pm. By this time, my head was beginning to feel strangely light. I clasped a palm to my forehead. It felt hot. I must’ve stayed outside too long today. I wasn’t used to this heat. I felt like I was coming down with a migraine. I set down my empty cup on the sand and backed away from the fire, which was hot against my face.

“What’s wrong, River?” Hassan asked.

“I think I’ll make it an early night. I have a headache.”

“You should return to the tent and drink lots of water,” my grandfather said.

Yeah, and then need the toilet all night long…

I looked toward Lalia. “Are you coming to bed now? Or will you come later with Dafne?”

She was already standing up and walking over to me. She clutched my hand. “I’ll come now,” she said. Her cheeks were bright red. I felt her forehead—it felt hot too. Her breathing was unsteady.

“Are you okay?” I asked. “Do you need your inhaler?”

“I think I’m okay,” she said, a little too breathlessly.

“Come on, let’s go back… Good night,” I called to everyone sitting around the fire.

“Good night,” they called back, many of whom I hadn’t even spoken to yet.

We returned to our tent and stepped into our compartment. The first thing I did was look for Lalia’s inhaler. I prepared it, then watched as she breathed in. Her breathing returned to normal after that.

“Feel better?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she mumbled.

“Now, before we sleep, do you need the toilet?”

“Erm…” She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes in concentration. “Nope.”

I sighed. I’ve heard that before.

Although my head was beginning to feel like an oven, I decided to take her to the bathroom anyway. Rather now than in the middle of the night. We moved away from the tents and crossed the stretch of sand toward the ladies’ toilets. We walked inside the caravan to find it empty. It turned out that Lalia really didn’t need to go, so we soon made our way back to the tent. I took it for granted that she would want to share my compartment, so I led her into it and zipped us inside.

“You don’t look so well, River,” Lalia said, looking at me in the dim lighting of the electric lamp at the end of my mattress.

“I’ll be fine in the morning,” I muttered, lying down.

Lalia settled down next to me and after a few minutes, I’d fallen asleep.







A clammy finger prodded my left cheek. I opened my eyes to see my sister’s round face, dewy with sweat, directly above me.

“I need to pee,” she whispered in a pained voice.

I groaned. “Okay.” When I sat up, my head felt like it was splitting in two. The migraine had intensified tenfold since I had fallen asleep.

“You okay?” Lalia asked, looking up at me worriedly.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, wincing and gripping my head as we stumbled out of the compartment.

I didn’t have a watch on and I had forgotten to look at my phone before exiting, but it must’ve been late because Dafne breathed heavily in the compartment next to us, and on the opposite side my grandfather snored.

As I stepped outside onto the sand, my head felt so faint I could hardly walk. I made it as far as the bonfire—which was still crackling with a few people sitting around it—before I had to stop and kneel on the sand.

“River!” Lalia squealed.

“I’m okay, I just have a really bad headache.”

“Are you all right?” Hassan called from the fire.

I looked up, squinting and trying to see through the pain. He approached and bent down, touching my shoulder.

“I have a bad migraine,” I managed.

“Then what are you doing out here?” he asked. “Go back to bed.”

“My sister needs the toilet.”

“I’ll take her to the ladies’ and wait outside for her. You stay here.”

“Thanks,” I said, looking at him gratefully.

He took Lalia’s hand and began leading her across the dunes toward the ladies’ caravan. The path was lit by dozens of solar flashlights dug into the sand to form a pathway from the tents to the toilets. They reached the caravan. Lalia climbed up the steps while Hassan waited. I could see that he had turned to face me.

I tried sitting cross-legged. Slowly, I was feeling less faint, although my head still hurt like it’d been hit with a hammer. I must’ve spent way too long in the heat. Even though I’d worn a thick headscarf, I just wasn’t used to this harsh climate.