Author: Rita Tapia Oregui

I was folding clothes when a piece of paper came flying through the window and fell at my feet. As I picked it up, I saw it had something written on it. This immediately aroused my curiosity. The paper read, “Behind the forest, where the failed attempt to scrape the sky.”

I would have thrown it away, but then I saw a note on the side that caught my attention.

“Luke 9:11.”

I looked the verse up on the Internet: “But the crowds learned about it and followed him.”

My findings got me all keyed up at the thought of having chanced upon a treasure map. I had planned to spend the next day with my friend not doing much of anything but decided last minute to urge her to embark on an adventure with me.

“Hi! How are you, Tina? How have you been?” she greeted me over the phone.

“Good, thanks! Emma, I called to tell you about something strange that just happened to me.” For a second I balked at revealing my secret.

“Don’t hold back. I want to know it all,” she chimed in with ...Read more →

Every month, they met to spend the night in the mountains. Nighttime in the red mountains was quiet and cold. They dreamed big—with their juicy encounters in harlequin settings—until spring drew to an end.

She had set off to climb the mountain at a blistering pace, and once she arrived at its peak, she flashed the blushing mountain an unapologetic smile. She was dizzy with happiness. After making sure there was no one there to see her, she closed her eyes and started spinning around and twirling. Thus, she would be able to provide herself with an explanation for her dizziness that she could come to terms with. Suddenly, she realized how many more mountains she had left to scale before she’d be able to find herself in a position where she wouldn’t feel out of place for wanting to sit on top of the world. Hence, she knelt down and prayed. It was not as if she were reaching for the stars, or even contending for a place in the sun, she just wanted to breathe easier and to ...Read more →

Have you ever dreamed of swapping lives with a king? I realize it sounds childish. After all, everybody knows that the prince charming who cajoles a beautiful lady into marrying him and riding on his white horse is just a numbskull with a mop of blond curls who is featured in a cartoon. However, even though in some cases it might seem like ages ago, who hasn’t been a child? There is a palace here in Idfina. It was one of the many palaces that belonged to King Farouk, who reigned over Egypt and Sudan until the beginning of the 1950s.

My mother’s side of the family lived in Idfina, and every time we went to visit them when I was a kid, my uncle took me to his workplace: the palace. Back then, it housed the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. I reveled in the thought of one day discovering all the treasures that I was sure were hidden somewhere inside the building. First, my eyes always fell on the gates, which faced the rank-and-file houses. The path leading to them ran parallel to the ...Read more →

I take my coffee black, especially if it’s good coffee, like the kind they serve in the Argana café. After we got engaged, my husband and I made a habit of going to this beautiful café whenever we visited Marrakesh. We used to sit on the terrace and look down at the loud and busy square of Jemaa el Fna. It brought a lot of fond memories back to both of us about how we came to love each other. Arif, my husband, didn’t just like the place; one could tell by the way his face lit up when we planned on going to it that it was actually very close to his heart. He had, in fact, made a documentary on the cafés located in Jemaa el-Fnaa some years ago, and as is to be expected, the Café Argana had played a key role in it. He has also mentioned the café in several of the short stories he’s written in the past.

The day of the cataclysm, we were sitting in our favorite corner of the café. We ...Read more →

I am from Tipaza, born and bred, and can attest to the fact that it’s a very unique city. It is steeped in history and attracts many tourists because of the Roman ruins that can be found everywhere. Most of its warm-hearted and good-natured citizens live a simple but honorable life working in the fields. It is a safe city for outsiders to boot.

Every year, I invite a friend of mine to spend summer vacation in my city with me and my family. A very dear friend of mine came to visit me this year. His name is Omar alHalbi, and he is a Syrian athlete whom I met at the Grand Cycling Tour of Algeria some years ago. When I invited him, he thanked me warmly for the opportunity I was offering to learn more about Tipaza, its surrounding flora and fauna, and its people, because as he told me, he had fallen in love with the city when he had first stayed in it during the tour. Unfortunately, he ...Read more →

Naguib was sitting in front of the shop trying to shoo the flies away as black thoughts kept popping into his mind. They wouldn’t be as easily scared off as the flies. Every time he succeeded in pushing one aside, another one ran in to take its place. “Looks like I am screwed,” he said to himself and let out a long sigh of despair.

Suddenly, a man walking down the road notorious for leading to hell started singing softly, “Broken hearts wear long faces with vacant eyes.”

He stopped in front of Naguib’s shop and asked him, “What’s up?”

Naguib snapped out of his trance and replied, “Everything’s fine.”

“This place looks like no man’s land to me.”

“That’s because this is indeed no man’s land.”

Naguib’s friend Muhammad, who was sitting in his car with his mother and sister, shouted to the man, “Naguib’s this town’s only king. That is beyond dispute.”

Naguib smiled and said, “I beg to differ.”

The man entered the shop and exited moments later with a pack of cigarettes and two bottles of water.

“God bless,” he said ...Read more →

I haven’t heard from you for a whole month. I fear you might never come back to me again. Your phone is off, and you are not answering my messages. Even though it is still way too early and I risk waking my mother up, I call her on the phone to ask whether she has information on your whereabouts. She accuses me of being a crazy fool and beseeches me to come to my senses and return to her. As I open my notebook in hopes of finding a trace of you, the smell of your perfume hits me. I inhale deeply and try to hold on to it for as long as I can, for it may very well be the only thing you have left behind. Not knowing what has happened to you is driving me nuts. In order to see your face again, I open the photo album and look through the pictures I once took of you. It’s a shame that I have to resign myself to an unresponsive ...Read more →

I walk down crowded alleys trying to dodge the fireballs the sun flings at us humans as soon as it has made itself comfortable in the canopy of heaven. The pungent aroma of incense that wafts toward me smacks of the past. I take my time climbing up the seemingly never-ending stairs. The stone steps have been worn smooth by all the people who have traced this route before me. I stop to look around. The views during the ascent never cease to amaze me. The buildings’ facades are adorned with stucco arabesques that crown the wooden windows. Their bright whiteness resembles that of the jilbabs kids wear. They stand in stark contrast to the rest of the colors of the facades, and to me, they look like the halos of stars. They definitely invite observers to sneak a peek at building interiors.

There is a stunning girl leaning out of one of the windows of a building opposite me. She has big almond eyes and scarlet cheeks. She is wearing a dreamy expression as her gaze drifts down the ...Read more →

I know it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I like to spend time in the countryside. I love to see the greenery grow and watch the shadows cast by the haughty looking palm trees lengthen as the evening wears on. It’s my way of recharging my batteries, filling myself with positive energy and reaching the peace of mind I need in order to exude quality vibes when interacting with kindred spirits, to wit, other tender souls.

Indeed, I eventually bought a plot of land in poor condition, spruced it up, and planted some orange and lemon trees on it. Then a friend of mine got sick. After his recovery, I invited him and his family plus a few other friends to spend a day at the farm. But first I took several trips to the farm myself to ready it for their visit. I conducted a site inspection and figured out the shortest way to get there from the city.

The property has two entrances. One leads through a tree-lined path. Halfway on the route, one comes across a well ...Read more →

Like the bridge, her life was held in abeyance pending a reversal of the past. He would have tried to comfort her by hugging her, but she would have pushed him away. He wanted to keep his distance. It started raining as tears began to pour down her cheeks. It was as if the sky had agreed to assist her in hiding her sorrow. She didn’t mind the rain splashing on her lunar face. She felt in harmony with the elements. Everyone else started running to take shelter, but she stayed where she was sitting and faced the rain. God was by her side. Half an hour later, the storm abated and a rainbow graced the sky. At long last, Constantine’s thirst had been slaked. The city seemed content. Sukina, however, could not find it in herself to wake up to her reality and move on with her life. It didn’t help matters that she preferred to keep to herself, for this reticence of hers had everyone’s imaginations running riot. Some assumed she was a lone wolf, others argued she was ...Read more →