The Colour of the Sky
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Image Credit Mohammed Nowfal spendidarabia.com
None of them knew the colour of the sky. The stories handed down through the Elders said it was blue, but no one had seen it in many generations to know if this was true. Adu and his friends often discussed the sky and wondered what it might look like. The stories said many things lived in the sky; things called saabs and alturs and alnjum. Safi thought the last was some form of candle, based on a story handed down in her family, but Mamud and Jefe thought that sounded ridiculous. Adu privately agreed but didn’t want to contradict Safi, on whom he had a crush.
For all of them, such discussion was an excellent way to pass the evenings, when the village conserved energy and the glowing mosses provided the only illumination. Yet for Adu, it was more than just idle conversation, and he longed to see the sky with his own two eyes. He had brought it up with his Elder once, only to be flatly told that no one could see the sky anymore, and to try would be certain death. The only thing the sky would bring, the Elder told him, was the sickness. And so Adu remained in the village, working the fields allotted to his family under the dripping ceiling of the west cavern near his family’s living quarters.
Adu’s home was the Magret. It was a marvel, for, in the humanmade tunnels and caverns, several hundred of the People lived and supported each other. For part of the day, special-purpose lights in the farming caverns would bathe the fields’ crops to make them grow. A system somehow brought water from the rocks above, to continuously drip onto the vegetables and fruits below. Some of the caverns even housed chickens and goats. The temperature was always pleasant with any dampness contained (for the most part) in the agricultural areas of the complex. The old stories said that once there were only caves carved from the waters that used to run through the gaps in the rocks, but at some time, the People expanded the caves for permanent settlement, to shelter from the inhospitable region under the sky. Adu was old enough to appreciate what those who had gone before had set in place with the Magret.
However, as comfortable as his home was, he still longed to see the sky. He knew others had thought the same as he, but he knew too that those that had left to seek an answer had never returned. The older he got, though, the more Adu considered that the risk might be worth it. He couldn’t quite explain it, although he had tried with his friends, who had laughed and said that if he wanted to commit suicide, there were far more accessible means within the Magret. Adu took their teasing with good nature, as they couldn’t understand how the sky called to him. He had dreams where he imagined how saabs might appear. In them, he saw tufts of white fur, floating as if caught in a breeze, as sometimes happened in the corridors of the Magret after someone hurried through them, against a backdrop the shade of sapphires. Small shapes glided between the saabs and the ground, a few getting too close to some of the alnjum and falling to the earth ablaze. His friends thought his night visions terrifying, the few times he had related them, but Adu only wanted to know if they were accurate. And so, as his seventeenth birthday approached, he made ready.
Adu snuck bits of preserved meats and wax and cloth under his mattress. He wandered the Magret, familiarizing himself with the layout. The village exit was clearly marked: it wouldn’t do to have any of the kids accidentally find themselves away from the protection of the caves. Signs in a vibrant orange delineated the safe from the forbidden. Adu made a note of them but continued stockpiling supplies; a waterskin, some furs, a knife, a walking pole, and a precious backpack. Finally, it was time. Adu wished he could bid his family and friends good-bye, especially the cute Safi, but he didn’t dare risk anyone preventing his departure. And so, one night several days after he had begun his preparations, Adu made his way through the village, and into the tunnel between the orange signs.
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The moss lights ran along the tunnel walls, so although their glow was dim, there was enough light to see by without fear of any obstacles foiling his journey. At every junction Adu came to, there were orange signs, and Adu simply kept picking the tunnels between the vibrant markers. He had expected the trip to be more challenging, but the passages were well crafted. After one turn in the tunnel, he came across a door set in the rock. There were few doors in the Magret, but there was one guarding the village stores. That door was wooden and secured by an old metal lock, yet this door was metal, like the lock. Metal was precious in the Magret, as it could no longer be refined or shaped. Some of the farm equipment was metal, as were some of the kitchen tools and utensils. A few families had chests with metal bindings, and these the owners kept polished and shining with oils to prevent any rust. The door guarding this exit sat in dull contrast to the Peoples’ treasures and had a circular handle protruding from its centre. Adu needed some of his oil and his walking pole to get it to move and, after much effort, the metal door creaked open.
Adu was disappointed to see more tunnel beyond, a dark tunnel without any moss. Adu lit one of his wax candles and continued forward. In the flickering light from his torch, he saw there were metal signs affixed to the walls. He rubbed one and discovered it had some indecipherable writing and a symbol he recognized, an arrow. By keeping his eyes peeled, he was able to find more signs with the arrow. He followed these and tried to match the other markings, too, in case the arrows pointed to more than one place. His candle had almost expired when he encountered another metal door barring the way. He opened it much the same way as he had the first one and Adu was sweating by the time he cracked it open.
Hot air gushed past Adu, and there was light so bright it temporarily blinded him. He kept his hands before his eyes while he adjusted. Spreading his fingers, he slowly opened his eyelids and blinked as he shuffled forward into the light. As his eyes become accustomed to the glare, Adu was able to see he was still in a cavern, but this one was bathed in light streaming in from a large opening at the far end of it. He made his way across the cavern, with its dusty, red-rock filled floor, until he reached the limit of the rock overhead. His breath came in short pants, although he hadn’t exerted himself to reach this point. He feared to look past the edge of the cavern ceiling, but beyond had to be THE SKY. His excitement overcame his trepidation, and Adu looked up—
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—And stopped dead, his mouth falling open and his eyes widening even with the glare. He instantly became intoxicated by the most incredible expanse of blue he had ever seen. For as far as he could see, it stretched before him. It hung magically above the rough reddish sands and jutting boulders. Suspended in the sky-blue air were puffs and wisps in shades of paper and nickel and peach. He didn’t see any candles, but one side of the sky contained another object, a shining blonde ball that tinted the blues around it with streaks of apricot, quartz, and honey. His brain dimly wondered if this might be the sams. His mouth still agape, Adu sat back slowly onto the ground and drank it all in.
As he watched, the glowing ball sank lower, until it touched the earth, and began falling into it. The colours grew more vibrant, with blood and coral and garnet overtaking the blue. To the other side of the sky, the blue was darkening, and indigo and cobalt shades mingled with eggplant and violet ones that blended into blackness. As the ball sank into the ground, the rest of the sky shifted to the darker colours through wines and ambers. Dotting the darker shades were small lights. Safi was right, thought Adu: the alngum were like candles embedded in the sky, flickering with gold and silver and pearl. One was so large it almost looked like it would fall atop him.
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Adu sat on the hard ground while the whole sky turned black, never pulling his eyes from the sight even while taking food and drink from his backpack or wrapping himself in a blanket and furs to stave off the cold of the black. During the hours of darkness, he caught sight of several alngum falling from the sky, their lights streaming in multicolour blurs.
In the morning, Adu removed his robe under the magnificent blue and scrubbed his skin clean with sand, his skin reddening under his efforts. The next day, Adu watched as blowing sands filled the horizon, and the sky appeared as if viewed through a green glass bottle, the sight so disorienting that he lost the contents of his stomach onto the reddish earth. The following day, the saabs were so plentiful that their muted smoke, tarnished silver, and ashen shades hid the sky-blue and the sams. Several days did Adu spend under the sky, but though he sat and watched all hours, Adu never saw anything that might be the elusive alturs. It was only the prospect of having no more food and the pain in his skin that made him reluctantly decide to head back. Adu stared one last time at the sky, committing the image to memory before he lit a candle and pulled the metal door shut.
Upon arriving back in the village, the People swarmed him, all shouting questions, trying to grab him, until the Elders stepped in and drew him into the meeting cave.
“Why did you leave, Adu?”
“Are you feeling well, Adu?”
“Are those blisters on your face, Adu?”
The Elders’ and villagers’ questions flowed over Adu, who sat cross-legged on the rug in the centre of the cavern, with as many of the village as could fit packed into the spaces behind the circle of Elders. Amid the clamour and chaos, he sat, tranquil and awash in his newfound enlightenment. To all the questions, Adu only replied that he had wanted to see the sky and that while he hurt, he was happy. When they pressed him for the answer about the colour of the sky, Adu merely smiled a secretive smile and did not answer.
Even when fatigue and pain from the blisters on his body overwhelmed him, Adu kept silent about the colour of the sky. His friends, especially Safi, wanted to know if the answer had been worth it. Adu nodded and said it was, and he revisited the marvels of the sky at night in his dreams. There was no point in trying to describe what he had seen to those who had never seen the sky. If they wanted to know the answer, they would have to find out for themselves. Besides, Adu knew, none of them would believe him if he told them that the answer was, “All of them.”
Sam Mason
Sam has a love for all forms of speculative fiction across all media. Possessed of natural curiosity, Sam enjoys learning and new experiences. Each new piece of knowledge or endeavour adds to who she is and how she sees the world. She is a firm believer that some of the most amazing experiences and events could even be in your backyard (figuratively, if not literally).
