It was at dusk, the last day; Saron and her best girlfriend Eden had an evening computer class at MCS center in downtown Asmara. The city looked brighter than anytime before. Saron had to leave home at 6:00. She never needed a transportation to get to her computer school. It was a thirty minutes walk. Also she usually liked to walk as many Asmarinos did. Her family home is located on a little hill in east of the capital. For someone who looks from a distance it seems as if a medieval chief owned it. It is a sign of control, rulers usually liked to build their palaces on top of their subjects. Truly, it feels as if you are in command whenever you ascend up and look down from there.

Nonetheless, this was not in Saron’s mind even if she lived for years there. In fact she was born in this very house immediately after her family moved to it.  She did not draw the time lapse and had no nostalgic feeling of those so-called ‘good old days’. She didn’t live them, after all history was her worst nightmare. She knew nothing about the medieval age and what kind of people lived then. In class her lowest grade was always history, of course second to maths. All her life she had gone out and in but she never remembered any special feeling about the place. That day it was different. In actual fact, the few days before were not as normal, too. The moments of her life suddenly felt so precious.  Before, she had not noticed the beauty and grace of the town from this majestic hillside home.

Everything was different now. Her bedroom itself gave her a strange sense. Saron could not comprehend the mystery. She felt everything in that room wanted to communicate with her about the changing environment around her life. She shared that room with her grand mother who later died at the age of eighty-five. Nobody really knows how old her grandmother died, but Saron had always heard her saying, “I lived during the Italians, English, Haile Selassie, Mengistu, and now the Creator has showed me ‘our children’.” Her husband, Saron’s grandfather was an Italian soldier during the Second World War, that is why she kept the memory of the time very clearly. She might have moved with the Italian garrisons from town to town and learned more about them through time.

After the death of her grandma, Saron refused to sleep in the same bed from where her grandma finally exited never to return. Then a new bed was bought. But nothing was related to this experience what she was feeling in that evening. She looked around her room. The bed was on its place, just moved from one side to another. The sheets are smartly set. The table is always there. The biology notebook is placed on it, the red pen can be seen from within the pages. She was reading biology the whole afternoon, preparing for the test after three days. Across the table is the medium sized shelf. Her Longman English dictionary and another local English-Tigrigna dictionary published by Tiquabo Meresie can be seen amongst the many books properly shelved. Saron pushed the chair towards the table and began to stare at the dozen of photos hanging up on the wall.

The first picture shows a faded photo of an old man elegantly wearing the traditional white outfit. On his side is a slim woman, her eyes are difficult to see, they seem to have sought refugee deep in a cave. She is dressed on white rope from top to bottom. They appear to have a lot of stories to tell, their mysterious looks is difficult to read. “Where might they be now?”, Saron asked herself. There was nobody to answer. She gave a glance to the next photo. May be this one knows the thoughts beneath the grim faces of the old couple. Again she was carried away by the looks of this lonely man in the second picture. “May be he had not married, poor fellow!”, Sari lamented on his behalf. He is her uncle, her mom told her. She had never seen him. Here he is in a suit with a necktie. He left for the struggle and never came back. He is dead. She continued her tour of viewing the many photos of dead people one after the other. She felt some fear deep inside her. She thought she was visiting the kingdom of the dead. She then gave a sweeping look at the rest of the photos including a young couple with months old baby. The last photo, however, brought her from the kingdom of darkness to the living kingdom. On this picture are so many boys and girls wearing a school uniform. She spotted herself and tried to identify the rest of the company. She mumbled names after names; she didn’t know that she had put a smile on her face. The photo stirred her mind to rewind the memory of her junior school days. It was in Adulis Elementary and Junior School. It felt good, she knew there were ‘good old days’ for her, too. All this had hijacked her thoughts for more than 10 minutes; she felt her room was another planet with different creatures. All of a sudden, her eyes remained fixed on a young boy in this last picture. He is wearing a big smile; it must have been one of his greatest days that day. None looks as cheerful as him on the photo.

Sari, looked puzzled. She could hear some rattling inside her; the inner voice was trying to communicate with her. She had heard how pregnancy feels in the first days of the conception. She laughed alone, “that is idiot of me to think like that!” She looked at the watch on the wall, it read 5:52. She had to dress up quickly and leave. This was the first day of her life to seriously consider dressing up stylishly. She fit all her trousers as if she never wore them before. Finally, she settled for the stretching blue jeans. She looked her self on the big mirror. The mirror approved her looks from the toes to the waist. She then turned back, her buts looked well designed, approved! She had always known about her body, never lacked any confidence but never tried to auction them at any price. She then put a well-fit blue T-shirt. With her addidas sneakers, this gave her an imposing look. Her hair was done during the day, and now it seemed to match with the whole combination. Also, the good thing of the evening school is that she doesn’t need to carry the big school bag, just one book is always sufficient. “Are you ready now to go?”, she asked her own image on the mirror. Her ‘bee-stings’ looked on high alert, Saron blushed. Finally, she gave thumbs up for herself and left.

She bunged the door behind her, it was almost 6:05. At the same time, her mom arrived from her work. “Sari, I thought you are gone, I missed you!”, she greeted her daughter. “Yes, me too mom!”, Sari kissed her mom on the cheek as always. Then Aster stared at Saron. “What?”, Saron asked bewildered by Aster’s gaze. “No it is alright, you just look gorgeous my daughter!”, she hugged Sari again. Saron blushed and went out. Aster was laughing alone, “that is good, she has become a girl!” Saron’s teenage conducts reminded her own childhood life. But immediately her face grimed, thinking the dangers a teenage girl faces and her own motherhood responsibilities to guide her daughter during this critical period of her life.

Continues ……………….