For the first time in my life, I dreamed.

I recalled a dream.

Dreams were and still are something magical to me. They encompass a certain type of magic, and only some people possess the ability to encompass this magic.

I was not one of those people, sadly. Before today I had never recalled a dream, and this dream could be seen more as a hallucination rather than a dream.

I was present but also absent. Awake but at the same time, asleep.

In this dreamworld I had “woken” up at Jumeirah  Beach.

Jumeirah Beach, located in Sharjah City, part of United Arab Emirates.

I had not been back there literally for an exact decade, today being the anniversary.

Everything looked so peaceful, so beautiful, so calm. The sun was going to set soon. I would know. I would constantly run to the beach an hour before sunset. The moment when the Night had finally caught up to the Day and the Day was giving her last kiss to the Earth was my favorite time of the day. Every sunset was inimitable, exquisite and no matter how many photographs I took or acrylics I mixed together on my palette would come close to comparing to that specific moment.

I walked to the shore slowly, a light breeze surrounding me and parked myself right where the water came up to the sand. I suddenly remembered the myth my crazy imagination had created in which I imagined the water as a flirtatious male who would chase after the sand-a firm and unwavering female, running up the shore to meet her, whispering sweet words of nothing in order to get her to join him. The sand would stay steady, and push him back away. She was too strong for his honeyed verses, but she would let him speak every time he came up to her before turning him away. This tango would continue all day, the tempo increasing and decreasing throughout the day.

I had a wild imagination as a child.

As I stood and finally sat there, reflecting at the past decade of my life, I felt someone sit next to me. All I could see from my peripheral vision was it was young girl, but nothing else of importance. Lost in my own thoughts, I sat there for a good while when suddenly the young child spoke,

“Only you would sit there and not notice the fact I’m sitting here.”

I just sat there, enjoying the feel of the water on my feet, not caring to really concentrate on what the child next me had to say.

“Seriously, earth to Farhia. Can you for a second STOP thinking and look over here? The world could be on fire and all you’d be doing is worrying about something you can’t even control and don’t tell me that’s not true because..”

That’s when I decided to directly look at the girl next to me who somehow knew my name, and well, if I was of the fainting type, I would have fainted by now.

Sitting right next to me, in this crazy, unbelievable hallucination, dream, whatever it actually was, was eleven year old me, sitting cross-legged on the sand, prep-school uniform still on, incredibly tiny with an unimpressed look on her face.

“Took you long enough.”

I had forgotten how mouthy I was as a child.

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