Jun 12, 2012

Carpet!

Sometimes I wonder how people think of things. Unicorns, for example. If I were inventing a mythical beast, I would never imagine a horn in the middle of horse’s forehead. However, I recently witnessed the origin of the magic carpet...

I was sitting outside waiting for a mango to fall, which is all one is really capable of doing in the hot season.

“Look!” someone said, and we all turned towards Sinni’s compound. A HUGE cloud of dust was swirling around and snatching more than the usual newspaper scraps. It grabbed the items hung out to dry on the fence and we watched as brightly-colored stretches of fabric flopped clumsily across the compound before thunking into a house or fence and falling still.

The prayer rug, however, soared. It glided gracefully through the air in rippling waves, avoided the houses, flew over the fence, and continued almost all the way to the baobab tree outside a neighboring compound. If I were at all skilled in estimation, I could tell you how far that is. But I’m not, so I can’t.

No comments: