Aftermath for GAFYW Annual Event...

(((((Well, I told you,nobody noticed...just go ahead Asha))))).
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9- Writer from Khartoum
Amin Abdalla Alamin Elsheikh
I’m A Hero

I’m a hero. It’s funny how some words can change our life forever, these words were “you have been chosen to represent your country son,” said the military recruiter, I couldn’t say anything but “Sir, Yes sir “the hardest three words I said in my life. Not knowing what to expect I started packing, my mother crying, how can I blame her? The bus to the camp blowing its horn. I said goodbye. At that time my country was in need for soldiers, we had been attacked by a nearby country, and we were running out of soldiers as we were losing, at this point they were so desperate that they started recruiting everyone who was fit enough to fight. At the camp I received a three days basic training before I was sent to hell. Our mission was quite simple but not easy, the enemy was attacking, and all we had to do was to hold the enemy off for two days until the other team can evacuate the city. On our way to the city the guy sitting next to me looked at my eyes he saw the fear that I wasn’t hiding, Trying to comfort me he asked me : ( do you believe in fate? ), I remembered my father’s face when he was telling me about fate and God. But at that time of my life I wasn’t sure what fate is, do we make our own fate? I didn’t choose to be a part of this war. It all looked like a puzzle, a broken glass, the more that I try to fix it, the more it cuts my hands, and the picture in it keeps shifting. I didn’t know what to say so I sat there silently. After a 10 hour journey we arrived at the battle field, we had a field camp to call a base. As soon as I sat foot on land the commander in action grabbed my hand and took me behind the field camp, on the way he asked about my name and profession, When I told him I was an engineer he immediately asked me “have ever killed someone?” terrified I answered “No.” he looked at and said “Son if you are going to survive at this hellhole you have to learn how to how to kill. And there is a first time for everything”. There was a small wooden room behind the camp. It was very dark with a small light hanging in the middle. Two chairs and a table, I instantly knew it was an interrogation room, there was a guard outside the room and a man sitting in one of the chairs in the room, he had a dark skin yet, His face was awfully white. It was very bloody with interrogation mark all over his body. The commander looked at him and said: (So you are trying to be a hero, eh?) the man crying looked at the commander and said: (I don’t know anything, I told you, I swear) the commander said: (then you die) he smiled at me and handed me a pistol, and sarcastically said to me: (it’s your time to shine) and he left the room. I looked at the man’s eyes, tears running down his face, he was helpless, he was horrified but I was sure I was more horrified than him, I didn’t even know what had he done to deserve death, I didn’t have the time to think, I aimed the pistol, closed my eyes, and I pulled the trigger, it was a cold blooded murder. I walked outside the room the commander wasn’t there, I never saw him again. I took a look at the battle field it looked like a bee hive, everybody was running at every direction, someone shouted my name, I answered he gave me a rifle, told me where my position was, I was to take control of an anti-missile, it had a very simple control system, and since I was an engineer I was able to get control of it fast. I was very pleased to know I didn’t have to shoot anyone again. But still every time I thought about how I killed that man I got terrified and I started to throw up. That day finally came to an end without any waves of the enemy, but I knew tomorrow would be a long day, I couldn’t sleep, every time I slept I dreamt of that man, the way he looked at me haunted me, I thought about his family, his wife, his kids, his mother. Late that night I had a call from my mother, she was crying, she was so worried about me, I comforted her, I told her I loved her and I hung up, I started thinking about my mother, what if I didn’t
answer that call? What will happen to her? How can I ever look at my mother again? How could I tell her that her beloved son took away a man’s life? I remembered the man’s face, I started crying. “It’s not fair” that’s the only I could think about, It’s not fair for me to be here, it’s not fair for me to lose my life for something I don’t even believe in; for something I didn’t choose, It’s not fair for my father, my mother to lose their son, all the people whom I loved; is it fair just to lose them like that, I thought about all of my fellow fighters that we lost, Is it fair that they just die alone in the middle of the desert? What were there dreams? I’m sure they didn’t want to die like dogs in desert without even the privilege to be buried, why? What makes us fight? I couldn’t understand death, it seemed the most injustice thing, how come an honest man and a criminal lie dead next to each other? Why does it have to end in that inevitable way; death? My mind couldn’t take it anymore, I got up from my bed, I went out, looked up, the sky was blue, the moon shining, why wouldn’t it? It doesn’t fight, it doesn’t care if I died, It doesn’t care if all the humans died, it will just keep shining, I envied it, it was very big, I felt very insignificant, I was going crazy. I couldn’t believe in anything but I needed the faith to strengthen me, I fell on my knees, bowed my head and shouted “Oh, Lord! “. I went back to my dormitory, fell on my bed it was cold, I remembered the way my mother warm look when she tells me she loves me, it made me feel warm.
I woke up early the next morning, looked around, I found a man burying his brother, alone, I started helping him I looked at his brother, he died in an explosion, his face was very scary, he was damaged, his hand was missing, he looked like a beast, I couldn’t bury him. I took position, I was so hungry; I haven’t ate in two days, but I couldn’t care less about that, at 12:00 the enemy forces were attacking, I was watching from behind, I saw men falling some dead and some alive bleeding to death. Bloods of honest men coming together with dirt it all created a red carpet beneath us, the noise was unbearable, the sounds of guns, tanks firing, Bullets were everywhere firing, one missed my head with less than an inch, the heat of it cut a small wound on my forehead, I couldn’t imagine what would have happened if it just went by a less than an inch to my direction, I looked behind, a man was pointing his rifle at me, I couldn’t reach my rifle, I remembered the pistol I had I pulled it … and I fired but I missed, the man started laughing, he was about to pull his trigger unconsciously I fired again, I didn’t know what me shoot again maybe it was the urge in all of us to survive, I looked back at the monitor, on the radar I saw something moving very fast, it was a missile. It was so close to the base that if I fired it will explode above the base and kill us all, but it wasn’t headed towards the base but to the city, I had only two choices either I fired at it and took a risk that it will kill everyone In the base or I let it destroy the city and kill everyone there, the commander ordered me to stand by, but I couldn’t, looked up to the sky I seen it, I fired but it was too late, everything went white. I woke up, looked around I thought I was dead, I was at a hospital, all my friends and family around me, they told me I saved all the soldiers In the base, I saved a thousand soldiers, they told me I was a hero, I closed my eyes, remembered when I was a kid I asked my father what is a hero? I never knew one day I was going to be the answer to my question



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A Devilish Robot
Writer 10 from Khartoum:
By Yusra Hussein Ibrahim

Most of us have their memories about their birthdays , the birthday cake , the gifts , who attended & who didn't , & what was the most terrific present you got , well some of us as well had extraordinary events on their birthday & I had my own story on that …
It was the month of October , autumn was packing & getting ready to leave for winter to take place , it was getting cold outside , the streets were almost empty , nothing but tree leaves carried by the early cold wind of winter , all the houses had dim lights except our house , straking lights were shinning through the windows , a lot of people were there " neighbors & friends " celebrating my 12th birthday , I received many dazzling gifts , played , made pranks & went even dumber than the three stooges , everybody was happy & everything was going smoothly. Then it started to rain heavily , a thunderstorm shouted , few minutes later the lights went off , I used to have nyctophobia so darkness formed my worst fears & the rains & thunderstorms played a great role in making me shake very hard , all the elements of fear gathered in my head just only one critical element was missing , Mrs. Dreary ..
Mrs. Dreary was an old widow lived in a huge house on a neighboring hill standing all by itself , some rumors said it was built over a bad witch's grave so her devilish spirit came up & settled in the house , Mrs. Dreary had bad reputation , people said she used to be a mannerly well-liked lady before the strange death of her husband fifteen years ago , some people said she went mad , others said she ecocided & this moving body was her ghost but all stayed rumors , no one knew what had really came upon her ..
However , she decided to come & smudge my party , when she arrived a moment of silence took over , she said " knock knock , here I am " as if she was welcomed " where is the birthday child ? " she said while she was coming straight towards me , a lightning strike made me see her cold smile , she got a folded box out of her satchel & gave it to me " Happy birthday Norah , you'll have the wildest fun with this , enjoy " she said & went out directly , the guests were pleased but no one wanted to know what she had given me , they wanted to forget about her , & so was I ..
Later on that night I went to my room , took a deep sigh & unfolded Mrs.Dreary's gift , surprisingly it was the grooviest gift , a ferric, small , blackish blue robot toy , it had tow cables on its head , blue eyes , incised neck & millions & millions of gears , I bet it could do more than 200 moves , but it has no remote control , I looked on & in the box for a using guide but the only information was " Astro is irrefragable , indestructible & incombustible robot toy " no trade mark no number , just this , I turned it on… a sound of moving gears came out then it started to walk about then an electric spark blazed over its head , it turned around , smiled & said : " Norah , let's play " .. a shudder thrilled through my body , I thought it was some kind of demons so I ran to mum telling her in stumble words what happened , mum followed me upstairs , the robot was standing peacefully on the floor ! mum calmed me down & said maybe I was tired of the party & Mrs. Dreary's visit , she refolded the robot I thought it would be better if she took it to her room , & so it was , then I went to bed but certainly that wasn't one of my best nights ..
Loud sounds of crashing disturbed my sleep , I opened my eyes to find Astro standing over my head " Sorry for waking you up , but it's my play time " Asrto said & smiled !! in a second I was at my mum's room door shaking like an old bole , I knocked the door so hard but she didn't open , Astro was coming towards me saying " Norah will play with Astro " , I kept on knocking still there was no reply , Astro came closer , then I thought It was better to run ..
Sunlight hit my face , I was lying on our garden , every muscle in my body ached like hell , my eyes were red , I went inside , mum looked at me & said " seems you had a terrible night " didn't she hear anything from last night ?? but that wasn't a surprise , maybe Astro washed her brain ! I didn't reply just went to get ready for school , at the door Astro said " See you later " I ignored it & went away ,, everything went so well at school . I came back home there was no mark for Astro till it was bed time when the same episode of chasing repeated , & this was the case for the next two weeks, he even used an electric shock against me once !. I got really sick , my participation in classes decreased , I got detention many times for sleeping during lessons & once for bringing my toy - Astro – to school & using it to disturb teachers . Eventually my parents thought I had hyper-nychtophobia & started taking me to a therapist !.
people thought I was getting mad , so one day I thought that was it , I had to bring that robot to an end though knowing it was unbreakable . At night I wore a helmet , held my baseball rocket & got ready for a decisive battle , few minutes later I saw it coming out of his box , I thought it seemed as if it had grown bigger , his eye went red & that electric sparkle over his head ! seemed it prepared for the battle too .. as he was getting closer I was getting more afraid , I thought about mum , dad , friends & all the people I know , I didn't say goodbye to them , I might not see them again .. then I thought there was no turning back , I've lived nights of hell , so I stood , ran towards it & hit it with the rocket but the rocket broke into two pieces ! I crocked & ran away , it was stepping steady behind me then he started to run , my leg flexed on the stairs & I fell off , I saw Astro standing over my head I felt the heat of his rolling gears burning my forehead , he looked at me for few seconds then laughed & touched my head " I caught you , now it's your turn , catch me if you can " Only at that moment I realized what Mrs. Deary meant with wild fun ! then he moved away & I passed away ..
I woke next morning my parents were beside my bed , there was no mark for Astro, not even a clue , I was thinking I should see Mrs. Dreary at the moment , so jumped off the bed ran heading to Mrs. Dreary's , mum tried to stop me but she couldn't , I found Mrs. Dreary watering her garden , curiosity was killing me so went ahead & asked her what was Astro , she smiled & said " Astro was designed by some neuroscientists , it was designed to sense the nerves & connect to the brain using an electric field effect so it could interfere the neural signals & create a whole new world in your imagination ,when you touch it all your memories & information proceed to its processor, it was designed to control the signals that cause the sense of fear in order to heal phobias then make you get over your fears by forcing you to face them , after it accomplishes the mission it destroys itself. I've been told you're frightened by darkness so I thought maybe I could help " . I had mixed feelings of astonishment happiness, grateful that all of that was not real & I was so obliged for Mrs. Dreary ..


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Those were the topics of the three winners of the Ghada Award English and the group of seven best who were
all considered equal in 4th place and were given the same recognition prizes.
We congratulate them all and celebrate their confidence for the sheer thought of competing against such
a wide host of their peers.
asha.




 

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