The Town

How does it feel to be outside the town? 

Ahmed, a little boy from Jordan, whose dream is going outside the town, was really curious about having adventure. A little six years old kid with vibrant personality who always seeks a way to get out, from anything. From his mom, from his friends, from his dog, after all, from the town.  With his little feet, he runs like a deer here and there, climbs up and down, and buzzing all directions . He loves to play hide and seek, he prefers hiding than seeking. He is the best hider among all other kids in town. With his tiny agile body, he always find a perfect hiding for him, unfindable, blur, silent and save. 

He lives in a town that's never been cold. A red town with sand and dust flying around together with windy air. A town that can burn your heart and make you feel an undentifiable anger. A town built with rage and lust of the people whose head made of stone and iron. A town where you can be friend with animal since there are no big difference between them except the dichotomy of organism. A town where you can find a lion selling papayas or a panda becoming a drag queen. A town that is not there when you try to open the map. The town covered with unseen layer that make it able to resist any coldness from the out world. 

Ahmed, a curious little rascal with brown hair and green wide eyes, feels that he is the smartest person in the town. He has discovered every single secret spot in town, he has known all the people in town, he even has made his own home in the middle of the secret oase he fiund by himself, he feels like he is more than the governoor, he feels like he is the king of The Red Town. 

In one afternoon in The Red Town, Ahmed sat alone in the top of an oak tree. He stared up and try to explore the sky, the definite sky with blur shadow of the moon. He only could see a thick red layer that limit his vision boundary. He had nothing to think except how to break the spell to cut through the unseen barrier.

"I am the best in this town, I want to have more" said him to himself

"Haha, Ahmed the cocky boy, you have nothing to be proud of, compared to me, you are just a little star and I am the moon" said someone 

Ahmed shocked by the uninvited voice, he looked around to find who was there talking to him without permisson and called him cocky boy. He was still on the tree and trying to look around, right and left, up and down, but ended up with failure to find the voice source.

"Where are you? Don't try to hide, I will find you, I am the best hider in town" said Ahmed

"I am here, right under you" 

Promptly, Ahmed looked down the tree and only found a small white round furry creature, a rabbit. He surprised and widened his eyes to make sure what he saw. The one who confidently insulted him is only a rabbit, a fat one. He felt disapointed and  little bit sad, it was unexpected. He wished that he could find an old man  with white beard and mustache whose had lived ten times longer than him and has much more experiences to be explored about everything Ahmed has not been discovered. In fact, It was only a rabbit.

"Who are you?" said Ahmed

"I am the underground explorer" said the Rabbit

"What does it mean?" 

"It means I know the world you do not know" answered the Rabbit

"Hey, you are just a rabbit, you even ten times smaller than me" 

"The smaller the better" said the rabbit again

Ahmed did not argue back, he agreed with the rabbit. He remember that he is the smallest boy among other boys in his neighbour hood, and everybody called him Ahmed the Great. 

"If that's right, can you show me how to get out?" he said

The rabbit looked at him, deeply, with no words for a few minutes. The red eyes of the rabbit was trying to read the cocky boy's mind.After six minutes passed, the Rabbit nodded soflty and blinked two until three times, and then exhaled while saying,

"Why do you want to get out?"

"I want to be much better than anybody in this town, you said you are an undergorund explorer, so I want to be an underground and outherground explorer, I want to know everything"

"Is that thing that makes you happy? Don't you want any other things in life except being an explorer? Don't you want to be a nice kid and stay here to taka care of your Mom?" asked the Rabbit

"No, I want the world" said Ahmed

"If that what you want, Okay, I can show you the way"

"Really? Okay, come on. I can not wait" said Ahmed, widely smilling, he was really excited. 

The red eyed rabbit asked Ahmed the grey eyed boy to follow him. The rabbit jumped here and there, very fast, while Ahmed follow his steps by mantaining the same tempo of his running. They went to the east to the eastest pasrt of the Red Town.They passed river, field, some gardens and a wood. And finally the arrived to big old teak tree which is located in the very iniside part of the wood. 

"Come on, take a deep breath" said the rabbit while jumping onto a big black hole in other side of the tree.

Ahmed got confused and little bit frightened, do I have to come in? how to come back? what I will find inside there? is it dangerous? Will I meet any dragon or monster down there? who will protect me? 

Those questions keep dizzying in his head, he felt little bit lost and tired. After the very long journey of unstoppable running, finally he met the runaway. Do I have to quit, after all this tiring running? 

But then the voice of the red eyed rabbit comes to his mind, the horizon is wider than what you can imagine, it will take your breath away, sometimes it can kill your soul since of its beauty, the world is colder than the lemonade ice tea, it is blue and green, not red like the town, are you ready?

 What is blue and green? What is cold? How wide is actually the horizon is? Does the red eyed rabbit lie to him? He could be a warlock who want to kidnap him. He had been dragged onto a complicated thought of stay or go. Suddenly, an image of her beautiful Mom bringing a bowl of soup acrossed his mind. 

How about Mom? Is she okay if I go?

Ahmed nailed for almost ten minutes, closed eyes and opened mouth. In the eleventh minutes, he decided to step in and let his body swallowed by the darkness of the unlimited hole in the teak tree, followed the red eyed rabbit.

***

"Welcome to the outside, insider" said the rabbit

Ahmed feels tickles thing all over his body, slowly, he opened his eyes. The last thing he saw were a teak tree and a hole, then dark. He looked  around and feel confused, what is this? a soft thickling creature under his body. 

"Say hello to the grass" said the rabbit

"Grass?" said Ahmed, still wondered the Grass

"Yes, green grass, look at there, welcome to the ouside, that's your town. Beutiful isn't it?" said the Rabbit

Ahmed turn his head to the direction where the Rebbit went. He tried to stand up to have a better view.

Ahmed was amazed by the fantastic view in front of his face. The Red Town from miles away out, the town with blur moon and red weather. Now he can see how does a moon look like. He can see the northest untiil the southest part of the town. He san cee the end of the barrier, the unseen layer that covers the town. He can see the whole red sky covering the town. 

"Look up, boy" said the Rabbit

"What is that?" said Ahmed

"That is blue sky, like sea, blue" said the rabbit

"Where is the horizon?" asked Ahmed while still watching the amazing blue thing up there

"There" said the Rabbit, pointing at somewhere beyond the skyline

"There? What is there?" 

"Everything, Don't you want to know more? You said you want the world" said the Rabbit

"Can I?" 

"Why not?" said the red eyed rabbit

Ahmed stare at the blue sky, the green grass, the red town, what's next?. He nailed for five minutes. In the sixth minutes, he started his first runaway, to catch the end of the horizon. Will he come back? If only he can find the end of the horizon