Lisha’s Wedding

Lisha’s Wedding

It is a lovely afternoon. The sun has only begun to hide behind the open, blue sea which indicates the nearing of dusk. Too bad that this also means the nearing of my marriage with my father's business associate's son.
I stare at myself blankly in the mirror while one of my remaining friends, Safia, arranges my hair and make-up - fussing about this and that and generally looking terribly sorry for me. And suddenly, I wanted it all back. My brother. My friends. My life. My freedom.
I can vaguely hear my friend telling me about how remorseful she is as I can’t pay attention because I can feel myself being pulled back in time - back to the time when my whole life turned upside down. The time when my brother was still alive. . .

      “Lishaaaa! Come on! Let’s go! The guys are probably worried about us by now!” my impatient twin brother, Kier, bellowed.
“Waaaait! I don’t think I can keep up anymore!” I wailed.
“What?! You insisted on going to this hiking trip and now you don’t want to continue?! Ugh! I shouldn’t have let you go with me! I told you to stay home, didn’t I? But no, you had to go with me because you learned that my best friend is coming!”
      “Aaaaw. You know that you can’t say no to me. You love me too much!” I said with a grin.
      “Ugh! You’re right. I think I spoiled you too much. And look where that got us! In the middle of nowhere! We don’t even have a map or food or-”
      “Uh…Kier?”
      “What?!”
      “I think I hear some river or water of some sort. Can we go there? Pleeeease?” I begged.
      “I hate it when you do that! I swear someday you’ll be the death of me. Okay, let’s go.” He said and gave me a smile. We followed the direction that the splashing is from and after an infinity of walking, we found a relatively small stream! I got so excited that I ran for it immediately not thinking about anything except my need to quench my thirst and drink. But then I didn’t notice the slippery rocks lining the...