No. 10 in the series Tuesday’s Torrent.
Photograph courtesy of Tim Corbeel.
One part of the authentic self wanders light years out in the interstellar spaces,
in exile from us.
The other part is buried so deep within us that to resurrect it would be another return from exile.
~ Harold Bloom
More than 3,500 years ago, 100 miles west of Luxor and 300 miles south of Cairo, there was a road next to the ancient Girga Road known as Bin Abas. It was one of the many roads which led to nowhere. Sometimes it brought the pedestrians back where they began and other times some of these small pathways led onto others and no traveler returned back quite the same when they did finally make their way around.
Thais was one such passerby.
Tableaux of scenes and symbols can be found on the walls surrounding Bin Abas to four sides of her story.
One story holds that she came looking for Goddess Maat, the Ancient Egyptian principle of truth, order and justice.
Another story states that she was in love with Sinuhe, who holds life of Sycamore trees.
The third story reveals that her name wasn’t even Thais and she was in fact a young man who often got lost.
The fourth story is the most complex. The carvings reveal a disturbing tale which many from the area still regard as a possibility.
Thais met a seventeen year old boy one afternoon who asked her directions to Girga Road because he didn’t know how to get there on his own. Thais, quite older and more experienced than him, told the boy a shorter route was possible through Bin Abas. The boy had short brown hair, darker brown eyes, and wore a long white linen shirt with a blue scarf wrapped around the middle. The light colors made his skin appear darker than it really was.
They say it was the bone dehydrating heat of the desert and the boy never made it to Girga Road.
It was shortly after that when Thais began speaking in fours. She had four names and four stories for all her selves.
It would have scared the townspeople but she was usually accurate in her four perspectives of herself.
Thais lived like this for a long time. No one knows her age.
That was a long time ago.
Eventually someone who was scared of her many selves brutally murdered Thais.
Now the world has many unauthentic four sides striving to be one which is not possible.
Related posts:
- the bridge No. 16 in the series Tuesday’s Torrent. Photograph courtesy of Tim...
- Maat No. 12 in the series Tuesday’s Torrent. Photograph courtesy of Tim...
- jigar No. 19 in the series Tuesday’s Torrent. I wrote last week’s...
wow…what an ending,YOU are a true story weaver…
Your story has opened up a world of possibilities in my own story telling. It seems that we have gotten used to their being ‘two sides to every story’, but in fact, there can be more!
Your post today has changed my perspective. That is not easily done. Thanks so much.