Photo prompt © Fatima Fakier Deria
“We’ll never all fit,” Sultana groaned.
“Lots of room!” the driver boomed encouragement even as he tightened screws underneath the van.
“C’mon!” Mariam elbowed past her cousin and climbed onto the vehicle, parcels and a flapping hen in hand. “Next one isn’t till dawn.”
Sultana looked around as if better conveyance would miraculously manifest. None did. She sighed, grabbed her packages and hoisted the bleating kid under an arm. She squeezed aboard, the last one on, with barely room enough to sit down.
The door slammed. The goat peed, soaking her lap.
It’ll be a long ride to Jaddati’s farm.
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Now that’s an awful ride – nice job!
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🙂 Indeed … yet there are many places in the world where that’s the standard people make do with. …
THANK YOU 🙂
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That’s great – I could almost see and smell the scene!
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Well, if you couldn’t smell it right away, I’m sure you’d be able to smell it plenty an hour or so into the ride … 😉
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Loved the goat peeing
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That’s what kid goats would do when distressed (or just to spite … ;)) – can’t blame the kid … 😉
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love those last two lines 🙂
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🙂 Poor Sultana … (and I don’t envy the rest of the van, when the effects of the kid’s distress ‘ripen’ with time … ;))
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Oh no!
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LOL!
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A very long ride, indeed!
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Yep. … A bit too long me think … 😉
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So many delicious bits and bites in your story, Na’ama. The driver tightening the screws under the van, and of course, the goat peeing, are my two favorites. Wonderful scene-weaving.
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🙂 Glad you liked it! It was partially taken out of things I’d seen in other parts of the world and partially from stories my nieces and nephews told of their adventures … (the kid peeing in one’s lap is a real thing, too, though that kid was a few days old, and I was cradling it in our goat’s pen … 😉 I must’a been about ten …).
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It worked well as a composite. Threads of memories, woven together ❤
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🙂 Yay!
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Oh lordy… I guess when one lives in that type of environment, one gets used to such, um, modes of transportation. I dunno that I could ever adapt.
Your descriptions, however, brought me right there!
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Well, ain’t you happy my website doesn’t come with ‘smell-a-post’? 😉
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You have no idea!!! 😀
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LOL!!!
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I’m sure once they’re on the road it’ll be a fun ride, there all in it together! 🙂
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Literally. Yep. All in it together … 😉
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Very charming funny tale of discomfort. You can hear her saying “just my luck!” At first I thought the kid was a human child–and many a mom who let things go too long between diaper changes knows what that’s like too. 😊
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Yep. And kids have more than one ‘fluid sprouting’ location, too … 😉
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Made me think of photos I’ve seen of people hanging off the side, the back, and piles of baggage strapped to the top. But a peeing goat? That’s the final straw 🙂
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LOL! I guess it would be, wouldn’t it. …. 😉
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All *kidding* aside. Yikes. Not a happy ride.
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Yeah … not a happy ride ….
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Nothing quite like pee. Too funny, just when it couldn’t get worse…
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Yep. Just about… 😂
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Sounds like my worst nightmare. Nicely described!
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Ah, yeah, well, if that’s your worst nightmare, you are probably in relatively good shape in the night-terrors-department … 😉 Though, yeah, I would NOT want to be stuck in that van for any length of time … What is reality, though, for many people in many areas of the world, where this is public transportation, crowding and all manner of ‘non-human passengers’ included.
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Lovely affectionate tale of rural public transport. No matter what the discomforts, there’s always a lot of life and camaraderie in a bus like that.
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Yep, that is true. One of my nieces was traveling in a rural area in one of the less modernly-developed countries in the world, and their bus (van, really) got stuck in a muddy ditch. Everyone pulled their shoes off, rolled up their pants or tucked their skirts up, and went to work digging and pushing … The only ones exempt were the women with small children, the hens, and the squealing pigs, who were left on the van for the duration … Once released from the mucky hold, the passengers filed back in, and shared bananas from a bunch someone had on the roof. 🙂 My niece was scared at first, and amazed and moved thereafter (no pun). For many of the people there, this was a day in the life … and they just got on with it.
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Nothing quite like goat’s pee to concentrate your mind. It all sounded delightful!
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🙂 Yeah. Don’t I know it! … (actually, I do know the goat pee situation … we had a goat, and the goat had kids, and one of them piddled in my lap when it was a few days old … Was mostly surprising, but I wouldn’t want to have to sit with that on the bus for hours … 😉 (also, I would NOT want to be within a good distance of the pee of a Billy Goat. Them stink!!!). 😉
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Na’ama Y’karah,
Sounds like it’s going to be a gangs-of-fun, laugh-a-minute ride. I could see it, feel it and (yech) smell it. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Yeah, I think it may well end up being a pretty entertaining ride … 😉 If nothing else, it’d be filled with sensory perceptions … 😉
(as for goat kid pee in your lap … it is not something you forget … 😉 )
Na’ama
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Lovely writing and a such a good story in so few words. I’m curious to know how the rest of the journey went.
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Thank you! 🙂 Yes, I’ve spent some time thinking to myself about the rest of the journey, and the scene at the end of the trip, as well. … 😉
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Poor Sultana. It’s too bad that a “better conveyance did not miraculously manifest” (love how you put that). I’m always amazed how people in other parts of the world just get on with it. They take the not so great and deal with it. More strength and determination than me. Very entertaining story, though a little stinky. =)
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Yes, a little stinky. One hopes that the flapping hen (and any ducks or other livestock outside the peeing goat baby) did not add its own to the mix … 😉
And, yes, people make do, don’t they? It is part heroism, part tenacity, part practical acceptance of what one cannot change and better make the best of while one can … till one hopefully can improved choices.
Poor Sultana indeed. Hopefully her grandmother’s farm will offer some comforts that the ride did not …
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Oh, yuck! Goat pee… stinketh huge. Yuck! My hubby used to raise goats before we married… sometimes… just saying it happens. but, yucky! Great story!
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Yep. Had goats growing up. … 😉 Sometimes … yeah … they do. … I had a kid goat pee in my lap once, a few days old it was, and nursing, and therefore not-so-stinky as a more grown goat’s pee would be (the ‘intact’ Billy Goats are, of course, the WORST) … but still not much fun to be tinkled on … 🙂
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Graphic description of an everyday occurrence.
Well done!
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Thank you Ceayr! 🙂 In many places it indeed is an everyday occurrence … (hopefully not the kid pee in one’s lap, but hey … that happens, too …) 😉
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Ha! The goat peed, love it!
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🙂 Yep. As they would … in the least opportune moments … 😉 Glad you liked it! 🙂
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A slice of life glimpse into their lives. I’m a bit worried about what the driver was screwing under the bus… It will be an entertaining ride!
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My thoughts exactly, Fatima! 🙂
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