Chapter Six.

T he Fact Ames h had fallen asleep did not sto p me from eventually pa.s.sing out. Perhaps the carpet was castin g spells, or else I simply stopped worrying about falling into th e water . I t had been a long day and I was totally exhausted .

When I woke up and checked my watch, I discovered it ha d stopped . I t read 10:35 p.m . T hat would have been an hour afte r we'd left Istanbul . I t was an expensive watch. Waterproof . S hockproof . T he battery was fresh . I t should not have stopped . I didn't have time to worry about it . I t was no longer dark, a lthough we were light years away from a sunny day . T he carpe t h ad transported us to an eerie fog bank, where there were n o stars or sky. And it had lowered us to within three feet of th e water. Our speed had also decreased; we were creeping along . T he fog was neither cold nor warm . I t did not even fee l damp . I might have mistaken it for smoke, but I smelled n o odor . I could not tell from which direction the light was coming . T here was no wind and yet the fog moved, forming brieflived spirals that spun up fro m below. As one swept over me I felt a distinct chill . T hey looked like ghosts . T he stars in the center of the carpet had disappeared . I n their place was a gray-green circle-the same color as the water . I had lost my desire for adventure . I wanted to go home .

Amesh sat with his chin resting on his chest, breathin g heavily .

"A mesh," I said, then louder, "Amesh!"

He did not wake up . I tried shaking him. He slumped t o the side; he almost fell off . S till, he did not regain consciousness. "Amesh!" I was terrified. He was breathing; he was alive; why didn' t he wake up? Was there something about this place we were traveling through that was keeping him asleep? Of course I blame d the fog and not the carpet, although the reverse could just a s easily have been true . I felt it was a mistake that I had woken u p in this place . I just wished I hadn't . N ot long after, I blacked out again .

When I awoke next, Amesh was softly calling my name . I sa t up with a start . I had pa.s.sed out sitting in his direction, and a s soon as I saw him I gave him a quick hug. "You're all right!" I gushed .

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be? "

"B ecause . . . N ever mind, I was just worried." I realized ou r surroundings had changed again . T he creepy fog had lifted an d the sky was back, along with the stars, although a rising sun i n the east was chasing them away. Yet in the opposite direction, n ear the horizon, was a weird red glow . T he color seemed angry; a b.l.o.o.d.y red . I t was shrouded in mist and I could not tell if i t was caused by a single star or planet. At the same time it wa s quickly sinking below the horizon . I mentioned it to Amesh but he had no idea what it was .

"I woke up just before you," he said, gesturing in the direction of the sun. " I can't believe we slept the whole night. "

"M aybe we didn't." my body was stiff from sitting for s o long, and yet I knew I had not been asleep seven hours. But how c ould one argue with the heavens? it was a brand-new day. An d now my watch read: 6:30 a.m . I said the time out aloud. Amesh' s expression suddenly turned glum .

"M y Papi's going to kill me," he said .

"I won't tell you I told you so. "

" You just told me."

"Well, that's beside the point. Where are we?"

Amesh frowned as he scanned the area . T he carpet ha d climbed once more to ten feet, and it was traveling at about te n miles an hour . T he color of the water had returned to normal, b ut the red glow was not the only thing that troubled me .

Like I said, my dad had taught me a few things about th e stars, but I was not an expert when it came to astronomy . S till, I did not recognize a single constellation . I tried to explain m y difficulty to Amesh but he brushed me off .

"T he sun's coming up; there aren't that many stars to go by. "

"T here's that weird red glow, too. We can't just ignore it. "

"I 'm not ignoring anything; I'm just trying to figure ou t where we are . I f the carpet stayed at this speed for eight hours, w e could be two hundred kilometers from sh.o.r.e."

A kilometer was about two-thirds of a mile, I reminde d myself. He was saying we were about 140 miles from istanbul .

"You said there were islands out this far," I said .

"S ure. We're bound to run into one. But there's mor e chance we'll see one in the distance. We should keep the binoculars handy and practice turning the carpet . I f we see one, we'l l want to head straight for it. "

" You don't want to retrace our path home?"

Amesh yawned and stretched . "I can't sit here another eigh t hours. Let's find an island . T hey'll have boats heading back t o istanbul . I t's the biggest port in the area."

t he red glow vanished, as the sun rose higher. We decide d to have breakfast. Protein bars, chocolate bars, and bottled water .

Amesh chewed the peanut b.u.t.ter bars with relish .

"I thought you were nuts when you packed all this stuff," h e said .

"I t goes to show how good my intuition is. "

" You've been right about a lot of stuff, Sara ." I blushed. Just the way he said my name, it got me .

"A lot of lucky guesses. usually my batting averag e is lower. "

"B atting average?" he asked .

"Like in baseball. "

" Oh. I'm serious. You were right about the carpet, how t o fly it, the ley lines . E verything. "

" Does this mean you'll be my slave from now on? "

"I feel like I already am. Why don't you use your intuitio n and figure out how to turn the carpet? "

" Okay," I agreed, although my intuition was still telling m e to do the opposite and keep going . T he carpet knew where i t was heading and we would know when we got there. But ther e was no point is saying that to Amesh . E specially since we had a more pressing problem .

"I have to pee," I told him when we were done eating .

He turned red . "S o do i. "

" Why are you blushing? You can just slide up on you r knees and pee off the side into the water."

He turned a deeper red, if that was possible . "I can' t do that. "

" Don't be embarra.s.sed . I won't look. I'm the one with th e problem. "

" Why? "

" Duh! I'm a girl!"

He looked away . "I 'd rather not talk about this. "

" We have to talk about it . I can't hold it much longer. "

" Why not? "

"B ecause I'm a girl and Allah made us inferior to boys .

What do you mean, why not? my bladder's about to burst. "

" You shouldn't have drunk so much water. "

"I was thirsty! Besides, you drank twice as much as I did. "

"I did not! "

" You drank half a bottle! And you ate three protein bars! "

" Well, why didn't you stop me? "

" You were hungry. But forget that. Are you going to go o r not? there's no reason for you to suffer just because I am. "

"I n my country, males do not urinate in front of females. "

" Like it's a big sport in America! I'll turn around and pu t my fingers in my ears so I can't hear you."

He did not respond. He was simply too embarra.s.sed .

Fortunately, ten minutes later, when I was on the verge o f stripping and hanging from the back of our glider, we spotte d an island . I t appeared small, devoid of trees and gra.s.s, althoug h there was an array of low-lying hills that blocked a clear view o f the far side . I was learning not to make snap judgments. Fo r all we knew, it might be miles across and have a hotel on th e other end . T he carpet took us beyond the sh.o.r.eline before it slowe d and began to lose alt.i.tude. A moment later we were sitting on a sandy beach and staring at each other. A wind howled agains t the stone cliffs and in our ears . T he sun was bright in the sky . T he stars in the center of the carpet had stopped moving . T he y faded until they were no longer glowing . I was the first one to shake myself and stand. "Ge t up," I said .

"What's the hurry? "

" You know. "

" You don't have to take the carpet with you. "

" We have to keep an eye on it at all times. We don't know a nything about this island." the second he was off the carpet, I knelt and rolled it up .

"A ll I'm saying is I can watch it while you- "

"I like carrying it," I interrupted, holding it close . I did no t know why I felt so possessive of the carpet . E specially here, o f all places, it wasn't like he could steal it from me. "Wait here, I'll be back in a few minutes. "

"I 'll meet you here in five," he shouted after me . N ot far from the sh.o.r.e were plenty of boulders, which offered many places to pee. Honestly, I could not recall havin g e ver felt such relief. When we met back at the beach I was in a much better mood, although Amesh was puzzled .

"What's wrong?" I asked .

He gestured to the island . "I don't recognize this place. "

" You told me there were hundreds of islands betwee n turkey and Greece. Why should you recognize it? "

"M y Papi has taken me to a few islands . T his one look s different. On most of the islands near turkey, the soil is sunbleached. Here, it's darker. "

"I t looks normal to me."

He frowned. "Let me see that map you brought." I reached in my pack and gave it to him. As he studied it, h is frown deepened. "Well?" I said finally .

He sighed . "I don't know where we are. "

" Can you make an educated guess?"

He handed back the map . "I suspect the carpet picked u p speed while we slept and flew us into the Aegean sea." I almost mentioned the fog we'd pa.s.sed through bu t something held me back . I didn't like thinking about it, neve r mind talking about it. Plus, he'd never believe I couldn' t wake him up .

"T hat's good, right? the Greek islands are crowded wit h tourists. We should be able to hitch a ride back with someone."

Amesh nodded, although there was doubt in his eyes .

"We'll be okay," he said .

We debated sticking to the sh.o.r.e or heading right or left, b ut felt that hiking straight inland would bring us to civilizatio n faster . I favored the latter course for another reason . I worrie d about our water supply. We had four one-liter bottles. With ou r dozen protein bars and eight candy bars, we could do withou t real food for a while. But we would be dead in two days-thre e at the outside-without water . I hoped we'd stumble upon a stream soon . T he wind disappeared as we left the beach behind .

But there were problems with hiking inland. First, ther e were no paths and the ground was loose and rocky. Gravel kep t seeping into my shoes . I had to keep stopping to empty them . S econd, the hills that looked low and gentle from the sea wer e nevertheless hard to climb . I had always hated walking uphill .

While Amesh coasted along, I panted heavily . T he temperature increased rapidly as the sun rose higher .

But the biggest problem was we didn't know where we wer e going. At least if we had tried circling the island, staying by th e sh.o.r.e, we would have had a clear direction. But even with ou r compa.s.ses, we couldn't plot a clear course because we would n o sooner crest a row of hills than discover another row behind it .

Just as I had guessed, the island was much larger than it appeared from the sea .

After three hours of hiking, Amesh called for a halt . I wa s grateful . M y throat was parched and I had blisters forming o n my feet. Amesh opened another bottle of water. He had greate r e ndurance and was carrying more weight-he had our backpac k and the bottles on his back-but he was going through th e water faster than I was . N aturally, I carried the carpet .

"Careful," I warned. "We only have two bottles afte r that one."

He gestured to some tired-looking gra.s.s and a few lowlying shrubs .

"T here has to be water here for this stuff to grow," he said .

"I wonder . T hey look pretty thirsty . M aybe they live of f the rain."

He shook his head and handed me the bottle. "We have n o choice. We need to drink to keep hiking, and to find water, w e have to hike. unless you want to find some shade and take a long nap and wait for someone to rescue us." I accepted the bottle and took a hearty slug. "that idea' s not as silly as it sounds . N ot the rescue part, but the waitin g until dark . T hen we might be able to find another ley line an d explore the island from the air. "

" You wouldn't use the carpet to take us home? "

"I 'd like to take a look around first." Amesh did not loo k happy with my answer so I added, "Well, I don't think it too k us here to die."

He snorted. "there you go again, speaking as if i t were alive. "

"M aybe it is."

He threw his hands in the air. "that's . . . T hat's blasphemy!"

I was suddenly angry. "How can you say that? the carpe t has proven its worth . I t can fly! it can fly because it's a magi c carpet. "

"I f it's so magical, why can't it fly during the day?" n ot long after peeing, I had tried to get the carpet off th e ground with the sun up, but nothing happened . I t either neede d the stars for power, or else we had lost our ley line . I told Ames h as much but he was unimpressed . T his was the fist time I had seen him get mad at the carpet . I supposed it was because he was hot and tired .