By: Manal Rabiey
The last thread of sunlight slipped through the fingers of dusk, leaving the sky torn with colors, a twilight spreading like a silent wound across the horizon. As the noise of the day slowly faded into heavy stillness, the city prepared to wear the cloak of night. Street lamps began to glow shyly, lighting paths that carried nothing but the echoes of tired footsteps and forgotten promises.
And in a quiet corner, there was a lonely window. Behind it sat a little girl, pressing her cheek against the cold glass. She did not see twilight the way grown-ups did. No—she saw the wind as transparent soldiers racing down the streets, each carrying a glowing banner of air, whispering to one another in a secret language that only she could understand.
She giggled softly and whispered:
“I see you… don’t hide from me.”
Every soldier that passed became part of her game. She counted them one by one, believing each of them was a sign that her father—gone for so long was drawing closer.
One night, something different happened. A soldier stopped. He did not run, nor vanish into the dark. He stood still, wrapped in a faint halo of light. Slowly, he lifted his transparent arm and pointed toward the sky. The girl lifted her eyes and gasped: the clouds were opening like giant doors, and behind them flowed a river of light.
Her heart fluttered, but she was not afraid. Deep inside, she heard his voice:
“We know your father… we remember his face, and we walk beside his steps. He is coming to you, and in his hand he carries a small toy, and a sweet just as you love.”
And then, on the glass, her father’s face appeared—smiling—holding a little cloth doll in one hand and a piece of bright-colored candy in the other.
The girl clapped her hands and whispered:
“I know them… they are mine!”
She pressed her tiny palms to the glass as if she could hold them right away. From that night on, the window was no longer just a window—it became a mirror of her dreams, where the soldiers of the wind waved to her every evening, whispering:
“He is coming… with your toy and your sweet.”
