By Yassin Khader Al- Qaisi: The Coachman (Prepared Angela Kosta)
Moderator 
BY YASSIN KHADER AL- QAISI: THE COACHMAN
Written by Yassin Khader Al-Qaisi
The coachman saw the hole from afar with his piercing eyes. He tried to pull the reins of his wild horse to avoid falling, but the horse was speeding and the carriage was swaying to the right and to the left. He could not stop it or control it. He fell, and his horse and the carriage all fell into it. He got out of the hole in the ground opposite the hole, to find himself in another world, not like the world he had experienced. He shook the dust of time off his shoulders from the horror of the shock he saw. Buildings, cars, electricity, and people whose clothes were not like his. Where was his farm and the river? Where were his cows and sheep? Where were his wife and children? Where is the hole they fell into? Questions ignited the convolutions of his head, so he fell unconscious, the hands of passersby caught him and put him in a large car due to the size of his body, which ranged between two and a half meters, to the nearby hospital in the city. The news spread in the suburb and its outskirts. Journalists were the first to enter the hospital. People were waiting for news. The police were standing at the door of his hall waiting for the attending physician to give them permission to interrogate him. Anxiety overwhelmed everyone. A carriage, a horse and a coachman of this enormous size and we are smaller than him in size. What a magnificent and harmonious dark horse! How can he be among us? Where did he come from???? Many questions that needed answers. He woke up from his coma. The doctor indicated that he had not been questioned because of the great pain and some wounds he was suffering from. The doctor was curious to know a lot about him. After asking him several questions, his answers were different from what the doctor wanted from him, so he thought he had lost his memory. The therapist was absent-minded. How could this man fall into a hole and emerge from another one from the ground? This is what the coachman told him.
On the second day, the police and journalists came to the hospital to find out the facts from him or the doctor, but they did not find him in his bed. They tried to search for him, but all their hopes were dashed. They went to the carriage and the horse stable, but they did not find anything. They followed his tracks and found him at a very high speed with his carriage and his black horse. The coachman was looking for a hole in the ground to return to his life that he lost against his will. The bullets were chasing him, and he did not know what this screaming hiss was. They got closer to him. He tried to get away from them in the nearby forest because of the ruggedness of its land, but he could not. The carriage flipped over and they surrounded him from all sides, put handcuffs on his hands, and threw him in prison. The days were slower and sadder for him. He often cried for his wife, children, and homeland. The hole he came out of was what he often thought about. How can he get there? To enter it and return to his family and those wonderful days that he lost in a moment of time.
الحوذي
بقلم ياسين خضر القيسي
رأى الحفرةَ من بعيدٍ بعينين ثاقبتين ذلك الحوذي، حاولَ سحبَ لجامِ حصانه الجامحة لتفادي السقوط، إلا أن الحصانَ كان مسرعاً والعربة تتمايل عن اليمين وعن الشمال، لم يستطع إيقافها والسيطرة عليها، سقط وحصانه والعربة تردّوا فيها كلهم، خرج من ثقب الأرض المقابل للحفرة، ليجد نفسه في عالمٍ آخرٍ ليس كعالمه الذي خبره، وهو ينفض غبار الزمن عن كاهله من هول الصدمة التي رأى، مبانٍ وسياراتٍ وكهرباء والناس ملابسهم ليست كملابسه، أين مزرعته وجدول النهر أين أبقاره وخرفانه أين زوجته وأولاده ؟ أين الحفرة التي سقطوا فيها، تساؤلات أشعلت تلافيف رأسه، فسقط مغشيا عليه، تلقفته أيادي المارة ووضعوه في سيارةٍ كبيرةٍ لضخامة جسده الذي يتراوح بين المترين ونصف المتر إلى المشفى القريب في المدينة، انتشر الخبر في الضاحية وأطرافها، الصحفيون أول من دخل المشفى، الناس تنتظر الأخبار، الشرطة واقفة عند باب ردهته ينتظرون الطبيب المعالج ليعطيهم الإذن في استجوابه، القلق استبد بالجميع، عربة وحصان وحوذي بهذه الضخامة الهائلة ونحن أقل منه حجماً يا لهذا الحصان الأدهم بروعته وتناسق قوامه، كيف يكون بيننا من أين أتى؟؟؟؟ تساؤلات كثيرة تحتاج إلى أجوبة، استيقظ من غيبوبته، أشار الطبيب إلى عدم استنطاقه لما يعاني من آلامٍ كثيرةٍ وبعض الجروح، كان الفضول عند الطبيب أن يعرف عنه الشيء الكثير، بعدما سأله عدة أسئلة كانت أجوبته مغايرة لِما يريد الطبيب منه فظنه فاقداً للذاكرة، كان المعالج شارد البال كيف لهذا الرجل أن يسقط في حفرة ليخرج من أخرى من الأرض؟ هكذا حدثه الحوذي.
في اليوم الثاني أتت الشرطة والصحفيون للمشفى لتبيان الحقائق منه أو من الدكتور إلا أنهم لم يجدوه في سريره حاولوا البحث عنه خابت كل آمالهم، ذهبوا إلى العربة ومربط الجواد لم يجدوا أيَّ شيءٍ، اقتفوا آثاره وجدوه في سرعةٍ بالغةٍ جداً مع عربته وحصانه الأدهم، كان الحوذي يبحث عن ثقب الأرض ليعود أدراجه إلى حياته التي فقدها دون إرادته، كانت العيارات النارية تتخاطفه وهو لا يعرف ما هذا الأزيز الصارخ بأذنيه، اقتربوا منه أكثر، حاول الإبتعاد عنهم بين الغابة المجاورة لوعورة أرضها، إلا أنه لم يتمكن، انقلبت العربة وهم أحاطوا به من كل جانب وضعوا القيود بيديه وزجوه بالسجن. كانت الأيام أشد بطءً وحزناً عليه، وكثيراً ما كان يبكي زوجته أطفاله ووطنه، كانت الحفرة التي خرج منها كثيراً ما كان يفكر فيها، كيف السبيل إليها؟ ليدخل فيها ويعود لأهله وتلك الأيام الرائعة التي فقدها بلحظةٍ من الزمن.
Prepared Angela Kosta Executive Director of MIRIADE Magazine, Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter
