Raif Amir Ismail (Prepared Angela Kosta)
Moderator 
BY RAIF AMIR ISMAIL (IRAQ)
BLACK TIME BOMB
He found no listening ears to his repeated calls despite their loudness and clamor, when he woke up from his sleep in the morning and called out, because he did not find anyone in his house, nor anyone outside it.
Only a few hours passed until he was sure that the entire city was completely devoid of life.. Its houses, streets, sky and water were devoid of people, and even of any living creature.
Then, after a few hours, he concluded that all life had left planet Earth.
Everyone had disappeared and there was no trace of their bodies.. There were no corpses or any trace of blood.
Not even their voices or images in the communication and reception devices that had completely stopped, as no one was operating or using them anymore.
A terrifying silence.. Everything had fallen silent.. All civilization had stopped.
He was the only one left walking, disappointed by an ending that had seemed entertaining when he saw it one day in a movie, and he did not believe that it would actually happen, and that he would be its victim.
Hours of trembling and crying, accompanied by images of a past he did not know where it hid, and thinking about a future that only concerned him. What would he do? What would he fear? Will someone descend to him from the sky as he saw in a movie? What would he look like or what would be his goal this time? Will the earth split open to bring out the monsters he also saw in another movie?
Apart from all that, how would he live alone?
His absolute loneliness was dispelled by an old dog who came from afar...
The dog was casting some glances at him followed by mockery as if he was mocking him, but he surprised him by passing in front of him and greeting him in a human voice:
- Peace be upon you.
- And peace be upon you!!.. A moment please.. He said it, controlling himself for fear that he would be gnawed by astonishment and a feeling of madness would pounce on him.
- Yes, please.
- What happened?... Where did they go?
- Yes?!.. Where did they go?!.. How do you not know where they went?!.. Where were you?!
- I was sleeping and my family was with me, and before I entered the house people were roaming the streets, I woke up and found no one, so how can I understand what happened?
- Huh?! And before that, didn't you hear about the black time bomb?!... Then he sat on the sidewalk with his legs crossed.
- No, what does this bomb mean?!
- Do you have a cigarette?
- Yes!!.. He gave him a cigarette that he took out of a pack in his pocket, then lit it while it was in the dog's mouth, after he convinced himself that it was relaxing for the wonders and farces of what remained of life.
- My dear brother.. O good citizen.. (He said it while blowing smoke from his mouth with intense psychological pain).. You humans have done it and ended all life on planet Earth, after filling it with noise, fighting and killing.. Your civilization and buildings were not intended for your happiness, but rather for you to take shelter in them and protect your evil games behind them, the last of which was the game of the black time bomb.
- I still don't understand!.. And you didn't tell me what the black time bomb is?!
The dog was silent for a few seconds, placing the thumb of the hand holding the cigarette on his cheek, staring with mocking looks at the (Caliph of Mankind). Then he said as if he was teaching a child:
- My dear.. Yesterday.. Your president.. The president of Earth appeared on all the world's TV channels and said: Life is no longer worthwhile on planet Earth.. We humans have lived for thousands of years and have not reached happiness and have not understood what it is in the first place.
Thousands of years of deadly routine here.. Successive births and then deaths.. interspersed with endless repetitions of pain, hatred, blood and misery. And a useless building, in exchange for periods of rest in which we anticipate an unknown future.. A wheel of pain that does not stop.. And even the poor living beings, are born and then die without any meaning, therefore, our philosophers and scientists have been keen to get us out of this affliction, so they thought and concluded that time is the (matter) of existence because time is movement.. and movement is levels.. we can liken it to colors, and they considered that all living beings, including humans, are nothing but a twisted white time...
- What is the meaning of a twisted white time?!
- Am I a physicist so that I understand the meaning of a twisted white time?.. I repeat what your president said.. It is true that I have a doctorate in (canine sociology) and another master's degree in (canine language) from the highest (canine academies) among us, but I do not understand physics.
He could not completely hide his desire to explode with laughter, so he held himself together to express with a small smile so that the dog would not get upset and leave. And he suppressed even his mockery and objections in the deepest part of his brain, perhaps he would discover that this dog has the ability to telepathy... Otherwise... What kind of time is this in which he was oblivious to what happened, and then a dog carrying a doctorate degree comes to him and begs for help against his will?!
The dog continued:
- Then your president continued: So... We decided to make a black time bomb and we will detonate it shortly... All the bodies of living beings, which were twisted and formed from white time, will disintegrate and disappear from planet Earth, to be recomposed on another planet... Then... Your president pressed a button that was on a device in front of him... And it was only a few moments and every living thing disappeared...
- Okay, and why didn't we disappear and disappear with them?!
The dog was agitated by this confusing question, which he had not found an answer to before meeting this (Caliph of Mankind), who was supposed to be the one to find the answer with him, so he threw his cigarette away in extreme excitement and stood up dancing.. He shook his hips and intertwined his fingers while he was clicking them singing... Our luck... Our luck... Our luck, then he walked a few steps to sit on the other side of the sidewalk and said laughing while he was moving his body to take the best sitting position:
- Maybe you and I have twisted our bodies from a red time, so we need a green time bomb, ha ha ha.
- Okay, Doctor.. What will we do?
- I don't know.. But I imagine that what we have to do is live on what is left of the earth until we die.
- And how will we die?
The dog doctor could not control his nerves from the successive questions of this stupid human, who fate wanted to be the last of humanity, and perhaps he will actually be their successor, so he attacked him, digging his claws into his chest and repeating:
- This is how you die, you idiot.
He woke up to a medical needle being injected into his body.. He was refreshed to see his wife and children.. They said to him:
- Thank God you are safe.
- What happened to me?!
- You have a high fever, and this is the second needle we injected you with to lower your temperature.. We used to hear your hallucinations while you were sleeping because of the high temperature, but it was really beautiful, the idea of the black time bomb.
Prepared Angela Kosta Executive Director of MIRIADE Magazine, Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter
