Black Evil

written by: Nasratullah Samim

Sediq was a boy living in a village with his family. He was always playing with his friends out of the home. One day while his mother was not at home, he came home from playing and he called his mother. Her sister, Fatima said that her mother is not at home. Sediq said to Fatima that he feels cold. Fatima asked him to set in the Sandali(a wooden table under which people put embers in a brazier and cover the table with a special quilt during the winter to warm themselves). When Sediq saw that Sandali was cold, he went to the storeroom and brought some wood cool and added on the remained embers and he set in the Sandali. Fatima said to him that her mother has told her not to add cools on the embers due to its danger. Sediq says that it would not harm hem. They set in the Sandali.

A few minutes later, the coal’s gas asked the fresh air to evacuate the place for it but the fresh rejected.

The fresh air asked Fatima and Sediq to leave the room but they could not hear. The wood coal's gas said that Fatima and Sediq would never hear you because they are unconscious. The gas said that it is a black evil and kills people. The room atmosphere asks the outside fresh air to enter the room and helps the children but it said that she could not enter the room and meanwhile, the room’s fresh air also escaped away.

When Fatima’s father and mother arrived home, they knocked on the door but no one opened it. Fatima’s father brought a ladder from his neighbor. He climbed on the wall and open the door. Fatima’s mother entered the room and she sensed the smell of the coal gas. Fatima’s parents took them out of the room into the fresh air. Meanwhile, Sediq and Fatima opened their eyes but they were not able to talk.

Fatima’s father said that he had read in a magazine that lemon and orange juice or yogurt is useful in such cases and he added if these things do not affect, then one should take the patients to the hospital. He asked Fatima’s mother to prepare some lemon juice for them. Sediq and Fatima drank juice and got better. Sediq felt himself blame because Fatima was preventing him from adding more wood coals in the brazier but he did accept.

Fatima’s parents became happy to find their children alive.