Not India. Anywhere but India, she pleaded. She recalled the last time she was born there: her family lived in a tin hut with no bathroom and not even a morsel of bread. Her stomach still rumbled every time she remembered that reincarnation.
She glanced at Yam who was running beside her, wheezing with effort. She could see the memory reflected in his eyes. At this moment, he too had clarity and was one with the infinite wisdom of the universe, and Anise saw his eyes glaze over with a familiar angry shadow, his pupils turning black as coal.
“I’ll find you, I promise,” he whispered to her without speaking.
“I’m counting on you,” she answered wordlessly, since heaven is a place where words are unnecessary.
Anise thought that, at this exact moment, there might be an astronomer on Earth peering excitedly through a telescope at the runners circling the Earth. But to him it would be reflected as a halo of light, and he would probably try to analyze it, breaking it down into a lengthy series of numbers and symbols that humans call science. Yes, well. We’ve already established that humanity still has a long way to go and much to learn, she thought.
Anise was breathing heavily. The muscles in her legs burned from the effort. It was already her fourth lap around Earth and she found herself right next to Pakistan. That would not be good, she thought, and despite her exhaustion, she forced herself to pick up the pace. Pakistan is definitely not the place for a woman, she thought.
A forceful push from behind made her lose her balance. She stumbled over the hem of her long robe and lost grip of Yam’s hand.
The boy who’d knocked her down kept on going at full speed without stopping. She heard Yam’s distant voice calling her name, but it was drowned out in the tumult as he vanished in the crowd that pushed him further and further ahead.
Her right leg ached and her lungs were on fire, but she forced herself to get up, and a cry escaped her lips as she put weight on her injured leg.
North America was rushing right past her.
I’m not giving up now; I will not lose hope, she thought. There were still a few other good options, and she still had a chance to reach them. Anise clutched the hem of the robe and joined the race once again, ignoring the sharp pain in her leg.
Not too far ahead, she could see the curly locks of Yam’s hair and, a few steps behind him, the stocky figure that was Mor. Anise ran faster in an attempt to reach them. Her leg was smarting, but the thought of losing them and going through a whole lifetime without them was unbearable.
She heard the trumpet and all activity ceased. Everyone stood still and a tense silence hung in the air.
As Anise watched the blue light quickly spread across the globe, she felt her feet lift off the ground.
It’s me, she realized.
Her body was paralyzed. She sought desperately to find Yam and Mor amid the mass of heads on the ground below. The last thought that went through her mind was that she hadn’t managed to reach them in time. The hall receded in a blur as Anise rose higher and higher. She didn’t even have time to see where she was being sent.
Meanwhile, the commotion below resumed, and the robes began flapping once more. “Anise,” cried Mor, but she was already too far and couldn’t hear him. Mor watched with despair as she was lifted higher and further away from him and out of earshot.
Yam
Yam scolded himself for not holding her hand tightly enough. “I’ll find you,” he bellowed at her retreating figure, frantically waving his arms even though he knew she couldn’t see him. Again the trumpet sounded, and Yam was furious when he saw Mor floating up and disappearing out of sight. Yam looked at the blue light that had just appeared on the rotating planet, outlining a tall boot. Italy. Mor is in Italy. Yam couldn’t help smiling at the thought that Italy was the perfect country for Mor, who loved food and, in almost every incarnation, fought to lose a few extra pounds. Mor’s eternal fantasy of a toned, muscular body might prove quite a challenge in the land of pizza and ice cream. “Italy,” Yam rehearsed over and over in his head so that he wouldn’t forget. As he felt his legs lift off the ground, a warm breeze cradled his body, and the last thought that went through his mind was that he felt quite comfortable.
Chapter 2
Yam slowly opened his eyes. His room receded seamlessly into the soft wall, while a small star floated in the air, radiating bright, warm tones of light. The armchair he found himself in was extremely comfortable, adjusting itself to the contours of his body. Yam changed position, whereupon the chair rearranged itself perfectly around him.
Yam turned the knob on his right to slightly dim the starlight. He scanned the small room, which – other than the armchair and the colorful control panel suspended in the air next to him – was empty. The temperature in the room was perfect. Yam allowed himself to stretch out and relax in the chair. At this very moment, Anise and Mor must be sitting in rooms identical to this one along one of the long door-lined corridors in this endless maze, he thought.
Outside his room, an infinite number of stars were leaping around cheerfully. The dark blue of the sky made room for a playful rainbow, unfurling in shades of colors that humans don’t even have names for.
Yam, who was so absorbed in the magnificent view, didn’t notice the gray cloud that had floated across the room and stopped right before him.
“Hello,” said a deep voice, coming from an imposingly large Indian man dusting bits of cloud off
