Arabian Nights

Jill and Tim wandered about the market in Dar -es - Salem. The sun shone down on Jill's long blonde hair, causing reflections to sparkle where the sun hit it at the right angle. Tim was looking for some presents to take home to their families. They had been there a week and decided to get the presents over and done with. They had a week to go.  "Perhaps we should get them a camel each!" Tim said laughingly looking at the rubbish that was on the stalls in front of them. Jill laughed. They kept on wandering around the market when up came an Arab. "Me, Mustapha. You want to sell golden haired lady. I give you two camels!" he said Tim was taken aback but replied "Ten camels" "Four camels" "Nine camels" "Five camels"

"Stop it. I don't like it!" Jill butted in nervously.

"It is only a joke. They like to barter anything her. You know what Arabs are. They would barter their own grandmothers!"

"Six camels" Mustapha went on. "Eight Camels" "Seven Camels" Mustapha retorted. "Done" said Tim. Mustapha said he would get the seven camels if Tim and Jill were to wait there.

As soon as Mustapha disappeared from site, Tim and Jill carried on walking. Tim was laughing about the bartering he had just done for Jill. Jill was uneasy about the whole thing. They had not gone far when Mustapha rushed up and asked where Tim was going with the golden haired woman. Tim told him to clear off. Mustapha rushed away and came back with two burly policemen. They carried guns on them and Tim was a bit nervous. "Mustapha tells us that you have made a bargain and have broken it!" one of the two policemen said.

"It was only meant as a joke. I didn't mean it! It was not meant to be taken seriously!" Tim replied. 

The policemen grabbed him and said "We are arresting you. You make agreements and break them. An agreement is an agreement in our land. You abide by our rules. You English are all the same. You come here and break every rule in our books!" The biggest of the two men said and they slapped some handcuffs on Tim and marched him away to the police station. Jill watched, crying her eyes out as he was led away and she called after him, "Don't worry love, I will go and see the consulate. They will sort it out"  But before she could say any more, she was grabbed from behind. Mustapha had got reinforcements. She was quickly bound with her hand behind her and her feet tied together. She went to scream and Mustapha rammed a gag in her mouth, tying it tightly behind her head. No one took any notice of the event. Jill was hoping someone would have seen what happened and reported it. But there were only Arabs around, working away on their market stalls. They could not care.

Mustapha started to stroke Jill's hair. Jill pulled her head away from his hand and Mustapha laughed.  A camel was brought up. Either side of it there was a large whicker basket tied to the saddle. The camel sat down on all four legs and Jill was lifted up and shoved into one of the baskets. Jill was too tall for the basket so two of Mustapha's friends pushed her down. She just fitted the basket with her knees bent up in front of her. Mustapha took some raffia and tied it tightly between the lid and the basket holding the lid firmly closed.  Jill tried standing, but could not open the lid. The camel rose at it's rear first and then the front legs. The basket swayed and Jill felt sea sick. The camel started to walk. The basket swayed rhythmically with the camels gait. Jill could see through the layers of whicker, but she did not know where she was or was going. She saw lots of people, but no one saw her. She tried to scream, but the gag stopped the noise enough so that the surrounding crowd drowned out her cries for help.

The camel had been walking for an hour and they had reached the edge of the city. The camel sat down and Jill was released from the basket. She was looking at a mass of tents in the camp. Jill was taken to one of them and untied. She tried to run but was caught. Later she tried again and so Mustapha tied her hands behind her. Then he drove a large stake into the ground and tied a piece of rope to it. The other end he tied to Jill's left leg. Jill was free to walk in a circle of twelve feet diameter. But she was going nowhere else.

Mustapha removed her shoes. She knew that the sand would get too hot to walk on later in the day if she was barefooted. As her gag had been removed she asked everyone who passed her to untie her. But as they did not speak English, they did not understand her.  But when the sun went down, she realised the rope would at least let her go into the nearest tent. Jill laid down and started to worry about her fate.

At the police station Tim tried to tell the policemen that he had to go after Jill. They just shoved him in a cell and shut the door. Tim was locked in. The cell was crowded and it had the smell of lots of body odours, and urine. Tim was the only non Arab there. They all looked at Tim's clothes. He realised he would have to watch they were not stolen at some time. Some of these men were only wearing rags. Tim could not understand the policemen as they spoke in their own tongue. But one said "We will deal with him in the morning!"

Tim was going to have a sleepless night. Every time he fell asleep on the floor, he felt someone trying to steal his linen jacket.  But what really kept him awake was thinking of Jill.

The sun rose next morning. Jill was grabbed and stopped from getting to her feet. Two women were holding her down. They untied Jill's foot and one of them undid Jill's trousers. By lifting her weight at the appropriate time, she slid Jill's trousers off of Jill's legs. Jill tried kicking out, but the woman was too heavy. Now Jill's panties came down. Jill screamed out so they put the gag back into her mouth. Jill's blouse was undone. She was rolled over and they unclipped her bra. Now the shirt and bra was pulled down her arms. The women tied another rope above the shirt and untied the one below that held Jill's shirt and bra on her arms. They removed the last vestige of her clothing. She was now naked. One of the women went and got some clothes for Jill. They were put in a neat pile on the side of the tent by the flap. Jill could not see what the clothes were. She thought they must be traditional Arabic women's clothes. Long flowing robes and all that, like the two women were wearing.

The women got up and left Jill alone in the tent. She realised she could not leave before she put some clothes on. Outside the tent there seemed to be a lot of noise and confusion. Jill was not that worried about that at the  moment. Her first needs was to cover herself up. She went to the pile of clothes and saw what they consisted of. A pair of see though long pantaloon style legging. A pair of black briefs, and a top that would not reach the leggings. "They want me to be a belly dancer or slave!" she thought. She refused to put them on. The women came back in and saw Jill standing there defiantly. One of the women called out and six more women came into the tent.

Jill was grabbed by the women and pulled down to the floor. Two of the women sat on Jill's shoulders and held her hands down. Two women grabbed a leg each and one slipped the black briefs over her feet. The women changed position as the briefs were slid up her legs. The last woman put her hand under Jill's back and lifted it off of the ground. The briefs were pulled up to her waist and smoothed out. They were tight. They left nothing to the imagination.  The woman let Jill's back rest back on the ground again. The same performance came with the leggings. The two women held her legs up in the air and the leggings were slipped over her feet. The women holding her legs once more changed position while the leggings were pulled up. The woman lifted Jill's back once more so the leggings could be pulled up and smoothed out. Once this was done, she let Jill rest on the floor again. The women holding her legs, put them down and sat on them. "These women have done this before!" Jill thought. The women who was holding Jill's legs stood up and the other one who had put the briefs and leggings on Jill tied her legs together. The two women who had sat on her shoulders now got off of them and pulled Jill up to a sitting position. The one who put the briefs and leggings on Jill came around Jill's back. She had the top in her hands. The two women holding Jill were strong, but Jill fought anyway.

So two more women came and held Jill's hands while the sixth woman came behind Jill and put her arms under Jill's and put her hands behind Jill's neck, forcing Jill's head forwards, in a half Nelson hold. The woman with the top put one armhole of the top over Jill's hand. The woman holding it let her pull it up when she changed hands around the top. The woman holding Jill's arm did the same. Jill now had half the top on. Jill's other arm was brought down and her hand was forced through the arm hole of the garment. The women changed hands again while the top was slid up. The woman who put the clothes on Jill came around the front and pulled the sides together. She did the buttons up and pushed Jill's breasts up. The top was tight and showed a lot of cleavage. Her nipples stood proud and showed through the flimsy material.  The top was very short and showed all of Jill's stomach. The gap between the top and the leggings was massive.

Jill was forced down again onto the floor. Some slippers were put on her feet. These fitted perfectly. Jill was stood up once more and the women adjusted  the outfit. The briefs were very tight, the leggings flared out from the waist but was elasicated at the bottom so they fitted snuggly around Jill's ankles. The top showed off all of Jill's assets.

"Yi,yi.yi.yi yi" the women called out and left the tent. Mustapha came in and grabbed Jill. Some more men came in and helped as Mustapha tied Jill's hands in front of her. This time, Mustapha used strips of leather. The bonds were tight. Tighter than before. He tied a long lump of rope to these bindings. This was about twenty feet long. Jill was pulled out into the glaring sun. The gag was removed and Jill was given some water and some dried fruit to eat.

The camp had been dismantled and Mustapha climbed up onto his camel. One of the men gave him the free end of Jill's rope and he got the camel to stand and shouted something at it and the camel walked off. Jill refused to move but was pulled along stumbling trying to keep her balance. She moaned like she never moaned before. One of the men came up and put the gag back into her mouth. Jill was gettting burned by the sun. Mustapha realised it and he signalled for one of the women to cover Jill up. A long piece of cloth was wrapped around her and string was put through the holes sucuring it together encircling Jill and protecting her from the heat of the morning sun. A cloth was put on her head and some beads were put around her head to hold it in place. "At least they are looking after me" she thought.

The day wore on and the sun climbed the sky. Jill moaned against the gag, so Mustapha had her put into the basket once more and he tied the lid down again.

Back in the prison the policemen came and told Tim he was free to go once he had paid the £300 fine. "Three hundred pounds! That is ridiculous!" he said but was told that £80 was for the fine, £120 pounds was for his keep and £100 was for looking after the camels. Begrudgingly Tim paid it. He was release and walked out into the sunlight. He saw the seven camels all tied to a rail. He untied them and went to look for Jill.

The policeman said in Arabic "Stupid Englishmen, they always fall for it. Never mind, the extra will let us take our wives out. There is no fine for a one night stay!"  Tim was racing around the town, but no one who could speak English had seen what happened to Jill.

Tim realised he could not ask the police to help, and sat down and thought what he would do if the boot was on the other foot. He knew a bit about the wandering Arabic nomads and looked at a map of the area. Nomads go from water hole to water hole. Tim found the nearest one and headed out with the camels for it. Tim saw where the camp stood and thought that must be the one that Mustapha was from. He followed the track. He was right, they were headed for the water hole.

Jill was getting cramp stuck in the basket when she heard a commotion. The camel stopped and sat down. Jill was taken from the basket. The group of people all huddled together and the tent material was wrapped around them. Jill was pulled to the middle of the group where her bonds were untied. They removed her gag. Jill thought of running, but she saw the sand storm coming and realised that she would be safer staying with them for now. She tied a piece of material over her eyes as the others had done. But she felt hands turning her round so she had her back to the sandstorm. Suddenly the storm hit and everyone was covered in sand.

Tim was galloping at a fair pace when he saw the sand storm. He realised that it would wipe out the tracks that they had left, but as long as he kept going straight, he should find them. The storm hit Tim. He turned his back on it and covered his face with a cloth.  The storm subsided and Tim started out in the direction he thought he was heading for before the storm.

The Bedouin nomads got up and looked around. All traces of their tracks had been erased. The leader looked at the sun and pointed the direction they must go in. The camp got ready to leave once more. Jill was allowed to ride on a camel by herself this time, but the lead was held by Mustapha. They soon covered many miles. Before sunset, they had pitched their tents besides the oasis.

Many miles to the east of them, Tim was still heading to where he thought they would be. He was right, they would be by the oasis, but he would not be. He was way out of course. Night time came and Tim stopped for the night. He could do nothing until morning.

Jill was shown how to belly dance by the girls and Mustapha told her in the broken English that he spoke that if she wanted to eat, she must do a belly dance first. Jill looked at him, but she was rather hungry and so slowly she started to do a belly dance. As she got more confident, she speeded up. The men roared with appreciation.

The night over, Jill went to her tent. It did not take her long to go to sleep. But she woke up while it was still dark and decided to make a run for it. She looked outside the tent and there was no one about, so she crept around the other tents and came to the edge of the camp. She took one look at all the stars above her. She had never seen so many.  Now she ran. Straight into the arms of one of the guards that Mustapha had posted. He took he straight back to Mustapha where he quickly bound her arms and feet and laid her down besides him. The guard left. Mustapha was rubbing his hands all over Jill's body. She moaned and Mustapha gagged her again.

Daylight came and Tim woke up early. He  found the highest sand dune and climbed it. Mustapha's camp had moved on and Tim saw the cloud of sand they were kicking up. Tim raced after the cloud of sand and as he was travelling faster than the nomads he would catch up to them before nightfall.

Jill on the other hand was allowed to ride her own camel again, but her hands were tied to the saddle. As she was side saddle, her feet were tied together. Hour after hour Jill saw the sand go by. There was no variation. It was just sand. Yellow, hard sand.

Night started to come on and the camp settled for the night. Jill had her hands tied again and the stake was put back in and she was tied to it with the twenty feet of rope.  Jill was released and taken to the main tent. Jill was made to do a belly dance again before she was fed and given a drink. This was tiring her out. But she did not like the Bedouin coffee these nomads drank. It was strong and bitter. She went back to her own tent again where they tied her hands behind her back and tied the twenty feet of rope to her leg. When they left, Jill tried to undo the knots with what movement she could get with her fingers. But they were experts at tying things and people up and she gave up.

Tim got close to the camp. He would go and retrieve Jill in the morning. It was no use trying at that time of night. He didn't know which tent she was in, and he would have been killed as they would have thought he was a thief.

Morning came and Tim strolled into the camp with the seven camels. Mustapha greeted him. "It is Bedouin policy to welcome everybody, friend or foe alike" Tim thought. Mustapha took him into his tent. They drank the coffee and discussed the deal. Tim wanted Jill back. Mustapha did not want to let her go.

Eventually they wandered out into the sunlight where Tim showed Mustapha the camels. "A cheque for £2000 and six camels for Jill he argued" 

"What good is a cheque in the desert?" Mustapha asked. Jill heard Tim's voice and rushed out. She fell over when she reached the end of her twenty feet of rope. With her hands behind her back she could not stop herself from falling on her face. But she turned and only hit the sand with the side of her face. 

"What have you done to her?" Jim screamed. Mustapha shouted something in Arabic and ten surly Arabs came rushing up to them. Mustapha said some more words in Arabic and they grabbed Tim. One of the men went off and came back with a leather bag in his hands.  Tim was stripped. One of them said in Arabic, "We will get a lot of money with these clothes and the ones we took from the girl!" The bag was unrolled. Tim was lifted bodily and even though he tried kicking, they held him steady and slid his feet into the bag. He was slid into it, inch by inch until the bag reached his neck. Jill watched it in terror. What were they going to do with Tim? Mustapha tied the bag tight around Tim's neck. The bag could not be made any smaller so the bag did not choke Tim but fitted tightly so he could not get his fingers out to untie the laces holding the bag shut.  He tried but failed and gave up. He could not even get his fingertips between his neck and the bags opening around it. 

The men walked off leaving Tim and Jill two feet apart. Mustapha banged a stake on the ground so Tim could not get any closer. He tied a rope around it and tied the other end around Tim's legs. Some leather straps were produced and the surly men forced Tim's arms down inside the bag. Mustapha took the straps and started with Tim's feet. He fastened the straps up so tight that Tim could not part his feet. The next strap went around his calves. The third one around his thighs and the last one around his arms forcing them to he held firmly against his body. 

The bag was rather tight anyway and it stopped Tim from any attempt at trying to bring his legs up and ripping the bag by pushing on the sides, without all these straps further confining him.

Jill and Tim spoke to each other for some time. "I am sorry Jill, I really am" he said. Jill said that it did not matter. They had to escape whatever happened.

With that the men came back for Tim. Mustapha untied the rope from Jill's leg and lifted her up. He pushed her along following the men who were carrying Tim. The camp was being taken up once more as they reached the edge of the camp. Tim looked and saw they had dug a hole. Tim was thrown into it. He stood at the bottom and he could see above the sand around him. The sand was level with his neck. Jill watched in horror as the men filled the hole in with wet sand around Tim. Tim felt the sand being compacted against him. He could not move. He could just about breath. Soon only his head was visible above the sand.

Jill was shoved into a bag just like the one Tim was standing in. It was tied around her neck. She could not escape. She thought they were going to bury her in the sand as well. But at least she would be with Tim. Mustapha got some of the men to lift her up. He had a net slung from his saddle behind him. He put Jill's bag into the sling and tied the neck of the bag to his saddle and moved off.  Jill called out to Tim. Tim shouted back to her.

Mustapha said in Arabic, "He will not need these camels. They are ours!"  The men grabbed the leads of the seven camels and walked of with them. Jill looked back from her leather bag that was swinging gently by the motion of Mustapha's camel at Tim's face as he got smaller and smaller.

Tim watched the camp slowly get smaller until he could see it no more. He watched as the small cloud of dust the camels were kicking up got smaller and smaller in the distance until it disappeared. Tim could not even turn his body. He was all alone in the desert, with nobody to find him. He had to wait for the end to come and wondered what fate would become Jill.  The sun baked the wet sand hard like concrete. Jim could not move at all.

The sun set and it got cold in the night. Well at least his head was cold. His body was baking in the sand that had been heated by the sun.  As the last rays of the sun died down, Tim looked up and saw the millions of stars. It was to be one of those Arabian nights.....  

06.05.06