Mohamed Makram's Tales

Dar al-Hafiz

It rained heavily. Birds and animals fled in fear for their lives. Every animal and bird hid in a safe place. A small bird entered a deep cave away from the rain. The cave was dark and quiet. The ages flicked its water-soaked wings and water droplets spread in all directions. A voice came from the heart of darkness saying:
"Stop wetting me with water, Ajok!"
The bird opened its eyes to see who was speaking. Little by little, his eyes got used to the darkness. He saw a bird standing on the roof of the cave upside down. The bird laughed and said:
"What a strange bird you are. It is the first time in my life that I have seen a bird standing with its head down and its legs up."
The other replied:
"I am no ordinary bird. I am a bat, don't you recognize me?"
The sparrow said:
"No, I have never seen you before."
The bat said:
"That's because I only come out of my cave at night."
The sparrow said:
"I sleep at night. But why don't you come out in the daytime?"
The bat replied:
"Because daytime is the time to sleep, and nighttime is the time to work."
The sparrow laughed and said:
"What a strange creature you are. You have everything upside down. Night is the time to sleep, and the whole world wakes up in the daytime. How beautiful the world is in the daytime, and how ugly it is in the night and darkness."
The bat was surprised by the sparrow's words and said:
"The truth is that I have never seen the world in the daytime before. I like to see the world in the daytime."
The next morning the rain stopped and the sun shone on the clean trees, the sparrow said to the bat:
"Why don't you come with me, my friend, to show you how beautiful our world is in daylight and sunshine."
The bat hesitated for a while and then decided to follow the bird. As soon as he emerged from the darkness of his cave into the light, he was blinded and could see nothing. He closed his eyes and decided to rely on his senses. The world was darker to him in the daytime than at night, but he was ashamed of the bird and decided to follow it.
The sparrow asked him:
"Isn't it beautiful in the daytime?"
The bat, who could see nothing, replied:
"Of course it is. "Of course it is. Isn't it beautiful in the daytime?"
"Come, my friend, I will show you a place where there is plenty of food." The sparrow said to the bat, who followed with his eyes closed.
The sparrow entered a coop where some pigeons and chickens lived, and as soon as the birds saw him, they ran away from the place, shouting:
"Beware the vampire bat!"
The bat cried out in fear:
"I'm not a vampire, I'm a peaceful bat."
There was a great commotion in the barn and the human came to see what was going on and saw the bat. The man picked up his long broom and chased after the bat, trying to hit it. The blind bat ran away, bumping into walls and poles until it fell to the ground outside the barn. A cat saw the bat on the ground and attacked it. The bat was running on the ground trying to fly, but it was bumping into things all around it.
His friend the sparrow called out to him:
"Follow me, bat, if you want to escape."
The bat flew at the bird's voice and ran away from the place until they reached the door of the dark cave, and the bat immediately entered his cave.
From inside the cave, the bat said to his friend the sparrow:
"It is better for me to see the world at night with my own eyes, than to see it with someone else's eyes, even in the daytime."