On the way, Anas tried in some instances to hint and go around the bush to get the name of this colleague of his, but all his attempts were met with failure as he was mishearing every hint as something else. Finally, he gave up any hope of being sneaky and getting the name by chance through stories and random chats and decided to ask directly. Though, he had to repeat the question a few times over to get it across whatever barrier that was in the way.
"Why now? Are you perhaps in the mood to work? If so, why didn't you come to work? Ah, right! you said you were asleep. Did you stay up long at night texting a girl or something like that? Honestly, I don't know what's the point of being in a relationship. It's like a trend these days to be in one. Whatever happened to finding a partner for marriage? I think I could be a great parent. No, no. If they were more than three, I might become alcoholic and my wife would beat me up and kick me out of the house. Come to think of it, maybe it's better to just drop by an orphanage and grab a number of kids. Do you think it's legal to make them do house chores without paying them?... Why aren't you interrupting me? You could say something sometimes. Like... right now."
An awkward smile was drawn on Anas' face, as he wasn't quite sure what he should say to what exactly. "... Just your name. Tell me your name." Was all he could muster up at the moment. Though he had to say it louder again, as he was just mumbling it at first.
"OH! Yeah, it's Maj. But why, though? Is there a camera somewhere... You know those TV shows where the cameraman suddenly appear and they just embarrass the person that bought what they're selling? I hate those. If I was put in a situation such as that, I bet I would figure it out on the spot...."
Maj kept running his mouth on and on to no end in an abnormal speed, which made Anas slightly convinced of his curse. Though, he still didn't know if he believed in curses or not.
They dropped by a bakery on the way and bought a large piece of bread, and they decided to keep it in the bag and take small bite-sized pieces at a time rather than splitting it in half, so it wouldn't run dry and harden up nor get cold quickly. The warmth of each piece heated up their hands and filled up Anas's empty stomach slightly. But perhaps the purpose of all of this originally was to busy Maj's mouth with something other than spelling all that comes to his mind. And although that failed, as Maj was still able to sneak around a few words while chewing with his mouth wide open, that still didn't bother Anas, or maybe just not as much. As he was finding it more impressive and amusing to the eye, and less and less repulsive. At that point, he thought of how great being an idiot is, or maybe deaf? Whatever it was, it didn't seem that bad.
At that point, as conversations carried them on and time raced down the end before it got noticed, they finally made it. Maj, for a moment, and perhaps for the first time, seemed to be deep in his thoughts before his grandparents' house, which raised Anas' eyebrow in both surprise and confusion as a response. "What are you waiting for?" Maj snapped out of it and looked at Anas with a terrified look. Anas' mind went blank, as he could not guess at all what could be the problem. With his jaw shaking, Maj pointed at Anas. "Y-your voice... " Anas became even more confused, and as he couldn't think of anything, he went straight to his face. "What's wrong with it?!" Maj swallowed his saliva and mumbled in a broken tone."I-it became louder than usual..." Anas facepalmed himself then shoke Maj's shoulders in a violent manner "YOU DEAF #####" Maj face became funny and sweat poured down his face, as he wasn't sure how to handle this Anas that is acting like a disappointed parent, or so he thought.
From behind Maj, someone had appeared carrying a basket, which stopped Anas from choking Maj to death, and when Maj noticed that he turned around to see what caught Anas' attention and saved his life.
After several steps, through the thick fog, Anas took in the silhouette of a person in the darkness and realized it. It was a woman wearing a long gray robe and a black scarf that rested on her head, fell around her shoulders, and continued around her arms. This was followed by another scarf decorated with sunflowers around her face, from below her hazel eyes to her chest. She raised her right hand in the air, signaling them to stop with a henna-decorated palm, noticing the two of them in front of her. Several gold bells jingled around her wrists. Maj let go of Anas' hand after hearing the sound of the bells and approached the girl. At that moment, Anas started to feel something ringing inside his head, or perhaps a spark of some kind igniting in his heart, or perhaps it was some fever that had seized him by surprise, or was it the lack of sleep that he had suffered all this time? He wasn't sure. But as Maj approached the girl and the fog completely cleared, he looked away. Maybe he was looking down at the ground, maybe he was looking down at what was below and deeper than it, maybe he was looking at the very core of the earth, but he wasn't here, he wasn't looking anywhere here. He just turned around and went back on his way.
As he decided finally on that, and that there was no longer a reason for him to be here, he felt something rest on shoulder, he turned his head mechanically and threw a cold gaze backward. "Man, don't look at me like that. It's scary. you know, I'm scared of a lot of things, but that's got to be the on the top somewhere. if you have something bothering you, then you can..." Anas turned his face and looked ahead, as if signaling he's not interested in whatever would be said next, and he has made up his mind already. "A-ah! right, my cousin said my grandpa isn't home yet, so we'll have to wait around a bit, or we could go inside and rest, then again, maybe not. Two men with a woman alone in a big house, that doesn't sound right. Maybe you could tie me up and I'll become like a sheep and so it would a man a woman and a sheep between them, hmm, my grandpa used to be a shepherd so you should technically be the sheep, but if you want to I wouldn't mind." Anas' whole body started to shake in a weird manner, which made Maj worry enough for him to pull his shoulder and see his face. At that moment, Anas let his voice go as he was laughing uncontrollably. Maj loosened his shoulders and knotted his eyebrows. "Man... you suck."
At the house, and as Maj's whole body was tied to a rope, and his mouth was tighly duct taped, a few inaudible noises can be heard from his mouth and the shuffling of his feet, but Anas pretended not to hear any of it with a smile on his face, as he was getting ready to sleep.