I heard a beautiful song a few weeks ago and on my drive home from work one day, I was listening to it again in the car and this scene just began to unfold. I wish you could hear the music I hear when I read this. Also, I’m still not fixed on the names, including ‘Haad.’ I’ve denoted *** as the name for the other character in this scene.

Haad took a look around the room. It was a large octagon shaped hall lit by the dim light of a few dozen candles and eight lanterns; one hung on each side of the room. Smooth wooden floors and panels lined each wall giving the giant room a warm feel and cozy atmosphere. On one wall of the room was what seemed to be a shrine of some sort. Haad stared at it for some time, trying to make out the writing on shiny plates and faces in portraits framed and hung erratically. His vision was a bit fuzzy because of a thick smoke gathering in the room. Many of the men were smoking. Groups of them of various ages and sizes huddled in several groups around two or three tall pipes sharing tobacco. Some had long scraggly beards. The younger boys, maybe his age, had a few short hairs in patches. But they all shared the same expression on their faces. Their eyes were either shut completely or gradually getting there. Smoke slid into Haad’s nostrils and he un-willingly sucked in the musky thick aroma. Burnt tobacco and jasmine.

Haad turned his head up surprised to find that he was being watched. Pairs of eyes dotted all around him like constellations in a dark sky. These were eyes of women, peeking through small holes made from a criss-crossed wooden railing above. They were all seated in a room above, quietly socializing and secretly participating. Keeping his eyes set on them, he muttered over to ***, “Why are we here?”

“Sshh…” the man quieted Haad as if he was afraid the would disturb the mood. He was strangely anxious. He kept moving his weight from one foot to the other and then spotted what he had been looking for. “Quickly!” He pointed towards an open corner where a lonely brown cushion lay on the floor. “Here. We will sit here.” Haad followed nervously behind the old man to the pillow and bend down on his knees beneath the shadows. “Listen,” *** spoke softly. “Listen for it.”

Haad looked at him for a while, opening his mouth to ask him what it was he was supposed to be listening for. When suddenly, the air broke with a low but pointed sound. He turned to look directly in front of him at one of the men sitting on an arrangement of cushions next to the wall. He began to delicately strum an ud, carefully choosing the right notes and testing which sounded better to fit the temper of the night. When he had found the tune, he played the pleasing melody gradually picking up speed adding a variety of notes. Haad was by this point breathing heavy and becoming very intoxicated from the smoke. He slowly closed his eyes and opened them a few times trying not to give into the warmth of the room. The musician now added his voice to the strings, singing without any words sending the men in the room deeper into a trance. Haad’s breath now trailed the musician’s voice as if he were singing along inside his head. But then something caught his attention. Something very peculiar. The smoke in the room, which was previously settled in a whole now began to separate. And as if a slight breeze had been let in, an arm’s length of smoke broke free from the rest and began to take a course of its own. Haad pushed himself out of the trance and widened his glazed eyes trying to get a better glimpse of the unusual movement. The smoke moved its way up and down above him snake-like, dipping down almost touching Haad’s hair and swiftly pushing up, moving perfectly with the rhythm of the music. It seemed to be feeding off more smoke as if inhaling whatever the men exhaled. The men in the room were now all swaying to the left and right with eyes shut, completely unconscious of what Haad was witnessing. He was following every curve of the smoke as it danced above him. The musician, now in a state of drunkenness of his own, stopped wailing and a young boy next to him started to drum a beat with such speed and passion that it was hard to believe that his eyes too were closed. Wondrously, the smoke followed the beat enjoying the pace, hitting every hard drop of the tabla. Then, as the beat seemed to have slowed its pace down, the musician sung the first name. Elongating the first syllable, he sung his God’s name once and stretched it into song for a few breaths. At this Haad looked back up to see the dancing smoke stop in its circle around the room and now began to twirl in the center, elongating itself vertically now. Haad’s bottom lip lost its touch with the top and his mouth gaped open. He could not believe what was happening. Was this smoke truly dancing in front of him?

“Yaaaaaaaahweh… Elooooohimmm.” Tiny drops of sweat began to appear above the musicians’ brows, and he kept singing words that Haad did not understand. He only recognized the name he had been taught. “Takbiiiiir…. Allllllaaaaaaah.” And the more the musician called out the name, the more the smoke thickened and agitated. Until it began to resemble something un-expected. With long curves, the shape swirled in the center of the room, forming into a womanly body. Haad could now hear the string of tiny bells this woman wore on each ankle. He watched her feet dance for a while and then his gaze led him up her lean body. Every part of her body was dancing. Even her delicate hands formed into flowers which burst into the air every now and then. Her dress made of rags was modest. A worn out shade of red long skirt flowed easy with her ever-soft movements. Her blouse was lined with blue embroidery and revealed little of her tan chest. But it was her expression which Haad could not take his eyes off of. She too had her eyes closed and her forehead tightened and released at each part of the music she enjoyed the most. And her long earrings hit the back of her neck with such softness that it was hard to separate them from her dark ash-colored hair. She was performing for an audience, but Haad was the only one watching her. He turned to find *** with his eyes also closed swaying back and forth to the rhythm that had captured everyone in the room. As he turned back to continue watching the dancing woman, a frightened and confused Haad now wished that he too had shut his eyes.