A Sheik's Spell by Eboni Snoe Page A

to come back with eager lips and hands ready for another journey.
    Felicia awoke with Na’im on her mind, but he was no longer beside her in his bed. She hurriedly got up, went to her room, bathed and dressed for the day ahead of her.
    “May I come in?” a voice called from the door. “It’s Fatimah.”
    “Sure. You’re just in time to help me decide what I should wear.”
    ‘ ‘You are welcome to wear any of the dresses that fit you. Most of these were just brought in from A1 Kharijah. Na’im had sent word ahead to prepare for your arrival.” “Goodness, there are some pretty color combinations here. You know this really is a lot of fun. It’s almost like dressing for some kind of costume party. You know, like Halloween or the Mardi Gras.”
    ‘ ‘I have heard of this Halloween. But I thought people dressed in clothes that made them ugly to the eye when honoring it.”
    ‘ ‘No, not all of the time. You can be anything you like on Halloween. From a princess to a beggar.”
    ‘ ‘Halloween sounds very similar to a local festivity that we have amongst the smaller villages. It is called '^Awya', meaning ‘yes' It is called Dance of Yes or the Challenge Dance. This is when a woman has been chosen for a man, but has not been taken in marriage. She challenges him to say ‘yes’ and set a date for their becoming one. He must state his true intentions at that time. Everyone dresses in their best for this occasion, many times with masks and extraordinary clothing.
    “Wow, that sounds dangerous. Kind of like putting the guy on the spot, huh?”
    ‘ ‘It is serious. But with the festival, it can be so much fun.”
    ‘ ‘How about this peach one?’ ’ Felicia held the garment in front of her. “I think I like it. And look at these hand
    embroidered slippers to match. Boy, Phillip would get a kick out of this.”
    “Who is Phillip?”
    ‘ ‘He’s the head of our research team.”
    “Oh, that reminds me. A message has come for you. Maybe you would like to read it at breakfast. I will be taking my meal in the sunroom. Would you join me there?’ ’ “Sounds wonderful to me. Be there in a minute.”
    Felicia sat down at the table across from Fatimah, beneath a white awning. A screened partition separated the dining area from where the birds were allowed to fly free. From here they had a spectacular view of the foregrounds, the massive estate and its immense front doors.
    “Phillip says everyone’s doing okay, and they were awfully afraid something had happened to me,” Felicia read. He says they were flooded out of the campsite at A1 Uqsur and are now in Cairo. He also says because they didn’t have the serum, there wasn’t much they could do. And now that I’ve found them, they’ve got to cut their little vacation short.”
    Felicia toyed with her bowl of fruit as she read the rest of the note. Looking up, she could see two camels approaching the entrance gate to the building. Each carried a woman, while three men accompanied them on foot. One of the men beckoned to Kareem, who had been polishing the brass doorknockers on the front doors. After speaking with the man, the young boy sprinted back to the house and slipped inside.
    “Kareem sure does seem excited. I wonder what’s going on?” Felicia remarked, as the camels advanced further into the yard.
    Felicia noticed the way the woman on the first camel carried herself, as if she were the main attraction in a passing parade. She held her head high, tossing her long, dark brown hair like a prize filly. Her long skirt had been pushed high up on her slender thighs to accommodate the camel. Felicia thought she saw the woman shimmy her shoulders, making her off-the-shoulder top even more revealing.
    “It looks to be Waheedah Faruuk of Khartoum. They must have found them and brought them back”
    “Well, she sure is showing more than your average Egyptian maiden usually shows, don’t you think?” “Waheedah is somewhat different. She is well