(Author’s note: I’ve been gone the last few weeks, partially due to overtime at work, but also partially because I’ve been dealing with a massive mental health issue that has cropped up more and more as the years go by. I decided to be proactive, but that required me to be away. Anyhow, I’m back to a form of equilibrium, and here’s my next piece of work.)

Tea In The Sahara
by Miles H. Rost

The average person wouldn’t understand the comfort of a whistling tea kettle.

They wouldn’t understand it if they were posted to a Mauritanian outpost for years on end.

Five long years sitting with miles of sand in front of me, and 2 miles from the ocean behind me. All to collect a long dead currency for travel along the coast and security from invaders.

I was relieved of my post and sent to Tangier, my next post being a trade house clerk. Much busier, but not as dusty. And the comforting tea kettle whistles to me that everything’s quite okay.