“Ohhhh no”, the silhouette spoke out with complete dread in his voice as he moved out of the way. I was also not sure why I was still peeing but I couldn’t stop. It was something out of my control at that moment.

  I realized by hearing the voice but wanted to make sure if it was who I thought it was. So I quickly finished up my peeing and zipped my pants. The silhouette was still standing there where he moved and was cleaning his body with his shirt that he unclothed.

  I got to my phone that was lying on my bed and turned on the flashlight. Then I quickly shone it towards the silhouette. To my surprise, it actually was Mahmud. Even though I guessed it from his voice, I still wanted to make sure. And surely enough, it was him.

  “What, uhmm...... what are you doing here?”, I asked with confusion and embarrassment clashing inside me. He looked at me after wiping his face multiple times with his shirt and answered, “Just passing by. Thought I would invite you for a walk.”

  Invite me for a walk? He was basically a stranger to me and it was midnight. ‘ was the thought that came to my mind. I mean, who goes around at midnight lurking behind people’s windows to invite them for a walk? Couldn’t be me.

  “Head to the front door. I am going there”, saying that, he started to walk hugging the wall of the house. It was night with no light. So I called him saying, “use this”, while giving him my phone with it’s flash turned on. He stopped for 2 seconds and came back a few steps to take it.

  I closed the window and bolted towards the front door. It was locked since I locked it earlier. I unlocked it with the keys and opened the door. There were footsteps heading this way from the front left. He was almost here.

  As soon as he came to view in front of the door, he spoke out, “Let’s go.” Let’s go? Where? Questions came to mind so I asked, “Yeah...... So, Where exactly? I mean it’s midnight with nothing to see around in the dark.” Mahmud answered, “Oh right! Let’s go to the river. I need to wash up anyway.”

  That was the thought process my mind was going through.

  “I don’t know where it is exactly....”, I said that even though Sheph told me it was behind the graveyard. Mahmud looked at me and said, “Don’t worry. I know the way. Just, turn the lights off and lock the door before coming.”

  I did as he told me to. Went out after turning everything off and locking the door. I put the keys in my pocket. And we started to move.

  He was going in the completely wrong direction. The graveyard was to the right. And he was going to the left which leads to the market and the field. I walk a bit faster and catch up to him.

  “Isn’t the river in that direction?”, I asked as I pointed to backwards. “I thought you didn’t know where the river was?”, he questioned back at me. I got a little flustered and before I could say anything, he continued, “Don’t worry. This way also leads to the river. You can’t really take a bath in that side of the river. Unless you want to jump off a fairly high cliff.”

  So the river was also accessible through this way?! But it leads to the field which leads to the walls of the capital. We walk by the Baor and the houses. Finally reaching the market’s tip. Mahmud takes a left as he says, “This way...” which I never really got the time to think about.

  I knew there was a left and a right path too along with the straight path which led to the banyan field. But in the two days I have been here, I never thought about heading to paths I am not familiar with.

  We kept walking through the dark. There were tall trees in the right side of the road and houses too. The left was the farmland. We kept on walking. After sometime, both the sides of the path were filled with trees and bamboos. It was scary. But Mahmud and I talked a little while walking.

  During that, I found out that he was 19, we both had the same birthdays, he was a rebel for more than a year, he doesn’t like being a rebel, he has a mission tomorrow for which he will be gone for more than a month. We talked stuff like that. I didn’t get too personal because as I learned, people won’t give me answer.

  After a bit more walking through the scary path, we reached a narrow path between two houses. Mahmud just kept going through it. Are we really going to the river or is he kidnapping me? That thought wasn’t out of the question. I didn’t know what was I going to do if I really got kidnapped by him. I mean I peed on him and It’s dark at night.

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  Even at that point of the whole experience, I didn’t know why I was following him. Maybe it was embarrassment, maybe it was fear or maybe it was curiosity. Either way I was following him to the river, as he says.

  We walked past the narrow path, and in my surprise, it led to a suuuuuuuper big and long wheat, corn and other farm field. It was really really big. It went a bit downward from the height we were in. There was a path of dirt that was just a little elevated from the farm. It was as narrow as one foot. You couldn’t put two feet side by side. And there was water, muddy water to be exact, on the farm lands. So I had to balance myself.

  Mahmud on the other hand would always go far and comeback to get me. Since we weren’t talking as much frequently as a regular conversation, he didn’t notice I was struggling and lagging behind. The path curved here and there which took more balance. After walking through the field for more than three minutes, we finally came to the river edge.

  The moon light reflecting on the river made it look mesmerizing. The glimmering and water rushing sound made my half-baked sleep completely go away. It felt like my mind was just fresh and cool air. It looked beautiful. It smelled like nothing I ever smelled. Hard to describe.

  “Be careful. Or you might slip into the river and a crocodile could eat you up”, Mahmud looked at me while he was taking off his shirt.

  Wait. Was he serious about the bathing part? And what does he mean by crocodile?

  “Crocodiles? Are you serious? Then why are you trying to take a bath here?”, I asked because I got scared.

  Mahmud looked at me like I am some dumb idiot and answered, “It’s a joke. But the path around the river is actually slippery though”. He then took off his pants which revealed he had a half pant worn inside. Luckily, I do the same. So I don’t have to worry about wearing wet clothes the whole walk to home.

  I started to take my clothes off too. There was grass that was standing high. I put my clothes on top of them so it doesn’t get dirty from the mud. Well, I do think that because I saw Mahmud do it, so I did it too.

  “The moon is very low on light because well, it was a new moon two days ago. Follow my footsteps or you might slip”, saying that, Mahmud started to carefully place his foot like there were landmines placed on the ground he was navigating them. The path led downward like about two and a half humans tall. So the slipperiness wasn’t really helping. But following Mahmud’s footing, I could slowly but carefully get to the water level. Mahmud put the phone beside a rock while the flash was facing a little bit towards us. Not directly but slightly.

  Mahmud slowly entered the water saying, “Careful. Don’t go far from the edge. There’s a huge drop in height just a bit far. You could drown and nobody would notice.” I replied, “Wait, really? I actually don’t know how to swim. I think I am just going to hug the edge.” Saying that, I went only a little far in the river.

  So this is Meghna? A ghost river. I say that because there’s no river named Meghna in the world. But in this village, a river just is here like normal. “This feels really cold. WOOOAA!”, I cried out loud as soon as I got my chest in the water. The river tides were not that harsh. Otherwise I would’ve drowned so far.

  “Isn’t this refreshing?”, asked Mahmud with his mouth barely on top of the water. His whole body is practically submerged.

  “It is. I like this river. Maybe the sea is also nice. But the government just keeps it to themselves”, I answered.

  “Honestly speaking, I don’t really know what the sea is supposed to feel like. Is it cold? Is it warm? Is it heavy? Is it refreshing? Is it even better than this river? All I can remember is it crushes people. I will find what it actually feels like one day. When I put this government to it’s grave”, said Mahmud looking all gloomy and sad again.

  “Woah! I too wanna know what if feels like. Maybe we could swim together there?”, I replied to his monologue.

  Mahmud paused for a few seconds and answered, “I would like that I guess”. He looked a bit happy.

  I thought of an idea. Since I couldn’t swim, why not hold the ground near the edge and swing my legs around? I didn’t hesitate after getting that thought on my mind. I started to swing my legs up and down in a swimming position while gripping the slightly muddy edge. It was easy to stick my hand into the ground.

  “Chil chill chill bro!”, Mahmud shouted in quick succession as soon as I started doing my thing. “The water will get really muddy. Don’t do that near the edge!”, Mahmud continued as he presented his reason for making me jump from the sudden shouting. I thought a crocodile came or something.

  “Don’t do that. You scared me so hard”, I exclaimed as my heartbeat slowly stabilized. “Oh. Sorry about that”, Mahmud apologized saying that.

  I felt relieved and fun. This was the first time I did something fun with a friend. It was really soothing to know that I have someone relatable in this rebellion group.

  “It’s fun”, words came out of my mouth as I was deep in my thoughts.

  “It is. That’s why I brought you here”, Mahmud replied to my words.

  “I wish everyday was as fun as this. Don’t you agree?”, I threw in a personal question even though I didn’t plan to. Maybe I felt too comfortable with him.

  “Yeah. One day.... when we win.... we will have fun like this everyday”, Mahmud replied. He paused for a moment and continued,

  “From the river to the sea, our world will be free.... One day.... Of all .”