A long time ago, I left the imaginary world for the real one. I came looking for the person who imagined me. The other imaginary creatures warned me not to be too curious. In the real world, the ground was hard and littered with stones, not soft and silky clouds. In the real world, there were walls, and sometimes they trapped people, or even collapsed on them. But I am a curious tigress, so I refused to listen.

One day, I sat on a dark rain cloud, until it split in two. Down... down... down I fell to the earth below. I suddenly found myself on a beautiful beach where the smell of salt hung in the air. I saw a distant city and wondered where I was. Did the person who imagined me live here? I decided to take a stroll to find out. I heard vendors selling yams and ice cream. I could also hear the lively laughter of children. I went up to a little boy and asked: "Little boy, was it you who imagined me?” But he took one look and ran away. I thought it best to avoid these humans for now. They were too emotional and quick to judge. In the daytime, I'd hide on the rocky shoreline listening to the crash of waves, kids laughing, and crabs scurrying.

One night, my eyes met a young man's. I saw him and he saw me too. Like me, he was walking the streets at night. It was my first time meeting a real human, and his first time meeting an imaginary tigress. We stared at each other in total silence. Our eyes locked, each waiting for the other to speak. After some time, our gazes softened and trust crept into our eyes. We started to feel safe with one other. He cared for me as no imaginary creature ever had. He taught me to love reality, so much that I didn't want to go home. We lived together for many years. Best of all, he showed me his city, the city of Gaza. You can read its history in the streets. This city is not ashamed to tell its secrets. Its people are kind and generous. It is a city worth loving. The beauty is that nothing can touch it, and yet it touches the whole world.

One day, a terrible storm hit, the worst I'd ever seen. The wind howled so loudly we couldn’t sleep. Thunder shook the ground beneath us. The storm nearly blew the house down. Food and water were cut off for days. Finally, we had to evacuate. There was no safe place to go. I offered to take him to my world, the world of imagination. I tried to convince him, saying: "If you stay here, you will die." He replied: “Have a little patience. The storm will lift and the difficult time will pass.” I fell silent and began to cry. But I believed him and decided to stay. He was right, the storm passed and the sun returned. For a while, everything was quiet. But soon another storm came, and then another. And so it was that storm followed sunshine, and sunshine followed storm. I watched my beloved become a beautiful old man. But I, being imaginary, had not aged a day. After he died, I hid in the place he built for me, wondering what to do. I was now stuck in the real world, but had no human connection to it. How could I get back to the world of imagination?

One morning, a group of youths came to the house. They were my beloved's grandkids: 2 boys, 1 girl. They'd come to pack up his things. When they saw me, they wondered: "What is a tigress doing here? How long has she lived with Grandpa?" The boys were afraid, but not the girl. She was amazed. She looked into my eyes as nobody ever had, not even her grandfather. “I know you,” she said. “I'm the one who imagined you.” I learned she'd sketched me on paper. Turns out, her job was to imagine things: creatures, colors, sounds, landscapes, objects... and even cloud formations. She listened as I described my world, captivated by every detail. But she already knew all about it. I was happy to reminisce about home. To be honest, I was beginning to miss it. All day and night, I described each cloud, each rainbow, and all my memories from home. Once I had finished, they all begged me: “Please take us there!”

We left after midnight, when the city was already asleep. They hid me in a trunk. I couldn't see. Finally, after an eternity, we arrived at the deserted airport. When they opened the trunk, I saw the full moon and felt a cool breeze. Then I roared the roar that only a tiger can roar... Immediately, the moon shone brighter. A portal opened between reality and imagination. They traded reluctant, uncertain looks. They were content and yet unsure. One called it an impossible dream-come-true. But faced with the opportunity, they couldn't choose. Deciding to live in an imaginary world isn't easy. The granddaughter decided to go. "This is a lifelong dream," she said. "I may not get another chance." One brother decided to come along, but the other was reluctant. "Though I'd like to see the imaginary world, one of us must stay behind to tell the tale.”

We entered the portal, crossed borders and swam through clouds. We saw other people swimming too. The sky lit up with many colors, clouds gathered and dispersed. The wind carried us across the sky. We reached my place: the world of imagination. This was absolute freedom. The girl reached out to touch a painting, but it slipped through her fingers. She laughed. This was the world of imagination, where artists draw and color their lives, record their pasts, and tell their stories. Here, they weave their future into clouds for all to see...

Hawaf Group, D.R., 2024