Hamzah took a holy book with him before he went out of his house. He put the book into his front shirt pocket just in case if anything happened in the middle of his way to Imam Samad's house.
"Hopefully Imam Samad would be able to help me this time. There's nobody else I can rely on except for him. Majdi is real sick and he is the bravest man so far. Please God, please save him," uttered Hamzah while striding his steps carefully through the small path heading towards Imam Samad's house.
Lane Street was still not very modernized even though it was situated near the main road. Most of the paths that led into houses were not tarred and there were also many unkempt orchards because many young men had went to town to work. Here and there people could see messes of bushes and long, untidied grasses. Dried leaves were everywhere.
Hamzah turned his head around when he heard a strange noise from his back. He had noticed a couple of minutes before that a grasshopper with red blaring eyes was following him from a distance. He also noticed that the grasshopper had tried to land on his shoulder, but Hamzah managed to avoid it.
In his heart, Hamzah knew the appearance of the grasshopper was a sign of bad omen. He thought about previous incidences, all of them involved a red eyed grasshopper. Hamzah recited several of the holy versus and took out the holy book from his pocket. He blew out hard towards the grasshopper as soon as he completed reading the versus and he chased the thing away using the holy book.
Hamzah's effort succeeded. The red eyed green grasshopper couldn't get near Hamzah and it flew away.
Hamzah felt relieved. He continued his walk towards Haji Samad's house in a hurry. But there was one thing which Hamzah didn't know.
The red eyed green grasshopper didn't just fly away. It had a new destination to go. And Hamzah didn't know where the grasshopper was heading this time.
As the night became darker, Hamzah walked straight without thinking even more.
