Diacritics

Description

The letter Alif sauntered through the door, radiating a magical violet light that illuminated my night. It stood before me and removed the hamza it wore on its head like a hat. It threw it behind it, and it struck the wall, which suddenly transformed into a large mirror. It bowed respectfully before me and then gestured for the letter Ba, which had poked its head in, to enter. Ba entered, followed by Ta and Tha. They shed their dots after bowing before me as well. Each letter then looked at itself in the mirror and laughed, then began to dance, jump, and twirl. The letters entered one after another: Jim, Ha, Kha, then Dal, Dhal, Ra, Zay, Sin, and Shin. Laughter rose, and dots fell one after another. Letters that hadn’t had dots began to pick them up from the ground and place them in their loops, on their heads, or underneath them, then look in the mirror. Others teased their sisters, stealing dots from them before they could remove them. The letter Seen stole the dots of Sheen and laughed loudly, then put his forefinger to his mouth, saying, “Shhhhhh.” The letter Lam picked up the hamza of Alif and began shouting, “I am Kaf!” The letters Ha and Waw stood in the corner, laughing. The letter Meem lay on his stomach, raised his head, and donned two dots he had picked up from the ground. Lustful laughter rose, and the letters danced everywhere, bumping into each other in various forbidden positions. Then the mirror shattered, and soldiers stormed the party, firing their machine guns at the letters, which fell to the ground. And I woke up to find myself here (K).