After travelling for four hours in a row, in complete and utter silence, Hassan felt wrapped by a sense of drowsiness. His eyelids were becoming heavy. A sudden jerk woke him from his lethargy. He turned to look at the woman beside him, as if he was ensuring she was still there, still alive. Since they had left, she hadn’t spoken a single word. She had kept on staring at the horizon with an expression of content contemplation. Hassan shifted his gaze to follow hers. He had never ventured into that sector of the planum before. Although at first sight the desert might seem all the same, the more he’d watched it day by day, the more he’d learnt to notice the slight differences, to recognise the white rocks emerging from the reddish terrain. The light of the sun, already high in the sky, made them shine with a rude beauty. That place, so desolate, held a dark appeal in his soul. He missed Earth, but at the same time, he realised that Mars was becoming a part of him. Another look at Anna, who hadn’t moved from her position.
