Under A Different Sky

By haleli smadar

Allie has never been the type of woman to settle for cozy domesticity and weekend barbecues on the porch. Together with her husband and their three children, she has the rat race behind her to embark on a life of adventures on the open road, exploring all the four corners of the world. She wants a different kind of life for herself and her children, and she knows she never wants to go back.

But when her husband decides to go home and leaves them in a remote Indian village, Allie finds herself struggling to keep the travel dream alive. A shocking assault leaves her badly shaken, and she seeks solace in the arms of her rescuer, Mano. Together with the children, they set off to explore the wilds of Mongolia: the country Allie has always dreamed of visiting. But then her husband drops a bombshell, and Allie finds herself facing the toughest decisions of her life as she navigates a land on the very edge of the world.

 

Part novel, part travelogue, Under a Different Sky is a thoughtful, thought-provoking book that sets the struggles of the human heart against the fascinating backdrop of Mongolia. Romance, betrayal, family unity and the force of the female spirit all come to the fore as Allie finds the inner strength she never knew she possessed.

*

"This was a magical story, of interesting faraway lands, and complex relationships… overall I enjoyed the story very much".

(goodreads reader).

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Set on a journey to a faraway land, explore the culture and the tastes of an untouched tradition, and meet the most amazing people, all through the eyes of a curious passionate woman, who is going to lose everything to win back her freedom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: haleli smadar
• Release date: Sep 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201842888

haleli smadar

I'm an ordinary mother living an extraordinary life. A professional writer since the age of 18, I was living a regular suburban mom lifestyle in Israel until one day I realized I wanted more out of life: more adventure, more freedom, more passion...and less mundanity. So I decided to follow my dreams, take my kids, and breakaway.  I gave up on washing dishes and doing the laundry. I gave up on car-pools, tedious parents’ meetings, housework, fashion trends and daily checklists. I left my favorite boots behind, along with my most precious recipe book, and carried with me the weight of a thousand doubts. It was September 5th. I cried as the plane took off. We have been traveling the world for over 10 years, and I draw on my experiences to create stories of all kinds.  

Book preview

∴ Israel, 2010

"M

om, do you think the sky looks the same everywhere?" asked Allie’s beloved middle child Shira in her sweet voice. This was just before the ‘big bang’ moment when the family dropped everything and followed their hearts on a journey into the unknown, giving up four solid walls and the comfortable embrace of Western suburbia.

Moments later, everything changed forever for Allie, her husband, and their three children. They closed the door on everything familiar, on life as they had known it so far. With one-way tickets and a few precious possessions neatly packed, they boarded a plane and the little girl looked into her mother’s brown eyes, seeking the wisdom she trusted them to hold.

Allie didn't know how to answer. But she had always been able to share companionable silence with her daughter, so she just returned that quiet gaze for a moment, an island of calm in the shifting tide. She looked deep into the child’s eyes and hugged her close.

Three years and what seemed like a million countries later, they crossed the border between China and Mongolia crammed into a battered Jeep. As Allie looked out at the unearthly landscape, that question, and that moment, suddenly came flooding back to her.

No, my girl she thought to herself, picturing her daughter’s questioning eyes, the skies of Mongolia are different.

Forty days and 40 nights under an ocean of starry skies; of lightning storms and powerful winds; streams and lakes and wild people; endless expanses on the fringes of the universe…had shown her that Mongolia's skies were unlike anything else.

2

∴ India, Summer 2012

H

er cry broke through the white noise of the water that echoed from the river below. The sound that escaped her throat was foreign to her. A desperate, scared howl. Half steady, half broken. Her voice was alien to her. This most feared of things was happening to her, and here was her scream breaking loose.

She was in Vashisht, a small, quiet Indian village surrounded by the peaks of the Himalayas. 

In total darkness, halfway up the steps home, the water bottles that she had been gripping in her hands slipped from her grasp and rolled down the steps as the stranger who had emerged from the darkness pulled her by the hair. Tore at her dress, grabbed at her body as if she were made of rags. A man whose slight arms still had the power to grab and to grip. The smell of his sour sweat, mixed with alcohol and cigarettes, clung to him and seemed to penetrate every part of her.

She was breathing shallow, panicked breaths like the whole world had run out of air. His body clinging to hers, he punched her hard, scratched, kicked her.  Sticking his fingers in her, breaking the barrier of her underwear. And that half-broken cry.

And suddenly there was Mano running towards her, shouting in Hindi, pulling the sweaty man away from her, kicking at him and punching in a rage she'd never seen before. And then? Shaking, feeling nothing but a terrible dry mouth. And the taste of his sweaty fingers on her tongue and on her lips. Water. She needed water.

A moment later Mano, her rescuer, held her, straightened her dress, wiped away the blood on her face (she hadn’t even noticed she was bleeding), and she felt the tremor in his hands as he looked into her eyes.

How lucky that you got here, God. How lucky that you heard. How lucky.

He picked her up in his arms and carried her up the steep stairs. Not a word. She threw up three times along the way home.

In her room he put her in the bathroom, and quietly and patiently washed the dirt and blood from her body. She was shaking and shaking, she was unable to do anything else. No sound, no word. The only tears that flowed were his.

She was surprised by the emotion that flooded him, and the panic that brought him running to her rescue. Mano was not her husband, not her partner, just a good friend who was in the right place at the right time. How lucky.

She reached out a bruised hand and wiped away his tears. Every move hurt her. Her fingers were swollen, her fingernails broken. She didn’t even know how all these injuries had happened, but her body was bruised all over.

He disinfected the scratches and wounds and the teeth marks that covered her. Counting them one by one, still crying.

All that night he sat and hugged her tight and sang to her in his warm, gentle Nepali voice, his poetry soothing her tremors. Everything hurt her. Even breathing felt like swallowing rocks.

Her children slept quietly and peacefully in the room next door.

In the morning she would tell them it was nothing, she just slipped down the stairs when she went to get water from the grocery store, and how lucky Mano was there, to help her. Everything's fine, and nothing happened. Nothing's wrong.

3

∴ Husband

S

he said nothing to her husband, back in Israel.  From the outset, she had kept it from him that Mano, a mutual friend they had met the previous year in Nepal, was sleeping in her spare room. That he helped her with the kids when necessary, like other friends here in Vashisht. He'd probably be mad. And blame her for what happened that night. And he wouldn’t understand anything.

It had been six months since he left them in India, turning his back on a dream they had nurtured for so long. When they planned their departure from Israel, he used to tell her he was with her all the way: that he, too, hated the rat race and wanted an entirely different way of life.

She had loved this about him – his free spirit, his sense of adventure, and his knack of making her feel like she could do anything; he had her back. If there was a flipside, it was that this free-spirited nature could make him impetuous and prone to changing his mind at the drop of a hat. But she felt safe with him, he supported her crazy ideas and, while their relationship wasn’t perfect, it worked pretty well.

It was a joint decision. Together, they sold or gave away all their belongings. They left their jobs. They took the kids out of school. They had no life in Israel to go back to.

Then suddenly he announced that there was a course back in Israel that would really help his career prospects. As a computer programmer dealing with the tech side of online shopping, he had been pulling in a decent wage working remotely on freelance projects. But suddenly he wanted to step up a gear.  What had led up to that? When did his priorities change? Allie didn’t understand, but she tried to be supportive: after all, he had always supported her own goals and dreams. And it was only a few months apart, right?

And she did just fine in those first few months after he left. Despite being introverted by nature, she had made friends from all over the world during their time on the road, and many of these friends came to visit her and the kids in India.

Her husband kept insisting that he loved her and would return to them, but the more time that passed, the more his words started to sound like empty promises. She was here and he was there. Their lives had become polar opposites.

Yet still she waited and hoped. Even if part of her knew she was waiting in vain.

They had been together for 16 years.

She was nervous by nature, and he always used to calm her anxieties whenever she stepped out of her comfort zone. She was a dreamer, he was practical. She always felt she could follow