All alone - Short story

Ishmael felt all alone. His father and his riches are not his now. The rest of the household has all deserted him. Though he was the eldest son of his father, nothing was given to him. Now he is bereft of hope, dehydrated, under a bush, semiconscious, about to die. He could see his mother at a distance. Whenever he briefly returns to consciousness he could hear his mother sobbing, talking to a God. He could hear glimpses of the words she utters out. El-roi, a God who sees me. 

In the brevity of time, for the first time of his life, Ishmael realizes he has become helpless. He has always been a physical man. He loved archery and hunting down animals. He was always fun, among his peers. But now all those had to come down to this bush, where he is all alone, left to die. All done. Yearning for a drop of water. 

Out of his helplessness, mustering all his strength, he calls out to the same El-roi his mother had been telling him. He never used to take her seriously. God is for helpless people he remembered himself telling his mother once. I have not been helpless. But now the sides of the coin have turned. All he could do is to call out to a God, if there is. Is there a God who sees my plight, he wonders. 

Gathering of what he has been left with, he yells. 

"El-roi, please help me"

That's all he remembers and as he slips to oblivion, he could see vaguely and faintly his mother from a distance, wiping her tears and running to him. Was he loud enough to attract her attention? She might be running to keep his head on her lap and see him pacefully dying. But is there a smile on her face? What is happening. Has she become eccenteric? Or has he? She is in fact running frantically searching for something. What is it that she thinks most important now? Has she also left me, he thinks. 

She gathers a bottle. No mother there is not even a drop left, he wanted to say. He thought, either he is dreaming or he has already died. Lo she is running back to the same spot she was sitting. Wait is he imagining things? Could he see a well now there? Surely this is death, being ecstatic and thinking thoughts thatis barely there in actuality. 

But she has filled the bottle and she is running to him now. Her tear stained eyes were red, but glowing. Glowing with joy, smile on her lips and gratitude on her face.