#CFTCCryptoSprint

On the train, the atmosphere remains calm.

Silence blankets the place, with no whispers to be heard, and the few passengers are either deep in sleep or absorbed in their phones.

Rarely does anything happen to pull a person out of the whirlpool of thoughts and memories that swirl in their mind from side to side.

I was physically present on the train, but my thoughts traveled far away, so much so that I didn't notice we had passed the halfway point, as if it were just a blink of an eye... and I became aware of it.

The eye? I don't know why it has always been associated with two things for me:

the first... the father of "Ayyub," whom they called "the one-eyed" – and even I did that, if only in secret.

And the second... my only uncle, and his heated discussions with my grandfather about believing in the evil eye and envy and their effects.

My uncle, who left the village as a young man, made his first departure to the city of Oran when he was seventeen years old.

He worked hard there and established a decent life for himself away from family and friends.

His beliefs remained steadfast: the countryside is the enemy of success, and its people are synonymous with envy.

During his few visits to the village to visit his parents, he encountered me more than once, and the first thing he always said was:

– Don't get attached to the countryside.

And my grandfather would reply with the same insistence:

– What's wrong with the countryside?!