the emptying quarter

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic. Worlds had to be in travail, that the meanest flower might blow...
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Hob is quietly emptying, bit by bit, for it offers no school or jobs, not even the essential football field scraped through the gravel. There are walking trails leading up the slopes — it's three to six hours to the top of Oman's highest mountain — but they are the past. Who wants to slog up by foot when the lights of the cities twinkle below: all the foodstuff shops, shawarma racks, ministry jobs and paved roads you can gorge yourself on. There are few, if any, villagers who still venture further up the mountain, only those who talk of it.

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