Nabil Odeh
His eyes were fixed on the picture, staring at the rigid face that looked out of it. A face that had been neglected by history in a corner of the earth… wrinkled in length and wrinkled in width, has become like a graph board.. a board of squares without any geometric coordination… Through this history, with its weight, its neglect and its traces above this face, the beholder notices traces indicating former beauty and past sedition.
Her eyes were deep and miserable endlessly, with a nose underneath them.. not like Cleopatra’s nose, so the conditions of the world have not changed, not even the conditions of the region in which she lives. The wrinkles that made the face look like a sketchpad were enough to hide that nose that even an impartial artist could not.
Is it really you?
A crystal tear fell over the picture, and he hurriedly removed it with the edge of his dress, trying to hide his face. In moments, memories of twenty years flooded before him.
Twenty years prevented him from seeing this woman, who is his mother!!
The silence was so heavy that he could not bear it.
He lifted his eyes from the picture, and looked at the man who sat next to him, his brother Faisal..Faisal, who was a student in those dark days. Successive pictures from the past passed through his mind.. He wished the past was different from what it was and he wished the present was different from what it is now.
He took a long breath, squeezing the swamp under his broad forehead, trying to dry it out.
Faisal was still sitting near him on the old sofa, in the other part of the room was his wife.. her face was pale and sad.. and on her arm was their child who had woken up a few moments ago and started crying and screaming… It was time for him to eat, but his mother did not give him anything in the midst of this cruel meeting .
Why can’t he understand and stop crying?
For twenty years they have not met, why does the child not understand this? Twenty years ago… just today.. beside her was her eldest, Fawzi, squeezing his nerves and restraining himself so that his tears would not burst out… and around them the rest of the family spread out.. Samir, Jamal, Najwa and Fouad… the child was still screaming and breaking the frame of silence
. For the first time she felt him piss her off. What can you do for him? The milk had dried up in her bosom from the terror that had gripped her since she saw, not far from their village, the planes pounce on the receding mass of flesh and iron, leaving it only tore it to pieces with fire. She always imagined that her son Fawzi was among them, but he was not among them. He came back, exhausted, broken, with tears plastered in his face and eyes. He came back, came back.
Her husband’s voice interrupted her reluctance..He asked his brother while looking at his mother’s picture: -Why
didn’t you bring her?
He repeated the same question after a long silence. Why not change the conversation? Why does the child cry? Why is he screaming so hard?
– Next week.. God willing!!
Next week… Did Faisal say that..? He doesn’t remember completely.. but his ears picked up on those words.. and he looked back at the picture in front of him.
The child’s screaming and howling became intensified.. The mother did not find a way to start feeding him her nipple.. And Najwa entered to heat the milk.. Why don’t children grow up quickly?!
******
Finally, the date of the meeting, which took so long to be away twenty years, is approaching. Today he will meet her. He feels tense every time he thinks of the moment he met his mother after twenty years of separation. Correspondence over the radio did not heal the longing to meet his family, who forced him and them to part.
The sun at the end of June was shining strongly..and the father was feeling the turbulence, so his movement increased in the house, unusually…and he kept looking out the window through the winding street extending to the horizon..and with every car that appeared, he imagined his mother’s face inside, her face as he had known him before. Separation, and his heart beats strongly.
Will you know him after this age? Is she really the same as he saw her in the picture a week ago? .. She is his mother, and he wants to meet her.. No matter how strange she may seem to him today… Time was passing very slowly, so he stretched out on the old sofa, the same one he sat on last week near his brother Faisal.. How he would like to see his brother’s children.. but he can’t believe it. That man is Faisal himself, only yesterday he was a little child… as if twenty years had passed by without time…
He still remembers her motherly voice warning him, with childish delight after his marriage, that she would throw him and his wife out of the house if they left a daughter… and that she would accept nothing less than a son… whom she would name after her husband, who died a few years after their marriage. She had what she wanted, but fate refused to give her the opportunity to see her grandson…the calamity separated them!!
She lived her whole life waiting for the day of meeting… And he lived dreaming of returning and meeting loved ones..
The father paid attention to the sounds of dogs barking.. He wanted to move from his place.. But he froze when he saw his daughter Najwa rushing towards him silently, and her face had lost its color and turned yellow..
– My father.. they are them !!
what does that mean? Could something like this happen…
– Don’t be afraid..
He whispered between his lips in a shivering voice.. and rushed out.. The mother looked out with her sweaty face from the heat of the kitchen, looking with wide eyes for her husband… Then she rushed after him.. Her children had gone to the market to buy vegetables and fruits for this great day!!
what happened after that? Everything that happened seems strange…
They came with barking dogs..!!
At first, no one understood anything.. As soon as the father appeared from the door, two soldiers pushed him away from the house!!
what is all of this?!
Moments later, his wife and daughter were standing next to him..The officer said that the house would be blown up?!
– Why??
– The fedayeen passed from here!!
– What do we have to do with that?
Discussion is forbidden!
Where do I go with my family?
– silent!!
– But it’s my home…
– Shut your mouth, soldier..!!
Fear froze the mother and the daughter and tied their tongues! The mother says to herself, “Praise be to God because Fawzi is not here. Her eyes widened more and more.. Oh God.. he was sleeping inside. She let out a terrifying cry:
– My child, my child is sleeping inside!!
I tried to rush towards the house, but the butts of the rifles got in the way.. As for the father, he launched like a missile towards the house..
-Come…Count…
The soldier’s voice rose, accompanied by bullets in the air.. Najwa screamed:
– Baa… Baa…
she collapsed on the ground.. and the soldier returned He shouts:
– Come back… Come back…
And more bullets were fired…
The father felt his back burning. Try to run. Pain was gnawing at his body. He tried to jump.. froze in place. Something strange blends with itself. But his child is inside. Step by step.. even though the earth is rotating with it. He sees his mother with her face that he knows, but with the face that looked at him from the picture .. the squares .. something he could not understand. what does he want Why this pain? Why does the earth rotate like this? Why does the house look fluid before his eyes? Suddenly, the child’s face appeared to him… and the house was going to be blown up. He squeezed all his strength out in an instant. He dragged his feet.. Sharp cries pierced his ears, he must save the child.
He bent down to the ground and then opened his eyes, he needed superhuman strength to do so. He heard a sound that brought him back to the memory of nostalgia and the meeting… It was the sound of a car… It was coming… His mother, whom he had waited twenty years for.
He forgot the pain…he forgot everything…a nightmare of mystery fills his horizon…his thoughts…the scream echoes in his head…”my child” is a terrible scream…his son is inside and the house is about to be blown up. The car is approaching.. He dragged himself step by step.. by step.. by step.. and the roar of the car filled his hearing and grew louder.. the pain paralyzed every atom in his body… the rotation pulled him towards the ground.. he bent on his knees… a strange mixture of sounds penetrated his hearing… a strange mixture of Colors fill the scenes in front of him.. fluidity.. rotation.. and a miraculous force that pulls him more towards the ground… and forces him… ah.. his child?.. and the house will blow up.. his mother.. the car is approaching.. he squeezed all his powers.. every muscle in his body, he tried To erect strongly, and stick to the ground!!
*******
Note – I wrote this story on (02-15-1968) influenced by the tragic meeting between the two parts of the Palestinian people (my people) following the setback of June -1967- and it was published under the title “Meeting After Twenty Years”!!
nabiloudeh@gmail.com
Nabil Odeh
His eyes were fixed on the picture, staring at the rigid face that looked out of it. A face that had been neglected by history in a corner of the earth… wrinkled in length and wrinkled in width, has become like a graph board.. a board of squares without any geometric coordination… Through this history, with its weight, its neglect and its traces above this face, the beholder notices traces indicating former beauty and past sedition.
Her eyes were deep and miserable endlessly, with a nose underneath them.. not like Cleopatra’s nose, so the conditions of the world have not changed, not even the conditions of the region in which she lives. The wrinkles that made the face look like a sketchpad were enough to hide that nose that even an impartial artist could not.
Is it really you?
A crystal tear fell over the picture, and he hurriedly removed it with the edge of his dress, trying to hide his face. In moments, memories of twenty years flooded before him.
Twenty years prevented him from seeing this woman, who is his mother!!
The silence was so heavy that he could not bear it.
He lifted his eyes from the picture, and looked at the man who sat next to him, his brother Faisal..Faisal, who was a student in those dark days. Successive pictures from the past passed through his mind.. He wished the past was different from what it was and he wished the present was different from what it is now.
He took a long breath, squeezing the swamp under his broad forehead, trying to dry it out.
Faisal was still sitting near him on the old sofa, in the other part of the room was his wife.. her face was pale and sad.. and on her arm was their child who had woken up a few moments ago and started crying and screaming… It was time for him to eat, but his mother did not give him anything in the midst of this cruel meeting .
Why can’t he understand and stop crying?
For twenty years they have not met, why does the child not understand this? Twenty years ago… just today.. beside her was her eldest, Fawzi, squeezing his nerves and restraining himself so that his tears would not burst out… and around them the rest of the family spread out.. Samir, Jamal, Najwa and Fouad… the child was still screaming and breaking the frame of silence
. For the first time she felt him piss her off. What can you do for him? The milk had dried up in her bosom from the terror that had gripped her since she saw, not far from their village, the planes pounce on the receding mass of flesh and iron, leaving it only tore it to pieces with fire. She always imagined that her son Fawzi was among them, but he was not among them. He came back, exhausted, broken, with tears plastered in his face and eyes. He came back, came back.
Her husband’s voice interrupted her reluctance..He asked his brother while looking at his mother’s picture: -Why
didn’t you bring her?
He repeated the same question after a long silence. Why not change the conversation? Why does the child cry? Why is he screaming so hard?
– Next week.. God willing!!
Next week… Did Faisal say that..? He doesn’t remember completely.. but his ears picked up on those words.. and he looked back at the picture in front of him.
The child’s screaming and howling became intensified.. The mother did not find a way to start feeding him her nipple.. And Najwa entered to heat the milk.. Why don’t children grow up quickly?!
******
Finally, the date of the meeting, which took so long to be away twenty years, is approaching. Today he will meet her. He feels tense every time he thinks of the moment he met his mother after twenty years of separation. Correspondence over the radio did not heal the longing to meet his family, who forced him and them to part.
The sun at the end of June was shining strongly..and the father was feeling the turbulence, so his movement increased in the house, unusually…and he kept looking out the window through the winding street extending to the horizon..and with every car that appeared, he imagined his mother’s face inside, her face as he had known him before. Separation, and his heart beats strongly.
Will you know him after this age? Is she really the same as he saw her in the picture a week ago? .. She is his mother, and he wants to meet her.. No matter how strange she may seem to him today… Time was passing very slowly, so he stretched out on the old sofa, the same one he sat on last week near his brother Faisal.. How he would like to see his brother’s children.. but he can’t believe it. That man is Faisal himself, only yesterday he was a little child… as if twenty years had passed by without time…
He still remembers her motherly voice warning him, with childish delight after his marriage, that she would throw him and his wife out of the house if they left a daughter… and that she would accept nothing less than a son… whom she would name after her husband, who died a few years after their marriage. She had what she wanted, but fate refused to give her the opportunity to see her grandson…the calamity separated them!!
She lived her whole life waiting for the day of meeting… And he lived dreaming of returning and meeting loved ones..
The father paid attention to the sounds of dogs barking.. He wanted to move from his place.. But he froze when he saw his daughter Najwa rushing towards him silently, and her face had lost its color and turned yellow..
– My father.. they are them !!
what does that mean? Could something like this happen…
– Don’t be afraid..
He whispered between his lips in a shivering voice.. and rushed out.. The mother looked out with her sweaty face from the heat of the kitchen, looking with wide eyes for her husband… Then she rushed after him.. Her children had gone to the market to buy vegetables and fruits for this great day!!
what happened after that? Everything that happened seems strange…
They came with barking dogs..!!
At first, no one understood anything.. As soon as the father appeared from the door, two soldiers pushed him away from the house!!
what is all of this?!
Moments later, his wife and daughter were standing next to him..The officer said that the house would be blown up?!
– Why??
– The fedayeen passed from here!!
– What do we have to do with that?
Discussion is forbidden!
Where do I go with my family?
– silent!!
– But it’s my home…
– Shut your mouth, soldier..!!
Fear froze the mother and the daughter and tied their tongues! The mother says to herself, “Praise be to God because Fawzi is not here. Her eyes widened more and more.. Oh God.. he was sleeping inside. She let out a terrifying cry:
– My child, my child is sleeping inside!!
I tried to rush towards the house, but the butts of the rifles got in the way.. As for the father, he launched like a missile towards the house..
-Come…Count…
The soldier’s voice rose, accompanied by bullets in the air.. Najwa screamed:
– Baa… Baa…
she collapsed on the ground.. and the soldier returned He shouts:
– Come back… Come back…
And more bullets were fired…
The father felt his back burning. Try to run. Pain was gnawing at his body. He tried to jump.. froze in place. Something strange blends with itself. But his child is inside. Step by step.. even though the earth is rotating with it. He sees his mother with her face that he knows, but with the face that looked at him from the picture .. the squares .. something he could not understand. what does he want Why this pain? Why does the earth rotate like this? Why does the house look fluid before his eyes? Suddenly, the child’s face appeared to him… and the house was going to be blown up. He squeezed all his strength out in an instant. He dragged his feet.. Sharp cries pierced his ears, he must save the child.
He bent down to the ground and then opened his eyes, he needed superhuman strength to do so. He heard a sound that brought him back to the memory of nostalgia and the meeting… It was the sound of a car… It was coming… His mother, whom he had waited twenty years for.
He forgot the pain…he forgot everything…a nightmare of mystery fills his horizon…his thoughts…the scream echoes in his head…”my child” is a terrible scream…his son is inside and the house is about to be blown up. The car is approaching.. He dragged himself step by step.. by step.. by step.. and the roar of the car filled his hearing and grew louder.. the pain paralyzed every atom in his body… the rotation pulled him towards the ground.. he bent on his knees… a strange mixture of sounds penetrated his hearing… a strange mixture of Colors fill the scenes in front of him.. fluidity.. rotation.. and a miraculous force that pulls him more towards the ground… and forces him… ah.. his child?.. and the house will blow up.. his mother.. the car is approaching.. he squeezed all his powers.. every muscle in his body, he tried To erect strongly, and stick to the ground!!
*******
Note – I wrote this story on (02-15-1968) influenced by the tragic meeting between the two parts of the Palestinian people (my people) following the setback of June -1967- and it was published under the title “Meeting After Twenty Years”!!
nabiloudeh@gmail.com
