Mind-To-Mind-Sharing
By: Aadel M Al-Mahdy
Looking out the
window, he watched the dark-blue celestial canopy that expanded to rain the
approaching night’s coolness over the city of Riyadh and the afar desert where sand dunes
have majestically stood under the abating sun. He was about to check on his son
who was playing in the kitchen when his wife’s voice broke the silence. “Hey, honey! Do
you know lemon was expensive, today?” His wife said. “Ummm, you’re back” he
wondered. “What are you doing? Where is Khaled?” His wife inquired, but he
quickly answered, “He’s playing in the kitchen” His wife said; her tone of voice strongly criminalizing, “All by himself?
Remember last time!” - “Here
it goes; the tip of the iceberg”, He whispered to himself and then talked gently
to avoid getting into argument, “Last time I checked on him, he was doing fine” But hearing a
scream coming from the kitchen, he rushed out of his study room and shouted, “What
on earth is going on?” His voice was inquisitively sharp. She yelled, “See what
happen, when you leave the boy alone”, her voice was oozing with severe
blaming.
In the kitchen,
Khaled was sitting on the floor in a pool of water that covered the whole
place, and nibbling on a peach like a rabbit with the only teeth he got; his
upper front ones. In the meanwhile, peaches, apples, apricots were scattered
everywhere while the empty fruit basked was sailing like an escape-pod being
pushed by a cascade of tiny waves created by water gushing out of the washer’s
draining hose. Khaled raised
his hands, wanting his father to carry him and then muttered, “Dadda, dadda”, and
then smiled innocently. He laughed and picked him up and said while tickling his
tummy, “You naughty boy, you took the washer’s hose out of the floor drain
again. You little devil” Khaled giggled.
His wife then said, words coming from between her teeth, “So this is his second
time! What a waist of detergent!” She was so furious
that her jugulars popped, her face turned red and her distended abdomen shook. “Calm
down! You are pregnant No harm done” He said. His wife yelled, “What! Look at
this miss” He said, “We are on the
first floor. The kitchen floor is an inch lower than the rest of the apartment
and do not worry, I‘ll clean the miss”, and held Khaled’s chin in his
hand and smiled. “Hey, buddy, did
you enjoy it. I hope you did!” he whispered. His wife yelled.“You don’t care, ah, damn it, look
at this! He nibbled each piece of fruit. Damn it, we have visitors coming
today” He said while in the meantime started to leave.“No problem.
I’ll buy some more” he said and started to leave. “That is not the point“ His
wife yelled again. “Here it comes, the That-is-not-the-point. The first part of
an ugly looking thread of argument” He murmured. “And where the
hell you are you going with the boy?” She yelled. He pleaded, “Back to my
study. Please, stop yelling" His wife yelled, “I am not
yelling. I need to change the boy’s cloth” and then added with
a voice full of sarcasm, “Can’t you see the body is soaking wet?” He said, “I’ll change his
cloth. Please stop worrying!” and left. Half an hour later, her yelling
echoed again, “Have you
changed the boy’s cloth?” He answered, “Yes. You’re still yelling” and then added wondering, “I thought you would be calm by now” she shouted; her annoyance resonating, “I am calm. The
bloody kitchen is now clean” ” . He said, “You
shouldn’t. I was going to do it myself” She said, her tone of voice challenging, “Why didn’t you?” He answered, “Priorities. I had to change Khaled’s
cloth first” she said, “Ok, Mr. mentally
organized. It is too late for that now” He did not say anything, but
carried his son on his shoulders and walked towards the apartment door. “Where the
hell are you going?” she yelled. “To the store, to buy fruits” He said and then
whispered to himself, “To any hell other than this one”
On his way to
the vegetables and fruits shop that was closed to his residence, his mind roamed
─ He remembered when he fell in love with his wife. She was four years younger
than him when he married her; beautiful and educated, and as he thought then,
compatible to him. But time revealed to him a bitter-tasting fact; married couples
needed not be compatibly parallel to each other. if they are, they would become
an amoebic extension to one another; a boring sameness capable of nipping any
relation in the bud. Dissimilarity, on the other hand, would be an interesting
motivator; curiosity stirrer for gaining more profound acquaintance, hence one would
journey for learning, for openness and expansion and also would fear not to compromise
to meet mid-ways. He also
remembered that he never had an intellectual discussion with his wife as her lack
of self-confidence and self-esteem; an outcome of abuse inflected on her in her
childhood by her parents, molded her into a cynical adult. He thought her ridicule
was a self-defense mechanism; a dark cloud that might hopefully disperse by
passage of time and by a Councillor assistance. In fact, had he not
had his son, Khaled, he would have divorced her a while ago. So he had to swallow
his pride and disregard her ridicule, particularly when another child was on
the way.
Unable to fight the urge, he kicked a pebble he saw on the curb so
hard that it flew like a swift arrow across the street and hit the park’s fence
making a loud noise.
Inside the shop,
Khaled named the fruits, “Appul, appul, arcot, nana” ─ His father laughed and
said, “Yes, Khaled, and don’t forget the pomegranate. They’ve hard skin, buddy,
and your rabbit-like teeth won’t be able to go through it”
On their way
back, Khaled was excited at the sight of the swings in the park. “Wings, wings”
Khaled cried tightening his legs around his father’s nick. “Ok, Khaled” He said,
“Take it easy! We’ll go to the park, but we have to be home before it is dark”
The sun’s
eyebrow peeked from behind the low buildings that batched the horizon’s line but
seemingly not for long. A little wind blew just in time to reduce the lingering
heat left behind by the Arabian solar inferno. The park was
almost empty. An old man with a long beard, died with henna, was sitting on the
grass with a boy who seemed to be his grandson. “Judging by the type and way he
is wearing his ghutra, he seems to be a mutawa, Khaled” He said to his son, but
Khaled said, “Wing, wing”. Aiming for the
swings, he saw a woman sitting on a bench adjacent to the swings’ area, holding
the leash of a small beautiful dog which squatted by her feet. She seemed to be
in her early fifty, still beautiful, and the fair color of her skin and of her
hair, that reached down to cover her shoulders, bespoke of her Scandinavian
origin. ─ So many expatriates in this country! I am one of them, he thought
and then talked to Khaled, “Hey, Khaled, would you like to pat that dog”,
Khaled’s eyes shone immediately in excitement and clapped his hands in a
commanding manner. His father laughed, “Honey, this dog is for real. It won’t
flip over” ─ Khaled has a mechanical dog at home that flips over when someone
claps his hands. He then approached
the lady to ask her for permission to let his son pat her dog, but baffled, he
stood half-way; his eyes transfixed on the lady. “What in hell is going on?” He
whispered to himself ─ resting on her thigh, the lady’s hand cupped to support her
head while slightly bending forward; her whole body was shaking rhythmically as
though she was sobbing. He put Khaled
down and walked him towards her. Hearing their approaching foot steps, the lady rose
up her head and looked at them. “God, her eyes are brimming with tears!” He
whispered to himself again and then greeted her. She did not utter a word; her
lips were shivering and her body was still jerking. “Can I help you
in any way” He kindly asked her. She pointed with her forefinger to the old man
and to her dog while tears were running down her cheeks. He then quickly told
her, “I think I understand. He stoned your dog. Didn’t he?” She nodded,
still unable to speak. “Was the dog on the leash?” he asked her. She nodded
again. He then said, “Well, I want you to calm down. Nobody will hurt you or
hurt your dog any more as long as I am here. I’ll handle the situation” He inhaled a
deep breath and then resumed his talk, “I was about to ask you for letting my
son pat your dog. Well, I guess it is too late for this now. But can you please
look after him while I am talking to the old man” ─ “Yes you can” said she; chocking
on her tears.
The old man was
in his early seventies; skinny and the facial dark skin of his lozenge-like
face, the wrinkles and creases around his eyes and the way in which he placed
the ghutra on his head, all bespoke of him being one of the old generation with
whom he had arguments about religion and they proved to be ignoramus zealots.
He squatted on the ground juggling a couple of pebbles which he has taken from
a tiny mound of stones standing before the old man’s grandson.
“Assalamu-Alaykum”
he greeted the old man. “Wa-Alaykum Assalam” the old man greeted him back. He
then asked him, “Why did you and your grandson throw stones at that
lady’s dog?” The old man
mumbled a whole bunch of crab. He decided to quickly put an end to
this nonsense, so he said, “Listen old man, I am not going to level with
you and explain how wrong you. You are a fool and
your religious school of thought is full of crab. Neither am I going to waste
my time reasoning quoting verses from the Qur’an or sayings from the traditions
of the prophet,peace be upon him, that stand against your action. But, I am going to tell you this,
I live in that building, over there, and if I ever see you again casting a
stone at a dog, I’ll personally see to it
that I’ll pin you down to the ground and pluck the died hair of your beard, one
by one, so that you’ll suffer” The old man’s
face turned pale, but he continued, “Now, I want you to get the hell out of
here, or else I’ll use my camera ─ he pretended to be looking for his camera in
his pocket ─ and photograph you, and your grandson, and the lady, and the dog, and write a report,
and send it to all newspapers abroad to be published, thus you and your king
along with the head of the religious Wahhabi authority will be a laughing stock. He took a long breath and then said after a short pause, "Now, let us see what your king will do to you if that ever happen” As if touched by
a high voltage power source, the man jumped to his feet and quickly left,
dragging his grandson behind him. He yelled, “Hey,
you forgot your pebbles’ arsenal behind”, but his yelling fell on deaf ears.
Back
to the lady, he found her in complete astonishment. “The man left as if he’s seen
a ghost. What did you say to him?” The lady asked him. “Oh, it is a long story,
but I doubt you’ll ever see him around here anymore” She thanked him, and then asked, “Is
he one of the religious authorities?” He said, “The Mutawa’een...I believe so... and...an ignoramus one, too” She wondered, “Who are those people?” He
said, “They are followers of a zealot who lived long time ago during when the Ottomans were around...a religious
reformer and a leader of a movement that was named after him” She asked, “What does that
word Mutawa’een mean?” He said, “It a plural the singular of which is mutawa meaning among other things, one who bends, one who makes
flexible and obedient, one who forcibly sets straight” He then looked
at Khaled who was lying flat on the ground and giggling as the dog was on top
of him licking his face. “So he is the religious Fender-Bender” The lady
interrupted. “You can say that. I see your sense of humor is back!” He
said, laughing. “Did I offend you in any way?” She wondered, “Oh, no, you
didn’t. As a matter of fact, I am against their strict views. But it is just fair to mention, the old Saudi generation must
be given some credits. Irrespective of their strict perception of specific
religious matters, they have many qualities rare to find and lacking to some extent in the young generation" She wondered again, “What are these qualities?” He said, “Honesty, faithfulness, loyalty, humility, generosity;
all are desert principles. The oil-rich generation, who
never herded animals under the desert blazing sun but lived in air-conditioned
houses and drove expensive cars, have become arrogant and notably shallow” She said, “I have been
here for while, but I have never had serious talks with any of them” He said, “Just
hope not to meet the ones who are under the false impression that they have
already had all science and technology and that they are starting from where
the other stopped; a slogan I have heard once from an idiot” She said, “People are
impressed by all what the money has achieved so far” He said, “Those are the
fools who are unaware of the fact that their country still lacks the human and
industrial infrastructure required for the so called start-from-where-other-stopped” and then he added, “But would you believe me if I tell you that there are open-minded ones. Surprisingly, some of them are also Mutawa’een” She said, “I have just
been unlucky today, I guess” He said, laughing. “I guess so. And some
of them confided in me their disapproval of the way in which the religious
authority was handling the situation in a country; the total economy of which
relied on the expertise of foreign expatriates of different cultures
and different beliefs” She then wondered, “Can’t they do
something about it?” He shrugged while scanning the sky with his
eyes then smiled as the mystical hurries-like lunar face unveiled by the
absence of the day’s blazing sun, shone intensively. The age-contours on the lady's face were emphasized - Where did I see this lady? he thought, and then said, “Look at that! It is a full moon. God, it is so
beautiful and mesmerizing” She said while looking at the moon, “Oh, yes it is
indeed” He then commented, “I guess the old man under the influence of the full moon.” She asked, wondering, “What is that?” He said, “Haven’t you
heard of the full moon influence? It is said when the moon is full, crime ratio
increases” She said, “yes I have, but…” He interrupted her, “Well, I think the
observation is nothing but pseudo-scientific” she said, “No, it is true, but the moon was not yet around, when the old man showered my dog with his pebbles"
Pointing to
his residence and said, “By the way, I live in that building over there. I am
married. My wife is at home. She speaks English fluently. If you like to have a
chat with her, a cup of cocoa or just sit and relax, I’ll be honored. We can
also continue chatting about the subject” ─ “The honor will be mine. I’ll be
glad to do that. My husband is going to pick me up in an hour or so. Would I be
able to use your phone to tell him where I am?” ” She asked. “By all means” said
he and then turned his face to his son and said, “Let us go, Khaled. Enough
playing with doggie! Let us go before Mama is worried”
The four of them
then marched towards his house. “Hey, Khaled, look how shiny that constellation
is!” He talked to his son. Looking where his father pointed, Khaled raised his
hands and murmured, “Star”, and then clapped his hands. “They are called the
big dipper. A big ladle to serve dinner to the celestial realms in their cool
spatial corridors after departure of the blazing sun” he said. “Oh, that is
poetic” She said. “I wish I was a poet” He thanked. “May I ask you a
question?” She asked. “By all means” He quickly replied. “Your son’s name" She said. "What about it?" He asked. "Is it
true that Arabic names are descriptive and meaningful?” She asked. “Most of
them are” He answered. “What does Khaled mean, then?” She then asked. “Khaled means immortal.
I named him after an Arabian brilliant general who had never been defeated in a
battle" He explained, but she asked him again, “Are you preparing
Khaled to be a warrior?” He patted Khaled
on the head and then smiled. “We’re all warriors in our own ways. Not in the
lexical sense of the word, though”, and then added after realizing they were in
front of his apartment door, “Ah, here we are”
He rang the door
bell, but before inserting the key into the key hole, he added, “A doctor is a
warrior, so is an engineer, a writer and a farmer. Anyways..." She looked at him in the eyes. "I can’t wait until
the second one is born”, He said. “Am I right if I
assume that your wife is pregnant already?” She said. “Yes you are” He said, turned the key and shouted after he had opened the door, “Honey, we are home.
We have a visitor, oh, what the hell! Honey, are you alright?” He was worried
as he saw his wife sitting on the sofa in the living room huffing and puffing while
her knees were spread apart. He rushed towards her, held her hand and asked her what was wrong with her. “Pangs of
delivery. I think she is due right now” the lady said said. “What!
Delivery! She is due the end of next month” He screamed. “Honey, my water
broke” His wife whispered and then added, “Who is she?” Answering her in a very calm voice the lady said, “Eva is my name.
Don’t be alarmed. It is an early delivery. What is your name?” His wife answered, “Arwa” - “Oh, it is a nice name. it
sound musical. Ok, Arwa, I want you not to worry” The lady said in a
calm voice, and then looked at Arwa’s husband and said, “I need some clean
towels, and call the University Hospital ambulance, not any other hospital, and
boil some water!” The wife asked her, “What are you
going to do?” She told her that they had to be ready before
the ambulance came and asked her not to worry as she was a nurse at the
maternity ward of UH.
He went to bring the towels, but when he emerged from the
bathroom, he saw his wife already lying on her back in the bedroom; her legs bent
and spread apart, and Eva sitting next to her holding her hand while her other
hand was gently stroking Arwa's distended abdomen. He placed the towels beside his
wife and went to call the ambulance and boil the water. In the kitchen, while
he was boiling the water, he heard one scream followed by a short period of
silence, and then he heard a sound no father in the world would fail to recognize
though he might have not heard it before, then the doorbell rang. He ran to
open the door. There were two nurses holding a stretcher. He invited them in, and told them that his wife was in the bedroom with a friend and that she might
have already delivered the baby. The nurse pushed the stretcher towards the
bedroom. “Hi, Eva, what’re
you doing here?” Seeing Eva holding the baby by his feet, the brunette nurse
asked her. “Delivering a baby, Suzan” Eva said, handing the baby to her. “Here
you go, umbilical cord already cut and tied. This is the quickest and easiest
delivery I have ever done so far” Eva said.“What a big
relief!” the wife said and then asked Suzan if they knew each other. “Eva is the
Maternity Ward Supervisor at the University
Hospital and she is my
boss”Suzan said. The other nurse,
apparently a Filipino, checked the baby. “Congratulation! You have got a baby boy” The
Filipino nurse burst out saying. “Really. Oh, look at his little thing” He said, looking at the baby’s male organ, “I am going to name him Hamzah” ─ “Name who, his
Weenie?!” Surprised, the Filipino nurse inquired. Though she was still weak, Arwa burst out laughing. He looked at the nurse while placing his hand on his mouth
to conceal a smile and said patting her on her shoulder, “Of course not. Weenie
is already named weenie. I don’t need to rename it. I meant the baby” The nurse’s face
blushed, but when he bent to kiss his boy, she shouted, “Don’t, don’t kiss him!” He was confused for a second and said quickly, “Ah, adult’s germs. Ok buddy,
how dare I am to spoil your clean slate! Damn those adult’s germs!”, and then
asked the nurse, “Can I at least touch him on the cheek with the tip of my forefinger” The Pilipino nurse nodded.His wife and
Hamzah were transferred to the stretcher. On the way out, he looked at Khaled
who was sitting on the sofa playing with his toys. “Khaled, look, you
have a baby brother” He said. Khaled raised his head and murmured, “Beby”, and quickly
returned to playing with his toys. “By the way, Eva,
I am going to accompany my wife. Will you be able to look after Khaled until I
am back? If any thing happen, just call
me” He told Eva. “By all means, my husband is coming to pick me up soon. I’ll
then bring Khaled to the hospital. Hamzah may have to be placed in the
incubator for a few days. I’ll be there to make sure that everything is
alright” He said while walking to the door, “Thank you very
much! I am in your debts” but Eva
stopped him, wondering, “I am curious. What
does the name Hamazah mean?” He smiled then posed like a lion standing on his
hinds ready for attack, and bared his teeth, then roared two times. “Ah, a
jaguar” She cried. He said, “Pretty close, but with a mane, Eva. A feline with
a mane” and then closed the door behind him.
The End
