Binyameen Read online

  “Daddy… hand me your ear… I must bite you!”

  “Why Jumanah?”

  She answered him as she did a serious pose and voice while waving her finger in his face and frowning as she crossed her eyes:

  “Because I told you to stop working late… and he who do not listen to his daughter… his daughter must bite him! Understood?”

  “Would you forgive me if I told you I had a surprise for you would?”

  Sawsan joined their fond moment as she moved closer and said:

  “Daddy is tiered Jumanah, give him a kiss and go up to your bed… Eyad darling should I prepare something for you to eat?”

  Jumanah ignored her jumping around with excitement and joy saying:

  “What is the surprise Daddy? What is the surprise?”

  “We are going to Paris! And uncle Husam and aunt Maram will come with us”

  Her joy overwhelmed her forgetting her father’s open arms as she ran dancing towards her room shouting:

  “Paris?! We are going to Euro Disney?! I must tell Elyaseen so he would come with us!”

  Sawsan looked into Eyad’s eyes and said:

  “Eyad… when will you tell me everything?”

  He answered with a made-up baffle:

  “I don’t understand… Tell you what?”

  “Eyad I opened my old laptop today, and found the emails sent from the notes app on my iPad during collage… I found all of the chats between me and Hawjan and I read them…”

  “Sawsan… Sawsan please there is no point of discussing this again…”

  “Eyad I am not crazy; these chats have very detailed information about the Jinn world and parallel dimensions that I could not have made up because of schizophrenia! Some of this information was actually discovered years after my story with Hawjan! There is no way this was all schizophrenia!”

  “Sawsan what happened to you was not an easy thing, we all know that the human brain holds many secrets that are yet to be discovered… did you forget what Dr. Emad Zaki said?”

  He anxiety increased and she cut him off:

  “Again you mention Dr. Emad Zaki? Today I found his number on my old laptop saved under your name Dr. EZ! Can you explain that? Dr. Emad Zaki or Dr. Eyad Zaydi?! Explain to me who is Elyaseen that Jumanah keeps talking to?”

  “Sawsan you know kids have imaginary friends and…”

  She cut him off again even more frustrated:

  “Jumanah has an imaginary friend, I have an imaginary Jinni, you have an imaginary cousin named Jumanah… What in our life is not imaginary?!”

  She looked away from him to hide a tear slipping from her eye as she said:

  “I feel like I am living a huge lie… everything around me is a perfect illusion hiding disasters that I had forgotten after my surgery and you are afraid that I would know them with you even feeling my pain… I can’t take this anymore Eyad!”

  He wiped her tear and held her from her waist and looked into her eyes as he said:

  “Trust me Sawsan I care about nothing in this world more than you and Jumanah’s happiness”

  He put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a miniature memory stick and raised it in front of her eyes, he exhaled as he continued:

  “Everything is on here, I recorded it with Dr. Emad, I promise I will show it to you once we are back from Paris, but for now please trust me, and on a more important note I beg you get me something to eat before I collapse in front of you”

  His words succeeded in drawing a smile over Sawsan’s remaining tears… but they lit all the grief and anxiety in side of him.

  The callers voice echoed over the speakers in King Abdulaziz International Airport departure terminal as he made the final call for Saudi Airlines a flight 127 flying to Paris increasing Eyad’s frustration as he had just checked in his luggage, he dragged his bag with one arm and carried Jumanah on the other as he ran towards his gate followed by Sawsan. He met Husam as he was coming out of the business lounge, Jumanah jumped out of her father’s arms towards Maram screaming with joy:

  “Aunt Maram… Aunt Maram!”

  Maram carried Jumanah as they all rushed towards their gate, Eyad and Sawsan had to swap chairs with Husam and Maram because Jumanah insisted on sitting next to Maram who always played with her as if she was a child in her same age…

  The interior lights of the plane turned off, and the first class seats turned into beds as most of the passengers gave into sleep except for Husam who slightly leaned his seat and turned towards the window trying to bid farewell to Jeddah, its sea and sky, he had a feeling crushing his soul… a feeling that this was the last time he would see it… a feeling that their journey that has just started was one way… with no return!

  (2)

  Binyameen

  T he sun was busy mixing the sky’s colors…

  Golden, scarlet, ending with maroon…

  She was perplexed, trying to complete her painting before she leaves and spills the remnants of her colors behind her.

  Husam was watching her, learning from her, sitting on the edge of the stone path where small weeds and flowers peaked up with stubborn curiosity as it watched Husam and whispered amongst themselves with their scents.

  He leaned his body backwards on his palms and swung his feet to tickle the river’s water… and smiled. He smiled when he felt her coming, she sat next to him quietly and leaned her head over his shoulder, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and her bare feet joined the waving dance with his. Moments passed without either of them uttering a word until she said in a voice choked by longing as she picked up his hand and embraced it between her cheek and her hand:

  “You were away for much too long Husam… three days without asking about me?”

  She continued as she kissed his fingertips:

  “Don’t do this to me… every time I wait is longer than the previous wait!”

  He picked up her hands in his and brought them closer to his lips as he whispered:

  “I wish I had stayed with you and never came back to my life!”

  His gaze drifted out to the star filled sky as he continued:

  “All of those stars and worlds separate us? Ninety billion light years just to get to you!”

  Her sorrow choked on her as she realized how far apart, they were and said:

  “Ninety billion light years barely takes you to the edges of this universe! Can you imagine the distance in the second universe? And the third, the fourth, to infinity?”

  The thought struck him hard, his mind could not Imagin that all the cosmic distances and enormous galaxies in this universe are but an intangible speck in a roaring sea of entangled unending universes.

  His paused his paralysis into a tear as he dived into the depths of her eyes never reaching its bottom, she caught it on her fingertips as she tried to ease his pain… and hers:

  “Husam… If the soul yarns for another… it overcomes time and distance!”

  His face gradually vanished, she tried to hold him in her arms but he disappeared completely and only his tear remained on her finger tips… She buried her face in her hands as she collapsed in silent burning tears…

  “Husam?! Did you wake up?” whispered Maram as she noticed the tear flowing down her brother’s cheek as he awoke from his nap that did not last more than ten minutes, Husam sat up in as energy flowed through his body as if he had slept for tens of hours.

  “Come on lazy boy! You sleep too much dude” Said Eyad as he picked up the bags from the plane’s overhead compartments, and the all headed towards the arrival’s gate at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

  *****

  Jumana’s excited steps echoed on the marble cladded walls and floor of the Marriott Champs Elysees Hotel forgetting her mother’s repeated instructions to be calm and quite, she ran towards the piano that rested underneath the glass dome at the center of the hotel while the female instinct took over Sawsan and Maram as the dived into the luxurious boutiques scattered around the hotel leaving the munda
ne tasks to Eyad and Husam who stood in front of the receptionist to complete their check in process… and the music started.

  A waterfall flowed out of the piano controlled by Jumana, it started with shy drops but her little fingers quickly threw away their innocence and grew tens of fingers all with seizure as they danced over the piano keys to play Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. The music mesmerized everyone who heard it, and that turned into a shock when they turned to see the kid standing in front of the piano keys and devouring them with no mercy! As soon as the music stopped innocence returned to her face as her serious grin slipped away.

  She opened her eyes to see the crowds around her looking at her with astonishment Jumana jumped as the silence exploded suddenly with excited clapping, and they started asking her about her name and her talent and she answered them in Frensh with an Arabian accent that she learned from her half Frensh grandmother Manal Al-Aqeel who spends most of her days with her husband Mr. Mansour Alzaydi on the beaches of Nice. Eyad and Husam cut through the crowds and Jumana rushed towards them and held on to Husam’s hand pulling him by his thumb as she said:

  “This is Uncle Husam, he taught me the piano, uncle Husam play the Angel music… Please PLEASE!”

  Eyad who got used to Jumana’s outrageous scenes wherever she was, carried her in his arm and whispered to her:

  “Jumana it is late, you must sleep early so that we can take you with us tomorrow”

  She surrendered as usual with terms as she shook her pointer finger firmly in front of her now widened round eyes and said firmly as she stated her terms:

  “OK, I will sleep early with a condition! You buy me the entire set of my little ponies! Understood?!”

  As usual, Eyad gave in to his daughter’s fondness, taking her to the room to handle the rituals of sleep: pajama, dinner and a story; while Sawsan was still with Maram on their shopping spree at the Champs Elysees, the heart of Frensh brands, that ended by force when the boutiques shut their gates, so the tow Saudi ladies dragged their fancy bags to one of the antique cafés to drink their shopping battle toast.

  “Although we now find all the brands in our malls, and those we can’t find in the mall we can buy online, but nothing beats buying it fresh from its country!”

  Said Maram as she picked up her hot cup of coffee to warm her fingers a bit before the cold breeze stole its hot steam; she took a sip as she listened to Sawsan:

  “We must go to China if we want to buy it fresh from its country. All major brands are now made there; But who cares, as long as we bought them from the Champs Elysees!”

  Sawsan’s joke went cold as she wandered off, only to come back at Maram’s shouting:

  “Sawsan? Sawsan! What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing!”

  “As if I do not know you, you haven’t been yourself for some time now! Did Eyad upset you? Come on tell me, there is nothing better than bashing men!”

  “Eyad can never upset me, he’s over protective”

  “How romantic”

  “On the contrary, that is exactly my issue with him! He is so protective I am sure he is hiding so many things from me”

  “If what he is hiding is of no consequence, why bother know it?”

  Sawsan exhaled a deep breath that was even hotter than the smoke coming out of her coffee as she said:

  “Maram you have never felt this way, a part of my life was amputated from my life, and Eyad is the only one who knows the details and is hiding them from me!”

  “Are we going to talk about Jinn again? Weren’t you cured from your schizophrenia?”

  “Let me show you something and you tell me” said Sawsan as she pulled out her phone and opened her email account where she had sent all her chat history with Hawjan and handed it to Maram to read… a few moment passed, the coffee froze in Maram’s hand, eyes wide she looked up to Sawsan as she released her tears :

  “Hawjan… Impossible!”

  She looked around her perplexed in fear as if she was checking to make sure there were no Efreets around, and moved close as she whispered to Sawsan:

  “I can’t believe that all of these discussions and information were mere schizophrenia! You must have been talking to a real Jinni! You must show those files to your psychologist; he must have a logical explanation!”

  “And that is my second issue! I am sure that Dr. Emad Zaki is in on it with Eyad. I think he is not a real doctor; can you imagine that his mobile number is the same number Eyad used to use when we were in collage, how can you explain that?”

  “Unbelievable!”

  “Additionally I am sure he came with his cousin Jumana when he proposed, I remember her and I am sure I saw her just as I can see you now, every time I ask him about her he avoids that answer… and when I ask him why he insisted to name our daughter Jumana he says he likes the name!”

  Sawsan paused for a moment and continued as her stress increased:

  “Imagin Jumanah is convinced she has a friend called Elyaseen? She talks to him, plays with him, as if he is living with us… She is driving me crazy! And Eyad tells me all kids have imaginary friends”

  “Sawsan, you must confront Eyad!”

  “I tried several times, but as I said he always avoids the subject, and I don’t want to push too hard that I upset him… A few days ago, he showed me a USB he claims to have recorded all our details that I have to know, and promised to show it to me once we are back home”

  Maram used her female scheming cells in her brain then asked Sawsan:

  “So you will wait in suspense until we return?! Do you have Dr. Emad’s number?”

  “Even if I call Dr. Emad Zaki, I know all of his responses, he will try to convince me with the same old record of schizophrenia and the wonders of the human mind!”

  “And who said you should ask him? Confront him from the get-go… Tell him that Eyad told you everything!”

  A brilliant and simple plan… Sawsan hesitated for a moment before picking up her phone and scroll through the contact list with shaking finger tips searching for Dr. EZ, then she tried to retreat:

  “No, No, this is not a good time to call!”

  Maram plucked the phone from Sawsan’s hand and pressed the call button to end Sawsan’s hesitation and said:

  “IT is 8 here, so it is still 10 back home… tonight you are not going to bed before knowing everything!”

  She put the phone on Sawsan’s ear whose heart beats shook her entire existence when she heard the ring tone, the shaking stopped when the tone ended with no answer.

  “He did not answer… Told you it was a bad time to call!”

  Maram plucked the phone again and started texting…

  “Maram what are you doing?!”

  Maram returned the phone to Sawsan after confirming the text was sent to Dr. Emad, Sawsan opened the message and gasped as she read it:

  “Eyad shoed me the movie! You must call me urgently, and you will regret it if you try to let Eyad know that I had talked to you”

  *****

  The Georges Pompidou Centre’s hall at the center of Paris was filled with modern art lovers, greeting them was the “Complete Smile” painting that presented a completed Mona Lisa painting that Leonardo Da Vinci never completed in his life, but had completed it Somewhere right before Hussam’s eyes who had memorized the placement of every atom on it to reproduce it with every detail in a way that is hard to believe was painted by a human without ever being edited by a computer.

  Other smaller gatherings surrounded each of Husam’s other paintings that scattered around the exhibition, paintings that were more like live photographs that summarized the time he spent Somewhere, the universe that Malak had built for him. At the center of the main hall was the largest gathering in front of the painting “Malak”; the angelic look; the smile that overwhelms everyone who see it; the tear that is about to flow over the paining exceeding all reality, and the beauty that went beyond all dreams. In front of the painting sat Husam on a high chair surrounded wi
th three other paintings, he was painting all of them at the same time, adding some details to one of them with a brush stroke then leaves it to dry for a moment as he dips his fingers in paint to add a touch to another, then turns to the third to autograph it and remove it from its place to replace it with a new painting. He was painting continuously without even thinking, as if he was a high-speed high-resolution printer, and the audience around him are stunned with what their eyes see, and their minds can hardly believe.

  Jumana was able to cut through the crowds with her small body and announced excitingly:

  “Wow uncle Husam I love this painting so much! I will take it to hang in my room, but why are the roses white? Don’t you know I love purple?”

  She dipped her small fingers in the purple paint and started to imitate Husam’s movements as she painted her roses purple without any one objecting to her actions as she continued while focused on painting:

  “Uncle Husam I want you to paint another one identical to this so I can give it to Elyaseen but paint the roses red and blue!”

  Sawsan looked at Maram hinting to what they talked about, then pulled Jumana from her arm as she said:

  “Come on Jumana uncle Husam is busy don’t bother him! Look what you have done to your hands, we must wash them at once!”

  Eyad was in a black suit that made his look like a star walking down the red carpet as he escorted the reporters around the exhibit answering their questions, flowing seamlessly between his first, second and their language: Arabic, Frensh and English. He guided them towards Husam while saying:

  “And this is our champ Husam! The man who snatched from death a new life! Proving that a superman is no meth at all!”

  A reporter from a Frensh channel stormed towards Husam who had stopped painting and came down from his chair:

  “Monsieur Husam, what would you like to say in this occasion for your first exhibition at the Georges Pompidou Centre where your paintings are presented at the same place where the works of the likes of Picasso, Dalí, Hergé have been showcased?”