Friday, December 01, 2006

Here you go, the second segment.
Ya rab ye3gib :-)




Anna opened the door with tears all over her face, only to find Safa wrapped in her Abaya, and holding a plate of Saffron cupcakes; her “specialty”, or what she believed was her specialty.

Safa looked down at her own feet and shook her head saying almost like talking to herself:
- “I know. I heard!”

Anna was so vulnerable she reached out for Safa for a hug, and surprisingly enough, Safa replied the gesture with her free arm. Anna wasn’t surprised with the smell of onions and cloves on Safa’s abaya.

As Anna sat down as Safa unwrapped the foil off the cupcakes, Anna said between her sobs:
- “I thought he stopped! He promised!! I thought things were back to normal! I don’t understand how this happened to me! To us!!!”

Safa folded her Abaya and tucked it between the cushions, in complete silence for a change. Her face carried an odd expression as if she knew the answer, so Anna perused:
- “Did he ever tell you why?”

Safa pulled her Hijab further back as she always does when she was uncomfortable, and started folding her sleeves up her forearms with more concentration than necessary. The silence might not have lasted long, but its awkwardness made it feel like forever. Finally she said:

- “Anna my dear. I know that you’re different from us and that you think you’re better sometimes. But we know things you can’t possibly understand. Things that we have experienced for real and might sound completely ridiculous to you

“This woman, well..
she has bewitched my brother to fall helplessly in love with her. I’m talking real witchcraft! Haven’t you noticed how he lost weight lately, constantly up and edgy? It’s as if he went mad!”

Anna thought to herself : “That’s all the drinking and drugs you stupid woman!!”, but she held her tongue back.

- “Come on Safa! We’re educated women! You can’t expect me to believe this!”

Safa raised an eyebrow and curled her lower lip:
- “Just as I expected. Walla honey it’s up to you! I’m just telling you what we all think”.
- “What you ALL think??!”, Anna suddenly burst out,
- “What Safa! You can’t believe your perfect brother can be a selfish *uckin A**hole?! That SOB? You would rather twist your brain around and believe in witchcraft than in him chasing a whore?”

Safa jumped up and waved her pointer finger in Anna’s face:
- “Look Ann! I never said my brother was perfect! The Lord alone deserves that! Even the Prophet made mistakes. But in this case, I do believe that this isn’t his own fault. This woman he’s with has an obscene reputation, and no one in his right mind would bring down the family name for a whore! Him especially!! He’s a man who has always put family first and would never do anything to upset us”

- “Are you delusional Safa? Wasn’t this the speech you gave him when we got married? Face it woman! You have always hated the fact that he married a foreigner, and you hated me for ruining your perfect brother. Aren’t you happy he married a whore of your own now!?”

- “You know what? Now I know I was wrong coming down here! If this is the kind of hell you’ve been giving my brother, then I don’t blame him!”

Little beads of sweat were forming on Safa’s hairy upper lip. Anna stared at her sweaty face and with a new surge of disgust and rage, she stood up pointing to the door. She felt dizzy as the surge suddenly hit her and said:
- “Get the hell out of my house!”
- “Your house? This is my brother’s house! It will never be yours! I have more right being here than you do!”

She struggled with her extremely well tugged-in Abaya and stormed out the door. Anna picked up the cupcakes and screamed:
- “ And take your shitty cake with you! I don’t want anything to do with it anywhere near me or my children”

Safa completely ignored her and walked straight through the outer gate, howling at her driver to drive her off. Anna picked up a cupcake and threw it on the car but missed. Frustrated and angry she sat down at the door step and wept out loud.

15 comments:

Mohammad Al-Yousifi said...

شسالفة؟

blacklight said...

WOW arfana a great piece of art work , its too good to be on a blogg come on try to submit that to the daily star or Kuwait times (just remove some slang and the whole thing will pass censorship).
My comment:
That’s what we get from a society which doesn’t respect privacy of relation. why people in q8 keep interfering with their relatives personal life so rudely?
If the guy in ur story is really bewitched by someone he is bewitched from his sister and family and should bring a shoot gun and blast their heads off for butting in his private manners.
Why cant this community understands that "elthob reg3etah minnah o feh" crap is not a standard procedure to follow or an urban law to obey?!

Sorry arfana long comment as usual :).

Arfana said...

ma6goog,

هذي أجزاء من قصة قاعدة أكتبها. شكلي بنشرها هني بدال ما أطلع كتاب. أبي رايك لأنه وايد يهمني
:-)

blacklight,

WoW to you! I just didn't think it's mature enough to be published yet. I'll keep posting parts of it here to get your comments. I'm glad you find it interesting :-)

"piece of art work" is a statement i'll cherish forever :-))))))

Arfana said...

Ghasheema,

I also agree with the both of you on color bel thob :-)

As for the woman, she's an older woman; 3abaya w 7jab; i've seen plenty of these lol

you're right though about the younger generation. You'll see the difference in the later segments :-)


Tefalsifay yumma i'm all yours :-)

Mohammad Al-Yousifi said...

اليوم الأحد الساعة سبعة و نص مساء سيتم عرض فيلم عندما يتكلم الشعب الجزء الثاني للمخرج عامر زهير في فندق حياة ريجينسي بحضور الدكتور أحمد الخطيب

9oot said...

i like it so far :)

Arfana said...

ma6goog,

sorry i'm missing it :-(
you guys let me know how it goes! Write a lot!!


9oot,

it's strange you chose to comment only on this! lol

love u anyways :-)
& glad u like it :-*

9oot said...

becuse "this" i've been waiting for for a long time :p

9oot said...

ba3dain kaifee

Mozart said...

great story and i really admire your approach of realism. keep it up

cheers

Arfana said...

6oot,

ok la tkhangeen!!! :-)


Mozart

Thank you dear :-)
Except that, i'm not sure if so much reality is a good thing in fiction...

Arfana said...

Bunaz,

hahaha i'm glad u find it that interesting!!! Only I don't think it has enough drama for TV or Cinema. But you can be the judge of that. It's all yours if you want it... 7alalek malalek.

Since i'm more comfortable in English, and lack the Arabic literacy work, the final result (not sure if it's gonna be a novel or short story) will be in English :-)

PS> check out Baldisar. He has many short stories that can be put together in a certain theme. They're in Arabic and they're spectacular! Lots of imagination and excellent language

Arfana said...

ghasheema,

don't rush the creative energy lol

soon soon ya ahla yathreb :-)

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