Mine enemy is growing old,
I have at last revenge.
The palate of the hate departs:
If any would avenge,

Let him be quick, the viand flits,
It is a faded meat,
Anger as soon as fed is dead:
'T is starving makes it fat.


Emily Dickinson

Together

My sister and her daughter asked if there was enough space in my home for a couple of friends who will coming with them from Paris. I said yes, rooms could be rearranged to fit all.

Sister and niece arrived first. Later, we went to Gare du Midi to meet the friends, but no one showed up.

In the evening we received a phone call. They apologized because they have arrived late and didn't want to disturb us, so they decided to spend their first night in a hotel.

The following day we met. A mother and her 20-year-old daughter. The father had to stay in Paris.

A kindhearted family, as my sister told me, and very attached to each other. With only one daughter the parents were quite protective. They enjoyed a comfortable life and used to travel to Europe every summer.

The mother was a journalist with a monthly article in one of the biggest newspapers. daughter was beautiful, dark-skinned with green eyes and cola black hair. her childish face couple with the dry sense of humor made her company fun.

Moments after they entered the house, the mother asked who arranged the lush plant pots on the bookshelves. She praised my taste. She got closer to read the titles of the books and said "You have the whole series of the encyclopedia on the Egyptian history". "Comprehensive and easy to read" I commented. "I know, my father is the author" she said.

Two years later, three persons holding each other's hands were crossing a busy main road in a touristy east Mediterranean city when an over-speeding car hit them. They all died immediately. A tragic accident that deeply touched their friends, but a probably-insensitive thought was shared though "Leaving together could be sometimes more merciful"

People I Met

-I have a problem.

-How can I help?

-My belongings don't fit in the bag. Is there a place where I can buy a new bag

now?
-At 11 o'clock it is difficult to find somewhere open. What time is your flight tomorrow?
-10 o'clock and I have to be at the airport before 8 o'clock.

-I doubt shops will be open by that time.

-I know, what can I do then?

-I dunno.....wait...we have a suitcase that was left more than one year ago in some room in the hotel and nobody claimed it since. I will ask my boss if we can give it to you.

-That is very kind. Thank you.

-Well, my boss said ok. As if the suitcase was left specifically for you. We kept it in the storage full of women underwear as we found it. Let me empty it first.
-Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

............................
-We find it a bit strange. So we pay 15 dollars per day to rent a car, but then we have to add like 40 dollars per day for additional costs such as taxes, basic insurance...etc. This is quite unusual where I came from.

-This is how business is done here.

............................
-Do you have a pet with you?

-No.
-So please sign here that you don't have a pet. If we found out you have a pet, the additional charges will grow from 10 dollars per night to 50 dollars.

-No, I assure you I don't have a pet.

.............................
-You speak English well, where did you learn it?

-At school. But I have a heavy accent.

-You do, but it is understandable. So you speak two languages.

-No, three. And I am working on the fourth.

-Wow.
.............................
-May I help you? What are you looking for on the map?

-We want to go to Union Square.

-You go down straight to the bus station. No. 35 will take you there.

-Thank you.

-I like to help, I am a native San Franciscan and lived here all my life. I love this unique city although the economy isn't in its best condition right now. Have you been to the Fisherman's Wharf, Sausalito, and Golden Gate? There is a wonderful exhibition in Alcatraz. You should go and visit.

-Thank you.

-A nice guy.

-He is, but I took few steps back when he was talking. He reeks of alcohol.

Mama Again

Nine years ago Mama suddenly passed away in her sleep. I was abroad and received the phone call from my eldest sister. It lasted less than 2 minutes. I entered my bedroom, shut the door and haven't got out for two days.

She once called me long distance and asked "Are you fine"? I said I was. She said she felt there was something wrong with me. I affirmed her everything was all right and nothing wrong. She asked again "Are you sure"? I said "Yes, Mama. What's the matter?" We said good bye and hanged up.

Amazing intuition.

She was supposed to babysit my sister's kids because sis had some errands to run. The same morning, she started to feel pain in her chest and thought it was just acidity in the stomach. It turned out it was her first heart attack. She was immediately transferred to the ICU. The nurse said "She is in coma, but every now and then she unconsciously mumbles few words" I asked "Like what"? The nurse replied "She keeps asking who will babysit the kids"?

She didn't finish high school, but was an avid reader. We only knew after her death she was writing down her feelings and emotions every now and then particularly in times of distress. She never mentioned she did.

After her death, I used to open her closet and smell her clothes. I continued to do it until the smell faded away.

Nine Octobers Ago

It was a hot August day in Paris. Mother and I were aboard the Seine river cruise. As usual whenever we passed under a bridge, hands down in the cruise and up on the bridge waved to each other. Someone up there threw something down, and many on the boat tried to catch it, but it fell exactly in the lap of my mother. It was a pendant attached to a whitish string. Virgin Mary was on one side and the cross on the other. 

Eight years later, my sisters found it with Mama's jewelry after she passed away. They didn't know where it came from and were surprised to find it  (given the different religious belief) I was surprised too that she maintained it all these years. A matter of superstition maybe. 

Mama passed away this month 9 years ago. 

Months

January:

She pointed her finger at the two men standing at the street corner and said “They are selling drugs. Do they sell drugs in the streets in your country too?” I calmly replied “No, we don’t do that. We are God-fearing people. We do it behind doors” She smiled and accelerated the car in the direction of Rout 101.

As she later proceeded to point out at certain homes and mention the names of their celebrity owners, I felt it was sort of pathetic. If it was not for the company I had, I would have never taken this tour.

February:

The moment we got used to the new rhythm, a newer rhythm started to be audible.

March:

Ex-lovers become friends, colleagues turn into lovers and sex buddies evolve into lovers. Love, sex and friendship cross, overlap, fight and sometimes just sign a peace agreement.

April, May, June and July: 

* The longest time I went without watching TV. I have never been a TV person, but I haven't stayed that long before without feeling the urge to watch it.

* New land and old faces.

* No matter how close we might think we are to someone, there are sometimes black holes we have to ignore or pretend we do not see.

August:

Silence is all we dread

There’s Ransom in a Voice –

But Silence is Infinity.

Himself have not a face.

                                     Emily Dickinson

Where Are They Now?

It is my own where-are-they-now show. Those who have fallen off the map of the memory long ago. We might not have had the deep friendship that justifies my question, but I cannot deny my memory of elephants the right to wonder how life treated them throughout the years.

·                 Y and I were close friends at Preparatory School. Nice blond kid who acted, in my eyes of today, beyond our age. In a matter of few years, he drifted away. His interests became different and we would barely say hello to each other. In High School if we happened to come across each other, he would turn his face away for no reason,. The change of his character was dramatic. Drugs and sex were heavily involved, and a cocky air of self-superiority colored his attitudes.

When I wonder where he might be now, no hypothetical scenario sounds far-fetched. He might have died from an overdose, and he might as well have turned into an Isis-styled barbarian.

·                 S was above the average age of the students in our class in Primary School. She was bullied and called names like ugly face. Despite my young age I sensed from her revolting attitudes she must have had problems at home. She somehow chose me to be her closest friend and I welcomed her choice, or more accurately, I did not find a reason to keep her away. One day she confided to me that her mother worked as a belly dancer, and showed me her photo wearing that glittering suit and dancing on a table top in a nightclub. She asked me not to reveal the secret. S added that her maternal aunt was also a dancer who committed suicide by jumping off a high-rise after a failed love story. As a kid, the world she talked about seemed fascinating and very different from mine (Another S is remembered here).

Years later, I accidentally ran into a story in an old magazine about the suspicious circumstances of the suicide of a belly dancer in the early 1970s in Lebanon. It was the aunt. The story suggested the incident was a murder.

I remember S family name although I'm not quite sure of the spelling. I googled and searched FB, but nothing gave me glimpse of information on her whereabouts.

·                 Throughout my university years, I took evening classes in an American educational establishment that I thought would be an additional asset to my future career (Academic staff were not exclusively American). The atmosphere in the establishment was different from that of my conservative university, and I had the chance to meet interesting students from various walks of life. I took three consecutive semesters with the same professor. He was highly qualified, efficient in his teaching method and very decent. In his classes, and due to the nature of subjects studied, there was always a space for all of us, including the professor, to express our personal views on many matters of life. So I thought I had, to some extent, an idea about the traits of his character. Physically, he was short and skinny with bluish lips due to his chain smoking.

Years later, the national media covered news about the arrest of members of a cult in a northern Mediterranean city. The arrest gained huge coverage and public follow up due to the sensational stories about the head of the cult who claimed to be a messenger sent by god, and the bizarre religious and sexual practices in which the members were involved. I could not believe many of these stories and thought newspapers and tabloids exaggerated or even made them up to raise their sales.

It turned out my professor and his wife were among the members. Special focus was given on him by the media with titles like “Professor in the American University Among Members”. The case developed and went to court for a number of alleged crimes. Many members, including the professor, were eventually sentenced to terms ranged between 5 and 10 years in prison.

I tried to find any common trait between the person I knew as a professor and the members of the cult as I read about, but I failed. I understand that dealing with someone on professional level, does not give the full picture of his or her character, but nevertheless the total disparity between the two pictures, if we supposed the authenticity of each of them, was huge.

How did he spend his prison years? What did he do after and how did he overcome the stigma? Where he might be now? I really wish to know. Unfortunately again, no electronic search could shed light on the answers of any of these questions.