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Chapter eleven:

Wenbe s parents death : Tripoli/ Lebanon, in that time Syria. The mother of the three brothers; Wehbe , Mohammad and Salim was laying in her bed , the birth of her last son was supposed to be ready , her pains were great , the mother was in her forty

two years old, she was not supposed to be pregnant again in that age , but exceptions happen , the room was full with women ; the two daughters; saadia and Sadika, the main midwife and other women of the family to help the midwife , the birth was very difficult and dangerous, but people of that times were ignorant of dangers following birth of a child from a mother in that age, they used to say that this and that gVe birth in her forty five and that in her forty four , the father was waiting outside the room waiting for the news , praying for his wife to pass that period without harm or accident , the big daughter saadia was already married , she came to help her mother, saiid the fourth son sent his wife to help in his mother house, caring about cleaning , cooking while the other women are busy with the ailing mother , he was the last son left home to be with his parents, he was feeling the big responsibility after his brothers travel , the mother was ailing for a week , sleepless from her pains , the midwife was trying her best to lessen the pains, using what is available of medications and herbs , the worried father brought another midwife to help in case of emergencies , the cries of pain from the sick mother were filling the house, the whole family and the midwife were holding their hearts in their hands , the time has come , hot water s containers were ready , the midwife was trying to help the mother to bring the baby out when suddenly the mother voice silenced , the baby was out , but motionless, the baby was dead , the midwife could not utter a word under the curious and scary eyes of the presents , the mother was too motionless , the midwife thought that the mother lost her senses, but the laying woman was not breathing , the fear appears on the midwife s face she checked the woman s heart, no beat was heard, the heart too was silent , the silence took control for minutes before scary cries rose from the daughters lips who knew that their mother was dead , screams and wailing s filled the entire house, the father and his son sat crying and weeping hard . The funeral of the mother with her dead born baby took place in that late afternoon and they were buried together in the same grave , the father didn't live long after his wife less than one year , he was dead too after long month of suffering and pains . The return of Wehbe from Argentina: After Mohammad and Aisha marriage and the moving of Mohammad to his new house with Aisha , Wehbe was left alone, the two brothers , Salim with his wife and family , Mohammad with his new bride , were busy each with his , even Aisha; Wehbe friend became busy now with her husband and her new house , her family built a small villa near their first villa for the new married couple, Wehbe was moving from no's Salim s house to his Mohammad s house , he didn't like to sleep in his brothers married houses , he preferred to be on his own , he started to move with some new friends he made to La Piata or to Buenos Aires , after the end of his work , spending nights sometimes in some friends house over there , Salim didn't like this new life of his youngest brother , he talked to him so many times , warning him to mix with people unknown to them ; he was afraid that his brother could follow some bad reputation people , but Wehbe assured him that all his friends were of good Syrians or Arabs families , Wehbe added: you are both busy with your wives and children , Salim smiling : ok let's make for you too a new family , Wehbe what do you mean ? Salim: simply, to find you a good and pretty girl to marry , Salim was thinking about his wife sister, the girl was now sixteen and she was somehow pretty , not her sister, she was lonely too , he thought that could be a good idea to make her a wife for Wehbe , Salim implied to his brother that he had a suitable girl could be suitable for Wehbe , Wehbe understood where his brother thoughts were going and he told him that right now he is not ready or willing to get married , Salim thought that the time could not be suitable for that discussion, so he decided to make it in another time . Wehbe kept on his daily routine , going to La Piata or Buenos Aires and the late times Wehbe was coming every night , tiredness and fatigue started to look on Wehbe face and body , he was always tired because of his little times spent in sleeping , he was afraid that his brother could make mistakes in his job that may lead to bother the farm s owners , in-spite of their good relationships with the rimaldi family , but business is a business and the brothers were very stern and serious about matters of work and quality of achievements , he reopened that matter of marriage again with his brother, but Wehbe like in the first time was not changing his mind , at last Salim was angry with his brother , he told him that he has two options to choose one of them; to stop getting out to late time as he was doing , or to get married , warning his brother that he will marry him even by force, Wehbe : so you think that marriage could be made by force? Salim: you didn't leave for me another option to choose , your making a lot of mistakes in your work , mostly I'm covering on you , but for how long , our friends are not stupid , they will find soon your mistakes and careless behavior that will for sure worsen our relationship with them and will cause you troubles, Wehbe : there is another option you didn't see, Salim : what is that ? Wehbe: to find another job else where , without bothering you ir our friends, Salim was surprised and he looked at his brother strangely and said : are you serious? Do you really plan to leave us and to live by yourself? Had you forgotten that we are in a foreign country and not at home ? Even in case you found a good job , do you think that you'll find better people to support you and tolerate your mistakes as mother s fatima sons could do , Salim was furious not believing what his brother had already said , he was very fond in this little devil never thought to let him live far from him in this foreign lands , he said : remember that I'm still your senior brother and I'm still responsible to your safety and good life following my father s orders , Wehbe: I don't mean to live far from you and Mohammad , I'm thinking about another job not far from here that we could meet every day as usual , eat together and spend times as usual , Salim : what time? , you ll spend your time working away from my eyes then the evening time you ll spend with your mates , how could I see you them or Mohammad too ? That was almost a daily discussion between Wehbe and his brother whenever Salim finds time to talk and meet, at last Wehbe promised his brother to spend more times with them and to make his outing less within the week . Days went on and Wehbe kept his word, he was seeing his brothers more , playing with Salim s two babies and visiting Mohammad and Aisha in their house , but Wehbe started again to go out more and more , Salim became worried again, he talked with Mohammad to talk with Wehbe after that he tried his turn with him , maybe Mohammad could be more convincing than him being closer to Wehbe , but Wehbe don't listen to Mohammad and repeated what he said to Salim before , Salim became angry and he called after his two brothers to meet with him that evening. When they met that evening, it was clear that the two brothers were United together to convince their youngest if their idea , Salim repeated again his proposal to Wehbe regarding marriage , promising to help him in all means to have his own house and family threatening again to use force if necessary, Wehbe didn't want to challenge with his brother face to face , he decided between himself to travel back home to live with his parents as before , his nostalgia of his family was great , his loneliness in these foreign country became unbearable , he was not aware that his mother and father were dead by this time , and before a long time , in that time he knew more friends from Syria , one of them was a young man whose name was Habib, Habib was coming from Byblos the old known city on the Mediterranean coastline, he came to Argentina after the First World War explosion, the situation in mont Lebanon were worse than in other areas , the locusts attack left almost nothing of the greens in his town and the surrounding, the people of the mont of Lebanon suffered a disastrous fame that killed half of the population , he came with a group of young men hoping to find a job with his uncles in Argentina , the news coming from home was telling that the situation became much better than before, before he came , he left a sweetheart behind him , his plan was to work for some years to gather a good amount of money then to go back home to get married to his sweetheart, his uncles didn't want him to go go back , afraid of the news about the war there , they decided to find him a girl to marry her in that way they guarantee his staying with them in Argentina, but Habib heart and thoughts were there in Byblos not in Argentina ,after many trials to convince him to yield to their offer , he refused absolutely to marry another woman , his uncles decided to force him to surrender to their will , he decided to run away secretly with any notice to Lebanon , but he was afraid to take that adventure alone , the road to Lebanon from Argentina was full of thieves and criminals , when Wehbe told him about his similar plan to run away , they both found in each other a courage to put their plan in action , but without telling anyone about their intention, they both started to save money as much as they could to help them in their journey back home . Wehbe wanted to see how could be the reaction of his brothers regarding his leaving home, he told them that he met a guy who is willing to leave back home , he told them the whole story of Habib without saying that he is his own friend , Salim : this guy is a fool , returning now in a troubled situation is suicide ,Wehbe : if you are in his uncles shoes , shot would you do ? Salim: I'll stop him by force, if he is not convinced, Wehbe was annoyed with his brother words , Mohammad too was with Salim point of view that made Wehbe feel more worried, he knew that telling his brothers about his plan , will lead to a direct confrontation , so he decided to go with his plan secretly . He started his preparation for his secret plan , he saved his money in a secret place in his room in Salim s place , he decided to say. Good by to his Italian friends just before his departure , so he visited salman in his house , salman s wife was present and Aisha too , he thanked Allah inside himself that she was there because he was worried about visiting her to say goodbye , but he didn't know how to avoid his brother Mohammad presence, salman was happy to see Wehbe and Aisha was so pleased to see him too , they talked about many things then Wehbe looked at them and said to salman: I want to tell about a secret , but I want you to swear in Allah s name that it will be among us only , the same to Aisha , they were surprised and amassed , they kept silent or a while then salman and Aisha made their holy swear to keep his secret, Wehbe with tearing eyes told them about his plan to leave Argentina, the news was a real shock to them all , Aisha was frozen and her face became white, salman said : Mohammad didn't tel me neither Salim ! Wehbe: nobody know except you I'm leaving secretly because my brothers are willing to stop me by force if they knew , tears started to fill Aisha s eyes and she started to weep then she looked at Wehbe with anger and said : are you going crazy , how it came to your head to leave us easily like that and I think that you are not coming back later , Wehbe : I don't know if I will or not , she put her hands on her face and tarted again her weeping, Wehbe : I'm obliged to tell you because you are my family here and my best friends and you ll remain my dear friends to the day of my death , Aisha screamed at him and said : please to mention death , Wehbe : the date of my departure will be within two days and I wish to visit Mother Fatima and your brothers before leaving to pay my good bye greetings , Aisha : I ask you in the name of Allah to think over and to change your mind , Wehbe : it is over , I was thinking for a long time before taking my final decision , I know it is hard for all of us , but remember that I have too a family; a mother, a father, brother, sisters and so many friends there , salman : I wish for you all the best with a hope that you think again for the last time about your traveling , Wehbe : it is not traveling, it is going back home , their goodbye was full of tears , salman insisted to take him in person to him house and Aisha followed them to drop at her house that was about one hundred of meters from her parents, when they reached Salim s house , Salim was surprised to see his brother coming down from salman s cart , Wehbe explained that salman was going to visit a friend and he insisted to drop Wehbe on his way , The next day , Wehbe went to visit Mother Fatima in her house in Buenos Aires, the whole family was there , the mother noticed that Wehbe was not normal , something was wrong , she told him to come with her to her room to talk, in the room , mother rosalba was there too , mother Fatima : what is wrong with you my son? Wehbe could not keep silent , he told Mother Fatima the whole story telling her that he came to pay the last goodbye, the lady s eyes became full of tears, she rose up and hugged Wehbe the way mothers hug their son then she said: you are right my son, nobody cares about a person more than his parents, I ll pray to Allah to protect you in your journey, he kissed her hand with tears and left. The next day Wehbe and his friend Habib moved together to the port of Buenos Aires, for surprise, salman was there with Aisha , the boat they were supposed to take was an Italian ship going direct to Sicilia in the south of Italy , Aisha hugged Wehbe and wept on his chest like a baby , salman too hugged him and told him to take care , salman talked with the ship s captain then the young men moved and waived to salman and Aisha before despairing inside the ship , the journey took over a month before they landed on the Italian lands , the captain arranged for them with a commercial boat that was going to Tripoli s port in Syria direct and before they leave , the captain gave Wehbe a small parcel saying that it was given to him by salman to give it to Wehbe when they reach the Italian ports , for Wehbe s surprise , the parcel was containing a piece of gold and a neckless wrapped in papers written on them the name of Aisha , on the neckless icon was written in Arabic Allah protect you , Wehbe tears run down his checks . The two young men continued on the other boat directly on Tripoli , they reached there within days . In Tripoli port the two friends separated Wehbe to Tripoli and Habib took a cart to Byblos promising to come later for a visit . The end of the story : My grand father ; wehbe , lived alone in a small house of two room given to him by his sister saadia, ,saadia s husband was a merchant , his financial status was more than good they helped my grandfather to find a job as a transporter of goods on horses and mules Bach to the villages surrounding Tripoli , he got married to his brother in law s sister who gave him twelve sons and daughters, but all were dead as I was told , the poor mother followed her children and died too from her suffering and agonies after loosing her children, he married another woman who gave him one child , but she died too and her son; Salim died when he was seven years old , my grand father got married to my grandmother when he was almost fifty , she gave him two daughters and four sons , my father was the first son , they didn't keep well along with each other , he deserted her and married again his fourth wife when he was eighty, in his eighths five of age his wife was pregnant and gave him a daughter , my grandfather never had contacts with his brother in Argentina, in 1967 a woman came from Argentina and gave a message that reached my father asking to have a contact with her uncle , she was my father cousin and my grandfather s niece, but strangely he refused to meet her or respond to her message , he said to my father who asked him to contact the niece: the traveler never had a tent over his head, til now I don't understand what he meant . The End .