Father s time

Chapter one. :The whole place was full of people coming from all the surroundings, today the news had arrived, the government sent a notice to all the soldiers and officers to be to prepare to join the army , to start their training sessions, Abdul Ghani Melhem was the only officer to be joining and the rest in the village were all soldiers,Abdul was the first born and he was the pride of his parents, a very handsome man, educated , brave and of a special personality that attracted admirers wherever he went or attended, his father having four males, two of them were deaf since the were born , the third was just a baby in his nine month of age, Abdul was the only promise for his father and mother even for the whole family, the hall was full with men from all society levels and ranks, the father, being the head of the town, was the real descended from the Pasha s family of Bani Saifa , the old family that one day was ruling over a large Emirate bigger than many states of today , the power of Yousuf Saifa the eminent ruler and Pasha was extended from Beirut, today s capital of Lebanon from the south to Latikkia , the big Syrian city on the Mediterranean , near the Turkish borders, that day so many friends and relatives were attended to discuss with the Sheikh or the bid Agha, as the father was called , the preparation for the departure, others came just to congratulate the acceptance of Abdul in the college of officers in Istanbul , the turkey in those days was called the ottoman Saltana, and Syria , Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, and Libya were integrated parts of that Saltana with a power of respect for the ottoman sultan over the whole Islamic world , considered as the legitimate sultan of the Islamic world , in that time, a movement of a group of powerful officers backed by some European powers and the Zionist organization led by Theodore Hertzel , were the real force and power behind the new movement, that movement declared the overthrow of the legitimate sultan with a Fatwa by the high clergy in the Saltana that the sultan Abdul Hamid Khan is not worthy to rap present the Saltana and they appointed his weak brother as the legitimate sultan to play with him like a doll while the real powers were in the hands of three Generals of the ottoman army , the Agha was aware of all what was going in his country , being a faithful to his legitimate sultan , Abdul hamid khan , was not too much happy that his first born was to serve under the authority of suspected Generals , his loyalty was always to the pious sultan Abdul hamid khan and he would never accept any other authority not belonging to the ruling family, he could not declare his opinion in public except for his group of trustworthy surrounding , the political situation in the whole word was very agitated with wars here and there in Balkan , kermia or other places between the Saltana and Russia or the the new revolutionary forces in the small states in Balkan , backed by France,United Kingdom or others, the Saltana was called" the sick man " and all the imperials in the world were waiting the death of the sick man to inherit his belongings. The Agha was sitting with his brothers and some close friends or relatives talking about news from here and there while servants were moving all the time to serve the present guests with caffe, tea,fresh juice or plates of fruits and nuts , the young Abdul was sitting with some of his young friends and cousin talking about the expected journey to Istanbul and joking while in the other hall prepared for women , his mother was attending for née gusts and beside her she seated Fadila , the fiancé of Abdul and the promised wife to be, Abdul with a sudden jerk moved from his seat and stood up asking the presents to leave for a while to bring more foods and nuts for his guests as he said , the Agha was watching carefully his son and he knew that the young man was going to talk secretly to his fiancé , Abdul moved fast with a basket in his hands directly to the cellar that was made for provisions, in the same time, Fadila ask a permission too to go to the same task, serving the guest even though she was not the one to take that task on her back, the two young men entered almost in the same time to the cellar ,but each from a different entrance their steps were soft on the floors but Abdul sound of steps was heard, Chet finally met on a corner and stood apart silents unable to talk , both were in tears in their faces and the words refused to sort or to go out of their lips till he gathered his strength and said with a broken voice, I miss you my lovely song, Fadila was very young girl , in her sixteenth, very pretty lovely girl, very white, almost blond haired, with a rounded face almost red with big eyes with the color of green garden , her body was slim and fragile , her hands small and very clean and white, when she moves , her body moves like a branch of a tree and when she talk her voice was a music of shyness and singing birds , she stood there motionless waiting for her groom to proceed on , but the young man remained silent, she gathered what was left of her voice and said: did you know the date of your departure , he raised his head and looked at the lovely face that was more beautiful in that moment of sadness with waves of emotions moving in his chest , he wants to embrace that fragile body to his heart, but he knows that they are not married yet and he has to be patient till the promised day comes , but his red eyes talked with a lot of talk , a lot of words unspoken were heard in the girl heart , her right hand extended to him , he didn't dare to touch her , but she kept her hand extended till he held that hand and put it in his heart that was pounding like a drum , they stood for moments silent, but their eyes and their hearts talked then tears from both started to fall , she was shivering from her agony and love , for the first time he touched her hand for years, they were friends from their childhood, playing always together in the fields of the town , in the gardens of their family among the trees of apple and pears , climbing trees of nuts , chasing rabbits and chickens , touching each others freely , when they reached their age of manhood and womanhood they knew that touching or playing alone is not permitted any more , he moved his head near her and murmured in her ears: my heart beatings , I love you more and more every day and he left the basket in his hands falls to the ground and held her other hand saying: my love to you will remain her, pointing to his heart, to the death, when she heard the word of death she cried a faint cry and said: please don't mention that , I love you from all my heart too and I pray Allah to gather us both in this world and in the after life together, they both started to weep and to cry till they heard a noise , then he collected the fruits and left and she did the same . The guests started to leave till the hall became empty except of the small family with only the younger brother of the Agha too , the Agha took the hands of his beloved first son while the two young's boys stood watching their father and their big brother with wondering looks , they knew that something vey important is going on and their knew with reading the lips that there is a traveling and a departure, but they didn't know what the meaning of the two words. The Agha stood beside his young wife and murmured in her ears: did you talk with the lady Farida? The mother murmured back , we agreed to meet tomorrow in private to talk again , Abdul was playing with the two deaf brothers but his ears and attention were their with his parents, he looked at his mother who responded his look with a broad smile and he understood that the conversation was something about him and Fadila the father talked for a while with his little brother then the brother greeted them and left, then the Agha moved to his room while his wife instructed the maids to serve the two boys and take them to their room and came to her first son with her broad smiles and ushered him to his room, when they sat down she started to tel him about the tomorrow meeting arranged with his mother in law to be that brought a big smile to his face and he hugged his mum tenderly saying , you are my best ever friend, mum and sister , his mum hugged him tenderly and kissed him keeping hard her tears from bursting. The next day, the future mother in law came and caffe and other fruits were laid on the table, the two women talked a lot then they started with their main issue, the date of their son and daughter weeding , they agreed the next year after Abdul coming back from Istanbul , to prepare everything and make the weeding ceremonies, then lady Farida looked silently at her friend and said in a soft voice: there is something else I've wanted to talk with you about, the mother amused asked what do you have Farida,talk? , lady Farida hesitated a little bit then she said : since the news came and Fadila is not with us , her mind is always far , her thoughts always absents from us, she doesn't eat well since yesterday , she doesn't show her agony, but a look in her face tells me a lot of her hidden tears, I suggested that she comes to your house and spend a time with you before and after Abdul departure, you know how much she loves you and I think you could manage her much better than I, beside she will find consolations in her groom s mother , the mother Mousouk, said: why not darling bring her immediately, my darling child will be her in my eyes and heart, that evening Fadila came to her in law s home and soon she was given the best room in the big house. Three days and the expected day of departure came, all bags and baggage's were prepared and put together, clothes and personal things , foods of all types were prepared and put in suitable containers, dry fruits, kochek,jams of different types, yougurt in olive oil containers , cheeses of different types, olives and everything that could keep long time for consumption,was prepared and loaded , the cart was led by two horses with a horse special for the young officer to be all were waiting for the hour, inside the house , relatives, friends were storming the big house to say goodbye and praying for his safety and soon return, the family was all together, the two small boys at last understood that their loving brother was leaving but yet didn't understood exactly how and why , all they could understand that their parents were weeping and they wept with others , Abdul hugged them both promising them with signs that he wont be out for long , then his father called him and said: it is time son , please say goodbye to your in law and your fiancé , the mother looked at the two young brides, silent and eyes tearing and kissed them both heartedly, then Abdul moved to his stallion and waved goodbye to all and the caravan moved. The caravan was composed of almost thirty young men , all soldiers called for service with only Abdul as student s officer , they moved to Halba Saray and from there the men moved again to Tripoli were it was supposed to gather all . Chapter two: The old mad sat down with a big smile blooming on his face , his wife gave a birth of his fourth son and since his days were very good with many profits gathering in his wallet with a healthy birth of his son and his wife he decided to call the new comer Abdelwahab and cuddle him as Wehbe , the family was living in the most crowded and busy area in Tripoli , the city of perfumes and orange s scents, Tripoli was an old city founded by the Phoenix and called Tripoli by the Greeks after their invasion of the area , initially the city was built on the seasides with three parts, each part was a location for people coming from Saida , sour and arwad of the phoenix's, opened by the Muslim Arabs in the seventh century after Christ and became the main port for the Islamic army in the times of Bani Omayah , ttripoli was famous with its fabrics of perfumed soaps , its artistic products of Woden furnitures , its fabrics of silk and its larg gardens of oranges that perfume the whole atmosphere in the days of springtime, the population of the city is a mix of Arabs, Turks,,Kurds,and some Greeks or crusades who were left behind after the liberation of the city from the hands of the crusaders in the thirteenth century , in the days of Bani Ammar family , the rulers of the city under the power of the Abbasid Khelafa, the city was bestowed with the largest library in the Abbasid empire after the famous library of Baghdad, unfortunately both libraries were burnt by barbaric forces , the Baghdad s by the mongols , the Tripoli s by the crusaders and their precious books were drow or burnt to ashes , after her liberation the old crusader s city was raised to earth only few of its buildings were saved and transformed to mosques mostly today the city is the second in the Lebanese Republic with around 600 .0000 of citizens . The days passed and the small wehbe became a handsome young boy , smart and brave , he was working like his three brothers in their father s store , buying and selling foodstuffs and fruits or grains, the economical situation was in those days very bad due to wars exploding in the surrounding countries and states, in Balkan , in Greece , in the Caucasian ottoman estates and the situation was deteriorating every day worse than the last , young people were dreaming about the new world s news in the Americans and parents were worried too for their sons to be dragged by force to wars where majority of goings were not coming back , Salim the first born and the right hand of his father heard the news about the success achieved by Syrian immigrants to Brazil , Argentina and the United States of America , his close friends whose relatives had been already working and sending money to their family , were all the time taking about Argentina, the land of opportunities, that encouraged the young man to open the case with his father , the father was very annoyed and afraid first , but his fear that his sons could be taken to war encouraged him ti accept the idea, preparations were made for the three brothers to leave leaving only the third born Saiid to stay with his father and sister , the expected day came and the three brothers departed to Egypt first then from its ports they moved to Tanja on the marocain coastline , in Tanja the brothers found a big ship ready to go to Argentina and after a hard negotiations with the captain , it was agreed that the three brother take the trip free with a good lump some to be paid on condition that they work the whole journey on the boat in the horses stable on board . The captain gave the brothers two small rooms, one for Salim and the second for Wehbe and Mohammad, Salim was in his twenty fourth , Mohammad in twenty, and wehbe was sixteen, but he looked in his nineteen. The work of the there brothers was to take care of the horses food, drink , cleanings and health, the brothers were well trained by their father to take care of horses and donkeys in their home , since their father was a trader he owned always a lot of horses and donkeys for his job , two other Spanish boys were sharing the three brothers in their job too , they soon became friends and step by step the brothers found that an opportunity to learn the Spanish language from the two boys , they made good relationship even they started to share foods together with a warning from Salim that the Spanish boys s food should not contain alcohol or any meat not accepted by the Islamic sharia's, law, the Spanish boys accepted and respected the demand of their new friends even they accepted not to drink any alcohol in their friend's presence, on the ship there was a catholic priest who used to attend prayers in a room given to him and confessions too to those who like to confess while the three brothers with group of ten other Muslims working on the boat found an empty corner they cleaned and put some rugs and cleaned for group prayers within the day and especially in evening time when all finished their jobs , the boat was a commercial ship , but there was some rooms made for entertainment, like a bar and a bigger and moderate sala for celebrating, in the small bar, only men used to attend there with only two girls working as bar attendants, the three brothers avoided totally to attend the bar because all there were alcoholics and drunkards they avoided to mix with . The daily job in the stable was to start in the early morning at seven o clock , they were preparing food and drink, cleaning the place and the animals , treating any horse ailing or needing a treatment, at midday the five workers leave the stable to their rooms to change clothes , clean , wash and pray then they eat together most of the times, the food was what the mothers supplied or what they bought before their journey started . One evening Mohammad the middle brother decided to go out for a walk and a take breath on board, he sat on a the deck watching the ocean and the skies , thinking about that journey and his family at home, suddenly he heard light steps approaching him , he turned his face to see a young girl maybe in his age who stood beside him with a smile and said hola, he responded in a calm tone Hola , the girl started to speak in Spanish that he could understand just a little bit , but he could not follow what she said ,the girl understood that he doesn't speak Spanish ,so she pointed to herself saying: I'm Sandra and then to his chest saying:and you ? He understood what she wanted and said : Mohammad Mawas , the girl laughed and said: I love you Amadeus , Mohammad understood what she said , amused and taken aback, how a young girl could say to a totally stranger man to her, I love you! , he didn't mix with a lot of girls in his lifetime, only neighbors, relatives or customers in his father s shop , all words exchanged were ,hello, salam alaykum,good morning , good evening, thanks and greetings like that the most emotional words from a girl , was I like you or you are handsome or you are a gentleman, but I love you in the first strike , was something very strange to him and never he sat down with a female except his mother or sister in a solitary, talking about love was not an ordinary topic except in stories , even married women were too shy to say : i love you to their real husbands and here in this moments a girl comes from nowhere telling him I love you , it is a one thousand nights and a night s tale , he looked a little bit in the girl face then he turned his eyes to the sky or the sea feeling that his feet can't hold him for long , what if Salim comes in this very moments and sees him with this girl in this suspected situation, what if Wehbe comes , how could he explain himself to his younger brother, what if and what if , questions were running fast in his tired brain, when suddenly he felt the fingers of the girl touching his hair and playing with them softly , he leapt out far from her fingers like leaping out of a snake bite , the girl didn't move and smiling again she said : paese , that meant country , he responded : Syria ottoman, she pointed to herself and said: Spain , Grenada, he understood, she added : ok , tomorrow evening time we will meet again then she stepped ahead and gave him a kiss suddenly on his lips and she left, his front was sweating profusely and his feet were frozen from his surprise, all he could say: ok then he hurried back to his room , when he closed the door Wehbe was not totally asleep, so he asked him : where were you ? Mohammad didn't answer but said tomorrow and Wehbe half asleep said: ok tomorrow. The next day the three brothers went as usual to their job and Wehbe noticed that Mohammad was silent most of the time not as usual and he knew that his brother is hiding something from him and he decided to check it after supper evening time, the evening came and they washed , prayed and eaten their supper then Salim moved to his room to read then to sleep and Wehbe found the opportunity to open the subject with his brother , they sat down with Mohammad head working and going far, Wehbe said: hey dreamer, where were you all the day , absent mind, what did happen to you since morning you behave strangely , Mohammad thought a little bit saying to himself: ok if Salim plays serious and stern, let Wehbe be my trustee , this little devil knows much better than myself regarding women and their games then he looked at the young brother and said: will you swear to Allah not to mention a word of what I tell you right now, Wehbe was surprised and said: sure brother I'll swear don't worry and tel me , then Mohammad narrated the whole story till the kiss that agitated him , Wehbe laughed a lot and said: why you are so worried brother, is it the first time a girl kisses you? Mohammad surprised, sure it is the first time a girl tells me: I love you in addition she kisses me! Did any girl kissed you before? Wehbe laughed more than before and said : yes and more than you expect, then he looked at his brother and said ok bro what is your next step? Mohammad what do you mean by next step? Wehbe the girl is willing to know you much better , it is sure that she doesn't love you yet , but it's sure she is attracted to my handsome brother , Mohammad : you know that we don't meet with girls in private or discuss love with them , Wehbe laughed again and said: that s there brother , here we are in Europe , didn't you see the European women who used to come to Tripoli , how daring and without shy they were , so many stories were told about their relationships with our men although most were married, Mohammad: what do you think my next step could be, I don't care about this girl but rather I'm curious to know what does she want beside I'm afraid that she could cause troubles if I don't give her my final standing , Wehbe : ok let's go on board to see if we may find her and give her your last opinion.