Chapter 4 4

The town hall consisted of a large room, negligently built, with incomplete windows, studded with the remains of old notebooks.

The place was very easy for any thief who might think of stealing it when they entered it, while some obstacles might come in front of it when leaving, and the school building stood alone down a hill of The trees comfort him with a bartender running close to him, a giant birch tree grows on one side, the voice of the students in the neighboring school roars in repetition of their lessons like the sound of a beehive on a lazy summer day, interrupted sometimes by the teacher's voice alarming or directing it, as if he was leading some stubborn catfish on a known road. Or the annoying sound of owls. His brother (Adel Hamdan) was a conscious man who saw in his teaching the sons of the Shatt Valley and the fulfillment of duty. He exercised his role with utmost wisdom. He would help the weak among them and remove the heavy burdens he assigns to the strong among them. He always spared the boys the fear of the stick. He believes in the saying (the stick stays and the child spoils) and seeks to achieve reward and punishment by excessive punishment of the stubborn student, which provokes his wrath and makes him like the Dutch sea urchin that swells and grows under the birch tree. He hit them from pain that they will thank him one day for the opportunity he gave them to live a better life even for one day..

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When the school hours are over, (Adel Hamdan) joins the grown-up boys in their fun and in the afternoon of the day of the holiday accompanies the young ones to their homes under the pretext of delivering them, while aiming to maintain good relations with parents, especially those who have beautiful sisters and wonderful mothers in the housework to satisfy his insatiable appetite For food, as the wages he receives in school is very small, barely enough to buy daily bread, despite his small size, but he enjoyed an open appetite for food like the appetite of an anaconda, he lived on the move between the homes of his students, staying in each of them for some time, carrying with him A cotton handkerchief is a bundle that includes all his possessions in that life .

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Far from the excessive reverence he appeared in at school, (Adel Hamdan) was cooperating with farmers in preparing fodder, repairing sheds, and grazing cows to pasture, which made him feel contentment in the eyes of everyone, especially mothers, to help him for their children. Feet happily for hours.In addition, (Adel Hamdan) was the favorite singer of the townspeople, earning some shiny coins when he led the young choir in the mass. (Adel Hamdan) was practicing all these professions without thinking about one stressful job that would ensure an easy and more comfortable life for him.

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And (Adel Hamdan) was of some importance in the circle of the women of the town, with his respectable and elegant personality, and the greatness and pride of the rich. On the tombstones, and wandering with a group of them on the banks of the pond of the well adjacent to the mosque, while the shy of them managed with their rural naivety, everyone envied him for his elegance and fame. His knowledge and his varied readings, was a unique mixture of shrewdness and naivety. He was familiar with the history of the witches of New England, fond of unusual tales, and when the school day was over, he enjoyed the peak of his pleasure, lying on the green grass adjacent to the waterwheel to read in the daily newspapers or a book by Al-Akkad or Al-Mazni without fear or even suspicion. Dusk falls, and he begins his journey back to his square-built manor house, accompanied by the sounds of nature, the croaking of frogs under the tree, and the bleak cry of owls, who flutter in the fury of their silhouettes, and in this gloomy atmosphere they have nothing but chanting. Verses or songs, and the people of Wadi Al-Shatt who used to sit in front of their homes in the evening, their silence was broken by a whistle (Adel Hamdan) as he hums some songs along the dark road.He was also comforting his solitude during the long winter nights by sitting with the sociable old women in the stove fire in which they roasted grilled corn on skewers, to listen to their wondrous tales of ghosts and goblins, bridges and haunted houses, especially the story of the knight who lost his head, while he entertained them with his tales of The magic, the horoscope, the strange sights and sounds that filled the air, which he used to hear in his hometown, terrified them with the expectation of meteors, meteors and comets, which exposes them to stress and anxiety.

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While he considered this a pleasure, he crouched down on himself and the blushing glow from the fireplace and the crackling of burning wood reflected off the page of his face, and then continued on the brisk walk home, dark and frightened shadows, amid the faint glow of a snowy night, watching the faint glow from in the distant windows, afraid even to look behind his shoulders lest he be overtaken by the beheaded contempt, and at times he was terribly frightened when he heard the sound of a sudden explosion from among the trees, probably the sound of the enemy of the beheaded contempt.

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It was all just fantasies that appeared to him in the dark, like seeing demons surrounding him, the light of the sun was enough to end them all, his life would have been easier and more enjoyable if these tales and demonic actions were not interspersed with him, and the fears in his way to return to his home, and what confused his life of those matters.

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This is exactly what happened one day .. Her husband was transferred to the Medina Hospital after suffering a minor work injury in the lab. While (Sara) was crying bitterly on her way to the city, (Anwar) the lame one accompanied her. Was he not her husband's true friend? Then didn't the infection happen in their lab as well? On the way they sat side by side in the small car, with her newborn (Samir) in her lap. The man stuck to her as much as he could, and his tongue ran out of his mouth that smelled of wine: "(Sara), listen to me, you are very beautiful, don't you understand that from my looks? Your husband is a handsome man, I know, but he is no more than that, mother. Agree with me, and ask me what you will. You know that I am single, and I have not yet been married.

But Sarah fended him off with violent firmness, threatening that she could tell her husband if he tried the same way, and then... "And what happens next? I'm rich. My hands are long, my arms are long..."

She answered sharply: "God has not made a man other than my husband my portion, O (Anwar) Effendi..."

He insisted again: "Think carefully, and don't be in a hurry!"

"I don't need to think," she said insistently, "I told you at first, what I'm going to say at the end . "

He confidently said, "Okay! There's nothing wrong with that, I am a patient man, and I will wait. You will come to me crawling one day, (Sara) come whenever you want, I will wait!"

She did not speak for a long time, and cut him off, saying: "You have been waiting in vain all your life. May God blind my eyes if I say yes to someone other than my husband as long as he is alive, did you hear?"

Her husband recovered, and he left the hospital a week later, but he lost his job in Anwar's uncle's gin. The lame was absent from the arena, as he left for Istanbul.The young man did not know what to do, and then suddenly remembered a legacy he had inherited from his mother in an area in the East. He started talking in confusion about the matter of going: "If my sisters and in-laws agree, and I sell my share of the estate, then either we go to the city, or I open a shop here and work in it for my own account, so there is no life for me or anyone else at the doors of others, there is no way!"

She said in hope: "Take us with you, let's go together!"

But the young man assured her that he would not stay there long, but would complete his work within a week or ten days at the most, and return to his young wife and child, and there was no need to be alarmed, as he did what he was doing for them, and could he ever forget his beautiful child?

I looked into his eyes and asked, "And me?"

He replied , "I will miss you more than I miss him..."

And so the young wife remained, holding her chest in fear of the lame (Anwar), and without opening her mouth in front of her husband about him.And still this survival is that survival.

Seven years.Seven years have passed since it remained this way.

Sarah burst into tears for a moment.Just at that moment her baby flipped side to side in his sleep. What if he woke up and saw his mother's watery eyes?She looked at him in fear, and noticed his eyebrows that reminded her of his father, and noticed his nose, and his brown hair, which also resembled his father's...PraiseFor God's sake, he did not wake up... Emotionally, she straightened the position of her breasts loosened from the bosom of her thin nightgown. Emotionally...because, wasn't he able to write even two lines? Seven years. She did not know when and how this long seven-year parting would end. Won't he ever come back? If he had not died, he would have returned. Really ... to come back. Since he hasn't. And he didn't ask even two lines...

Her mind was not free from bad thoughts: perhaps in the town where he had gone to collect his mother's inheritance, he had come across a very beautiful girl and stayed with her. Moreover, he did not give any address to his young wife and the infant child he had left in her bosom, for the reason that he himself did not quite clearly know the address.

I sighed loudly again .You couldn't forget him. His thick mustaches, his manly laugh, his side looks, the smell of his smoke, and he held her in his arms, and kissed her repeatedly.When her child coughed lightly, the tape of memories and thoughts was cut off.