Her Side of the World

Chapter 15

"Seriously?" I ask shocked.

"Yes. Of course!" He answers. I look at Mariam. She nods reassuring.

"That's wild."

"What's wild?" he asks, clearly not having heard the word wild before. Her father, unlike her mother, has a terrible accent and often mixes words.

"I mean, innovative? I guess." I stutter a little. I am a little uncomfortable having a conversation with Mariam's father. He looks huge. 

Mariam says something in Arabic that I do not understand, apparently explaining to her father what I just meant.

"Oh," he nods. "Yes, Yes."

He was just telling me about the time Mariam's brother was young and insisted that he does not want to attend school. Ten years old Shadi went above and beyond to convince his parents to allow him to stop attending school. After a few days of nagging, his father told him that he will allow him to skip school as long as he promises to go to work with him. Shadi agreed happily, thinking that the work life was more fun than school.

The second day, his father woke him up earlier than the usual and asked him to get dressed. He told him that they have work to do. When they arrived to the warehouse which also contains their offices, Shadi's father left him with the employees and technicians outside and went into his office to finish his work. "You do not know how to do any desk job, but you'll be able to work on the outside. The guys here shall guide you."

In the afternoon, his father left him working and went back home. He was intendent on showing him that life is not easy. At around 5pm, he went back and got him.

That night before going to sleep, Mariam's father asked Shadi where he wanted to go the second morning. And Shadi said "School. I'd like to go to school."

A maid makes her way into the living room and starts taking away what is on the table after we finished eating and have sat there for quite a while talking. Apparently, it is a thing. Sitting at the table after dinner and talking.

I look at Mariam a little confused. How rich are you?

She smiles back at me as if she knows what I am thinking.

"Let me show you to the bathroom."

She leads the way to the bathroom and stands by the door as I wash my hands.

"We're not that rich." She says. "It's just more common for our kind of houses to have a helper. So much is expected from moms. They are expected to work, to clean, to cook, to keep themselves looking nice. Most moms need a helper after some time. Yassi is great. She's been here since we were kids. I cant imagine her leaving. My sisters would be devastated."

Now that's new. And strange. But then everything else is.

Mariam and I study for a while alone in the living room. Every now and then, her mother or Yassi comes in and brings us something either to eat or to drink. 

"The food keeps flowing in."

"Yeah, haha. This is what I usually need to study well."

"I can tell it's effective. We've finished almost everything we needed to finish tonight."

"Yep."

"So why were you sisters laughing when they asked me for my name?"

"Hmm. I'm not sure."

"It was strange."

"Oh yeah? I don't know. I bet it's because the name is completely new."

"Yeah."

"Caleb, would you like to watch a Lebanese movie with me in the weekend?"

"I guess I would be interested in watching at least one Lebanese movie while I'm here. Are there subtitles?"

"Yeah, sure."

Is it a date? Mariam said there isn't such a thing as a date here.

"I would have asked all my other friends, but no one is interested in Lebanese movies."

So it's not a date.

"Why not?" I ask.

"They think it's incomparable to other better movies you could watch at the cinema. And it is sometimes true. But I usually like to go anyway. First, to encourage it. And then, to see if it is evolving. And also to watch something I can relate to every once in a while. Western movies feel like they come from a different world and portray a different world."

"I'll go with you." 

Mariam smiles. And we keep the eye contact for what feels like a minute, but is for sure barely a second. She takes a deep breath after it, and turns her face around to the pc again.

"So, how do you think we should solve this?"

It takes me a while to gather my thoughts. I look at the screen. I read but my mind is stuck. I am not sure what is going on.

"I need to use the bathroom."