excerpt
“Of course, silly. It’s still 25 degrees every day; we went scuba diving for two
days in the Persian Gulf on a beautiful yacht. It was huge, and you wouldn’t
believe how nice the water is.”
“I want to hear all about it, Mom; well, start talking.”
“Baby, your mother and Talal have been up for a long time. Give her some
time to relax.” Hakim says.
“How is life in Los Angeles, bro?” Talal asks Hakim.
“The same as you left it, my man; not much change in the last fifteen days.
How’s my uncle?”
“I’m afraid I don’t have good news regarding his health. He was in pain
around the time we left. He put a party together for us. I stayed close to him for
most of the time, and could tell he was very uncomfortable. Perhaps the cancer is
causing him pain; that’s what Rassan and all the people around him say. But he
refuses to go to the hospital; you know him.” Hakim tells him that he talked to
Mara a little earlier today and she promised to take him to the hospital tomorrow
if he isn’t feeling better; the doctors will find out what’s going on. Hakim changes
the subject, “What information do you have for me?”
As Emily and Jennifer chitchat on their own, Talal takes him aside and gives
him the news.
“There are seven orphans like you and me who came here for studies, all paid
for by the Mahdi Foundation, your uncle’s money. He has a terrific plan in mind;
I’ll explain it to you in the next few days. You know, one of the seven is Ahmed. All
this time has gone by and Ahmed hasn’t ever mentioned anything to either of us;
that’s commitment, my brother. By the way, Ahmed is Rassan’s nephew.”
They are silent for a few minutes as Hakim ponders all that Talal has told him
and wonders why the old man has done what he has.
“Look, we’ll go home and let the women relax a bit. You and I will have our
time to talk, I promise. You haven’t heard the best of it yet,” Talal tells him.
On the drive home, Jennifer listens to all the new experiences her mother had
in Iraq and is very surprised to hear that Emily wouldn’t mind going back at
some time to stay for a longer period of time.
“How was the trip on the yacht, Mom?”
“Oh, baby, it is a thirty-meter yacht and can accommodate a lot of people. A
skipper was along, as well as a cook and a maid, and of course, Rassan and Abdul,
our bodyguards.We boarded the yacht early in the afternoon and traveled for a
while; then we stopped at a little cove, a small bay, just like you see in the movies.
It was so picturesque and so pretty; we anchored for the night. The next
morning, we traveled for a while until we anchored again. It was another pretty
picturesque little spot; there was a bay and we got to swim.
Libros Libertad 