The Inheritance

by Sahar Khalifeh

  The door opened with a loud squeaking sound, causing the two prisoners to freeze, though the door was on the first floor, and they were on the second. The night was coming to its end and dawn had not appeared yet. Nahleh jumped to her feet and whispered, “It might be them, Abu Salem’s sons.”

  She then moved closer to her brother and remained still.

  Kamal thought that the time for action had come and wondered what he would do. Yesterday Nahleh had told him that one of the sons was pious, which means that he had a conscience, while the second one had studied in Budapest, which means that he was educated. He was ready to discuss the matter with them and reach an agreement. The first step was to remove his sister completely from this environment and send her abroad, show her a different world. That plan would certainly suit Abu Salem’s sons, offering them a radical solution to all their problems. It would put an end to a silly marriage, return their father to his family, and guarantee the fate of their inheritance—what more would they want?

  Kamal made up his mind, therefore, to greet them and offer suggestions that would put their minds at peace, thus erasing any doubt they might have. They might even be happy with his offer and feel grateful to him, shake his hand in a friendly gesture, and part as friends, or even partners, since all of them had the same aim. They could take Nahleh’s shares and thus truly become his partners.

  Nahleh moved away from the stairwell and said, hysterical, “Said is with them, why? What does that mean? Maybe? Maybe?”

  She was beating her cheeks with quick, repetitive slaps, and moving in a circle like a moth caught inside a lamp. Kamal sat on the window seat because he felt dizzy again, and was shaken mentally and physically by the surprise. He wondered why Said was with them, why he had returned with them and was behaving like the leader of a campaign? Had he struck a deal with them? Or had the grocer Samaan betrayed him and handed him over in person to his enemies? Was this possible? He remained quiet while his sister clung to him waiting for matters to clear up.

  Said stepped forward and introduced them to each other, “This is my brother Kamal, the head of the project, and here are Salem, Hamzeh, and Marwan, and Samaan whom you already know.”

  Kamal stretched his arm to greet them one by one, holding to the window seat with one hand and pressing his sister’s shoulder with the other. The three were silent, their faces stiff and expressionless. Samaan, on the other hand, was moving about, looking for something and appeared familiar with the place and with the people. Kamal felt that he was on their side, working for them. He brought an empty jerry can, turned it upside down and said to Salem with great respect, behaving like a modest employee toward a high ranking government official, “Please, sir, sit down, sit here.”

  Salem sat down facing Kamal, and in an oblique position in relation to Nahleh. He said gently, “Hello and welcome, this will be the beginning of a friendly acquaintance between us, God willing. Listen to me and praise the Prophet, we want nothing but our due rights. My father is getting old and is becoming senile, he doesn’t know how to conduct himself. To make a long story-short, the real estate belongs to the family and is its source of income; the Sabastiya lands, those of the Ghor, and all other lots must all be returned, as well as our shares in the company. We understood from your honorable brother (pointing at Said) that you intend to do the right thing and return everything to us, is this true?”

  Kamal answered very carefully, “Yes, but. . .”

  Salem smiled and said, amiably, “We too have conditions.”

  Kamal hurried to ask, aggressively, “And what are your conditions?”

  Salem stretched his hand in a generous gesture and said, half mockingly, “No, sir, you first, you’re our guests.”

  He then looked furtively at Nahleh and turned to Said, saying, ‘You’re our guests, our relatives, and our neighbors, and I wish we had met in better circumstances and in our homes. We apologize, we hope with God’s will to come out of this crisis with a reasonable solution and remain friends, and even partners. Let’s hear your conditions.”

  Touched by his words, Kamal said, “This is a reasonable beginning, presaging good things.”

  Salem echoed his sentiments and said, truthfully and sincerely, “May God guide us and you, let’s hear your conditions.”

  Kamal thought quickly and firmly and went straight to the point, “My sister must be divorced immediately, now and on the spot.”

  The Abu Salem brothers froze and so did Said, whose jaw dropped. A heavy-silence followed, immobilizing Salem’s prayer beads. One could hear the silence of the night and Said’s heavy breathing.

  Salem said staring at his adversary’s feet to avoid looking at him and Nahleh:

  “I don’t understand.”

  Kamal repeated his words/slowly and clearly, “We want Nahleh to be divorced from your father first of all. We want the divorce immediately and on the spot. What about you, what are your demands, let’s hear them?”

  Surprised by her brother’s request, Nahleh whispered to him, “No, my brother, what are you saying?”

  Then Said murmured loudly, “This is not what we agreed upon.”

  Kamal ignored his sister’s words and repeated his condition, “My sister must first be divorced because it is a vile and unlawful marriage.”

  Nahleh whispered again, in a weak, sad voice, “No my brother, it’s not unlawful, it was according to the sunna, according to God’s law and that of His Prophet.”

  The brothers sitting in the background smiled and the grocer turned his head to hide his smile, while Said went on mumbling, “This isn’t it, it isn’t it, no, no, not like that.”

  Kamal ignored him again and said firmly and very clearly, “Our second condition is that no one is to represent Nahleh, she is an adult, not a child. Our intention is to put an end to this story and set things right. I promise you that everything will go back to its rightful owner. Nahleh has nothing but the shares and even the shares will be returned to you, I vouch for that. We can remain friends and, if you’d like, partners as well, what do you say to that?”

  Salem was silent and still, his eyes were fixed on Kamal’s shoes. His brothers sitting in the background were also silent and didn’t interfere, but Said intervened firmly, feeling fidgety in his seat, and said, “I’ll tell you what they said.”

  Kamal scolded him and said, “No, don’t tell me, I want to hear it from the gentlemen directly.”

  Angry, Said continued, “But they said . . .”

  Kamal interrupted him again, saying, “Enough, Said, let’s hear from the gentlemen, what’s wrong with you?”

  Salem raised his hand gently and slowly, and said seriously and clearly confused, “We’re truly surprised. We had come with clear conditions but I’m surprised and I can’t come up with a clear answer alone. May I consult with my brothers for at least half an hour?”

  Nahleh whispered in her brother’s ear and said, “Now they will go and forget about us.”

  But Kamal told her, hurriedly. “Alright, alright, we’ll see.”

  Salem looked at his brothers, then at Kamal and got up saying. “Give us only half an hour.”

  He walked away and joined his brothers. They went down the stony stairs to the lower floor, while Said stayed with his brother and sister, and the grocer stood at a slight remove. Said looked at Nahleh for the first time since the bullet pierced his shoulder and experienced mixed feelings. She was his sister and the woman he had defended before God and before the people a few days earlier. He had braved dangers to save her and if it weren’t for God’s mercy and His protection, he would have been hanged in this place or another one for an action he didn’t approve of. He was overcome with a feeling of disgust, hatred, and vindication. He said harshly to his sister, “You were just married and now you want to be divorced? Is this what we’ve come to, as if we need more scandals and gossip?”

  She replied weakly and somewhat evasively, “It is not I, not I, I didn’t say I wanted to get divorced.”

>   Kamal looked at her without uttering a word. He continued to watch them, all the while thinking about the conditions that the Abu Salem’s sons would offer. He wondered about the malicious grocer sitting in the corner listening to even word they said.

  Nahleh turned to him and said, “Why did you bring up the divorce, Kamal? Do you want me to get a divorce at my age? What will people say?”

  Said stood close to her, having somewhat calmed down, feeling that he would be able to come to an understanding with her, after all she was the cause of all the problems. Kamal has Western ideas and can’t understand them or his sister. Nahleh, on the other hand, despite her shortcomings, has more common sense than he. He told her, gently, “Listen to me sister, Kamal lives abroad and thinks like a Westerner. Our brother thinks that divorce is a simple matter, no my dear, it isn’t a simple matter.”

  She answered, submissively, “I know that it isn’t a simple matter, by God I know.”

  He told her, seriously and almost whispering, “I talked with Abu Salem’s sons and I found them to be decent and simple people.”

  The word “simple” struck Nahleh and made her pay attention. The term meant many things—it meant showing compassion and giving them little importance. It also meant accepting difficult conditions on the pretext that they were simple and decent. Furthermore, it meant that Said was stronger than they and as a result she too was stronger because they were simple. She was all eyes and ears as she listened to him whispering to her, as if he trusted her alone with his secrets.

  “Are you listening, my sister?” he asked her.

  She replied, attentively, “Yes, I am.”

  He explained, “That is why, my sister, we have to deal with them according to their limited mental capacities.”

  She asked, cautiously, “What do you mean deal with them according to their limited mental capacities? I don’t understand.”

  “I mean, and my brothers and father agree with me, that the lands belong to them and the house you live in is their mother’s house and the company is theirs too.”

  Kamal intervened, saying, “No, sir, the company in particular is not theirs, they only have a share in it and so does Futna, but the rest is mine. Have you forgotten? Please explain to me how you reached Abu Salem’s sons while I was driven to this place? Who arranged this? Who planned it? Who plotted and executed the plan? Can you explain that to me?”

  Said was embarrassed and began to stammer. He said to his brother, “Who do you think I am? Like you my brother, I don’t know what happened. When I woke up I found myself in a strange room and Samaan was with me, isn’t that true, Samaan?”

  Samaan shook his head without uttering a word. Said resumed his explanation, “What’s important now is to let you know what they told me. They said that they want nothing but a power of attorney. Nahleh has to sign a small paper before a clerk and everything will be over.”

  “What power of attorney and what clerk?” asked Kamal.

  Nahleh shouted at Said in a strangled voice, “Do you understand what you’re doing?”

  He stared at her angrily, remembering how she had caused all these problems and scandals. He wondered how she dared to speak. He said crudely. “Let’s continue, if you don’t mind.”

  He ignored her completely and turned to Kamal, assuming that she couldn’t understand men’s talk and serious topics. He said to his brother, “Listen to me Kamal, they’re good and reasonable people, they want nothing but the power of attorney. They even said that they would accompany her to the office of the notary public and would act as witnesses.”

  “What office and what power of attorney?” asked Kamal a second time, angrily.

  Nahleh was wondering on whose side Said was, but he chided her and asked her to shut up.

  She replied, defiantly, “What! What are you saying? Isn’t it enough for me to deal with Abu Salem’s sons, do I have to deal with you too?”

  His resentment had reached its limit; he raised his hand ready to slap her and said, “Shut up, don’t say another word, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

  Kamal stood up and raised his hand ready to intervene, but Said didn’t hit his sister. Their two hands remained raised up in the air while they stared at each other. Then they heard a voice close to them saying, gently, “No, no, not like this gentlemen, is this the way brothers behave? Praise the Prophet Muhammad, people!”

  Kamal saw the face of the grocer near him smiling wickedly, and saying, “No sir, not like this,” then pulled him back.

  He went on saying, “You are the eldest and the wisest, and this is your sister, if you do not mind my saying so, she is a woman after all, in other words, with all due respect, you should solve the problem among you two, do not let women interfere. Had she been my sister . . .”

  Nahleh interrupted him, saying, “Who are you and what business is it of yours?”

  “What business is it of mine, you say?” He shook his head and continued talking, “No madam, be nice and gentle. What business is it of mine, isn’t it a shame, lady? Isn’t it a shame, madam?”

  Kamal moved back and stared at them, feeling trapped. He couldn’t understand this dialogue and who was with whom and for whom. Said shouted at his sister, looking beyond Kamal’s shoulders, “Anyone in your position ought to shut up and not say a word.”

  “Really!” replied Nahleh. hiding behind Kamal. She went on, addressing Said, “Why should I shut up? What business is it of yours? You are neither my husband nor my tutor. I have a husband whose name I still carry, I’m not divorced.”

  Kamal sighed and said to her, “I thought that . . .”

  “It’s enough my brother,” She then exclaimed, sadly, “I’ve had it with all of you! One tells me come here, the other go there, and then you insist that I’m an adult.”

  Kamal was shocked, asking her, “What do you mean?”

  He felt the blood rushing to his head and asked again, “What do you mean, I don’t understand. Don’t you want to go to Frankfurt?”

  He turned to her, ignoring Said, and said sadly and painfully, as if she had betrayed him, “You mean that you don’t want to go to Frankfurt?”

  She shouted, wailing, “What Frankfurt? Am I the type to go to Frankfurt or such places?”

  He held her, trying to bring her back to reality, and said, “I want to save you from this rotten place, from these people, I want you to live with dignity.”

  She stared at him, trying to make him understand and bring him back to reality, “My dignity is safe, my brother, what have I done? Thank God I’m honorable and I did nothing that displeases God. I have a man dearer to me than anything else in this world, and if it were not for these conditions he wouldn’t have abandoned me. But that’s how life is and, if it weren’t for the lack of security here, he wouldn’t have abandoned me. What can he do? Do you want him to wait for his children to kill him?”

  He stared at her intensely and asked, “You mean you plan to Stay with him?”

  She then pointed at Said, who was standing behind him and tried to explain her position using her own logic, “If I’m insulted while married, what will you do when I’m divorced and single? He attacked me in my own house and tried to kill me. Each of you is trying to run my life though I don’t need you; what would you do the moment I did need you? If I were divorced and went back home, you would use me as a doormat.”

  Kamal was shocked, he said, “But I had planned to. . . is it possible for you to remain here?”

  He looked around him, at the blackened walls and the bulb dancing in the draft coming through the broken windowpane, while the grocer smiled meanly and Said’s face dripped with hatred. He said to her, sadly, “I want you to five your life.”

  She moved away from him, walked a few steps, then turned to him and said, convinced and resigned, “This is my life, this is where I live and I have no other choice. Why can’t you understand that? Who do you think I am? Who do you think you are?”

  He bent his head and said, heartb
roken, “It’s my fault, I was wrong.”

  Said looked at him scornfully and said vindictively, “Do you see now? Just see, just see!”

  Abu Salem’s sons returned led by someone new, a young man, tall and big with a puckered face, with thick, loose veins and a bushy mustache. Nahleh hid behind Kamal and said to him, frightened, “This is the one, this one is the beast.”

  He walked like a wrestler entering the ring. He extended his hand and, using a language he had learned in the streets and the shady, underground world, he said rudely, “I am Saadu and they call me the hyena of the valleys. To make a long story short, children of Hamdan, we’ve had it with you, we’ve wasted time and we want to get this over with. If your sister signs the power of attorney we’ll be done, otherwise we will have to resort to a different solution, one that will please neither you nor us. We’re cornered and we’ve got to find a way out. We would like to end this standoff now, not tomorrow or the day after. My brother Salem has tried his best, and my brother Hamzch has ideas, but I, personally, want action. Enough. We’re fed up. Do you understand what I’m saying? Do you understand, my stepmother? Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  She hid behind Kamal and mumbled, “Poor, wretched Nahleh.”

  He said, harshly, “Listen to me, woman, stepmother, we can’t grant you a divorce because it doesn’t depend on us. Moreover, and pardon me for saying so, what’s happened, has happened; our father took a second wife, so let him get his fill The man wants a younger wife and it’s his right. God gave him wealth, what can we say? However, our assets are our right—the land, the villa, and the shares all belong to us. As for you, the shari’a law gives you what is rightfully yours, and we guarantee you your rights in the inheritance. You will get one sixteenth of his wealth after his death.”

  Said interrupted him, saying, “She gets one eighth.”

  He turned to him and said, “No sir, she is entitled to one sixteenth only and our mother the same amount. It amounts to a handsome sum, what do you say?”

  Nahleh whispered in Kamal’s ear, “No Kamal, don’t accept, the shares were my dowry.”