First Cycle - Spring

by Sarah Kassem

  He looked at the goldfish and starfish as they glided on the walls and ceiling of his room and thought about the war, about the birds, about Charles, about the alligators and crocodiles. Then he thought about Hala and how she had had a starfish in her hair at the beach, and the sand which had glistened on her cheeks in the sunlight and how she had said that she wants to live by the sea. He thought that he too would like to live by the sea when he’s older.

  He’d build a boat and go out every day and go swimming. He’d be able to swim really well and so the waves wouldn’t bother him. Then he’d go fishing and catch fish. He didn’t like fish, but he knew that Hala liked them so he’d bring her fish and that would make her happy. He’d pick flowers for her as well because he knew she liked flowers and was always pleased with the rhododendron bush that grew in the backyard. She was always picking daisies as well and taking them to her mother. She was always filling the watering can with water and pouring water on the cloves and the daisies. She talked sometimes to the large hibiscus flowers, which Viktor though was silly, but which was also somehow nice. As he watched the goldfish and starfish circle around his room he remembered that Hala had said at the beach in Lantana Camara that she wanted to show him a movie about some kind of shells and so he resolved to remind her of her promise.

  Embryogenesis

  The next morning, Viktor brushed his teeth and then went into the kitchen only to find his father standing in front of the coffee machine once again.

  “Did you sleep here again?” He asked, startled.

  “Good morning to you too, Viktor!” His father said. “How happy I am to see you.”

  Viktor sat down and looked at his father as he poured water into the coffee machine.

  “Do you not have a home anymore?” Viktor asked.

  His father laughed and sat down. “Yes, I still have my apartment.”

  “Then why don’t you live there?”

  “We were working on the tax return until late again last night and so it was better for me to just sleep here.”

  “Do you live here now?” Viktor asked suspiciously.

  “No,” said his father simply. “Would you like it if I did live here?”

  Viktor stared at him and was overwhelmed by this question.

  At that exact moment his mother came in. Her hair was still loose from how she’d slept and so it flowed behind her like a red tail. This was very strange to Viktor as normally, once his teeth were brushed and he was seated in the kitchen, his mother would enter fully dressed and with her hair immaculately styled. To see her therefore with loose hair and still dressed in her dressing gown was very unusual.

  “Mom, does dad live here now?” He asked her.

  “No. He doesn’t have a room here so where would he live? But if you annoy me and don’t do what I tell you, then I’ll throw you out and your father can have your room. He can play with your toys and read your books,” she said.

  His father laughed loudly and uproariously while Viktor stared at her in horror.

  “That was a joke,” his mother said, ruffling his hair.

  “Viktor,” said his father while he smeared a little butter onto a crisp bread, “Would you mind if I came over again tonight?”

  Viktor thought, then said, “No.”

  “That makes me happy,” his father said. Viktor looked at his father as he crunched a bite into the crisp bread.

  “When are you coming over tonight?” Asked Viktor.

  “After work,” his father said, chewing.

  “What time?”

  “Hmmm. Maybe around half past five.”

  “All right,” Viktor said.

  His father smiled at him.

  “How long will you stay?” Asked Viktor.

  “Do you mind if I stay the night again?”

  “No, it’s ok.”

  “I was thinking,” his father said. “Perhaps after work I come here, pick you and Mom up, then we can go and get something to eat and maybe go see a movie. What do you think?”

  Viktor thought. “Where?”

  “I don’t know. There’s a new Lebanese restaurant that your mother and I would like to try.”

  “Ok,” said Viktor.

  “And then we can go to the movies,” his father said. “I think they are playing ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids’ here at the moment, but your mum said you’ve already seen it.”

  “That’s true... but I’d like to see it again,” Viktor said excitedly.

  “Perfect,” his father said.

  “Well, you’d better go and get ready for school,” his mother said.

  “Are you going to take me again?” Viktor asked his father.

  “No, Oded’s taking you today,” Immanuel said.

  “Why?”

  “Because it didn’t really go to plan yesterday. We went the wrong way and I forgot your lunch. Your mother suggested therefore that I shouldn’t drive you anymore,” his father said.

  Viktor was already tugging on her sleeve and pleading, “Please, please let dad drive me again. Please!”

  “Viktor, go get your backpack, Oded is waiting for you. Papa isn’t dressed yet. By the time he’s ready you’ll already be late for school. Papa’s coming this afternoon.”

  “Half past five,” cried Viktor.

  “Half past five,” his father confirmed.

  And indeed at 17:28, Viktor saw his father’s car pull into Aquifolium Street, go passed Rocco’s bar and stop in front of the tailor’s shop.

  Viktor ran down the stairs, flung open the front door and ran into his father’s arms at exactly 35 seconds and 29 minutes past five.

  “You’re here,” said Viktor.

  His father picked him up and hugged him so tightly that Viktor thought all the air would escape from inside him and he would burst like a balloon before falling to the ground a bit of empty rubber.

  At that exact moment his mother came down the stairs and Viktor was struck by how pretty she looked. Her hair was braided and it hung in a plait over her shoulder, the red presenting a nice contrast to her turquoise blue dress. The dress had only thin straps that showed off her muscular arms and its knee-length hem combined with her high heels to emphasize her strong calves. Viktor knew the dress as Helena had made it herself. Once it had been finished, Andala had added some small beads and embroidered a thin border of white oriental pattern to the hem and neckline. Viktor also noticed that Helena’s huge chest was shown off well by the dress.

  “Mum’s looking very pretty today,” he announced to his father.

  His father laughed and said, “That’s true, your mother looks breathtaking.” Immanuel Abies went to Helena and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “And she smells fantastic as well,” he added.

  Viktor had his Bruce Wayne suit on. His mother had actually laid out jeans and a sweater for him, but Viktor was convinced that casual clothes were not fitting to the occasion.

  They drove to the Lebanese restaurant and from a distance they could already see that it looked quite outlandish. The inside was equally ostentatious and the waiter wore a funny outfit and had a funny foreign accent, all of it combining with the decorations to make Viktor decide he didn’t like the place.

  He got a ‘homemade Lebanese lemonade’ to drink, which he thought was sour and odd.

  Following their drinks, millions of little dishes were served to them, all of which were full of strange things, most looking like porridge, even though they tasted nothing like it. Viktor learned that one of them was a puree made from chickpeas. He dipped his bread into it suspiciously and found that it actually tasted quite acceptable. The eggplant puree tasted the same, odd but not all too bad. The pine nut puree however broke the trend, as this was one that he didn’t like. After these three came a whole array of other purees that Viktor tried, deciding as he did that one of them, the cheese puree, tasted the best. He also found that he really liked the pomegranate seeds and was allowed to eat these all by himself.

  After a while a large plate of meat cam
e on which lamb had been cooked on a long skewer. His father took some off for him and put it on his plate.

  As Viktor chewed the meat he looked at his parents.

  His father had a suit on, as he always did when he went to work. But today it was a new suit, one that, along with a blue tie, seemed to shimmer as if the silk were alive. He saw as well that his father must have paid a visit to Samuel’s, as his hair was cut a bit shorter and neater than it had been in the morning. His father took a sip from his glass and said something to his mother and they both laughed. Viktor looked at his mother, who sat completely relaxed, chewing elegantly as her eyes shone and he noticed that her eyelashes were very dark and very long. Viktor knew about mascara and that women used it when they wanted to be pretty. Her lips had a slight pink tinge and the light danced on them with a sparkle.

  Viktor found it great to sit with his parents and eat while they both laughed and rejoiced. That made him happy.

  He ordered a dessert, yogurt with honey and nuts, and while he ate it he thought that Cristobal would love it.

  In the cinema Viktor sat between his father and his mother and watched ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ for the third time. He’d already been twice with Oded, Gem and Hala, but that didn’t bother him as he loved the movie.

  He watched while Amy, Nick, Ronald and Russell ran as little tiny mini people through the garden, were attacked by ants and almost eaten. His father said that he had already seen the film when he was younger. The film had been running almost every week for twenty years in the Hedera Helix cinema.

  After the film they drove home. As they walked up the stairs, Viktor asked: “Are you going to have breakfast here tomorrow morning?”

  “If you’d like me too, then yes.”

  Viktor nodded. “Yes, I’d like that.”

  His father picked him up, bent down as they walked through the door frame and carried him up to his room.

  “Good night, Viktor. Sleep well,” Immanuel Abies said.

  Viktor embraced his father’s leg, buried his face in his pants and squeezed tight. “Good night, Papa.”

  “I love you, Viktor.”

  Viktor kissed his father and said, “Me too.”

  Viktor had just started to fall asleep when he heard a strange muffled noise from outside and an angry, long-drawn out hoot. After that came the sound of some other birds, but it didn’t sound like the chirping he normally heard from outside.

  They were frantic. Hectic and fearful.

  Viktor thought first that perhaps Cristobal would appear, but no knocking came from outside his window yet still the sound, the roar of the birds, sent a chill down his spine.

  He went to the window and pulled the curtain carefully aside.

  On his windowsill lay three magpies and in the dim light from the street he realized that they were lying in a dark pool, each with a weird twisted neck.

  Suddenly he heard his mother scream, “Immanuel Immanuel!”

  Something fell over and smashed, something that sounded both large and heavy.

  He heard his father scream from his mother’s bedroom, but it wasn’t a normal scream, it was a terrible roar that echoed through the house and seemed to have no end.

  Viktor ran to his door, yanked it open, ran down the hall and pulled his parents’ bedroom door open.

  One side of the wall was covered from end to end with a thick splash of blood. Viktor saw an arm lying on the ground and knew it was his mother’s. The nails were painted blue like hers had been that night and the ring she wore on her middle finger caught the light of the lamp and glittered.

  He saw his mother lying without an arm on the carpet, her intestines were torn from her stomach and spread before her. Her face was no longer there, but Viktor recognized the hair and the dress. Her scalp was hanging loose and from it he could see something grey and covered with dark, thick blood.

  His father lay on the bed, or rather his body without the left leg and without the left hip and with nothing remaining of his whole left side. Viktor knew it was his father due to the suit the right side still wore.

  His father’s head lay on the floor at the foot of the bed, its eyes wide and white while the mouth formed a silent scream.

  A huge pool of blood had formed on the white linen of his mother’s bed and it dripped in slow motion from the cloth that hung over the edge of the bed, dripping into a pool on the floor.

  In amongst all this carnage, amidst all the blood and limbs were quite a lot of crocodiles and alligators and caimans. A small caiman was just that second climbing in through the open window and it stopped to stare at Viktor. A crocodile swung its tail suddenly and it smashed into his mother’s nightlight, sending it to the ground with a crash. Another crocodile was chewing on the leg of his mother. It jerked its head to one side and Viktor heard a loud crack.

  From far away Viktor heard someone call his name. He winced.

  “Viktor! Go! Leave! Viktor, go! Go,” shouted Cristobal, hovering above his head from the ceiling.

  “Leave Viktor! Right now,” shouted Cristobal. “Just leave!”

  Viktor closed his eyes.

  Something flashed in his brain.

  Viktor opened his eyes and found himself in the midst of endless snow and a wind that almost swept away his consciousness.

  He began to scream and lost control of his body, his thoughts and his reactions.

  He felt something warm running down his leg but didn’t stop screaming.

  The wind threw itself around him and he fell sideways and landed hard, bashing his chin on the floor.

  Viktor buried his fingers into the ice, pounded his head on the floor and screamed until his voice broke and grated in his throat.

  He continued to scream and punch the snow and ice.

  He sat up, looked around, saw nothing but white, the distant hills and the silhouette of the withered tree.

  He banged his fists on the ground, opened his eyes so far that his pupils stuck out –

  And screamed.