CHAPTER 21
He didn’t know what made him do it, or why it even occurred to him in the first place.
He had gotten halfway home when he stopped for a moment. He, who still couldn’t believe he had escaped Salaam’s clutches, decided to go back. Perhaps it was the memory of the Albino, or else his desire to say goodbye and be rid of his memory...Actually, it was Lurice’s money that brought him back, the cash that would go to waste after Najeeb had died and Salaam had gone crazy. Salaam would definitely meet his same fate, death by the plague.
He went up the stairs slowly, taking pains to avoid any noise that would give him away. He stopped and strained his ears to listen. There was nothing at all. He thought Lurice must be asleep or had passed on to the next world. That’s actually what seemed most likely to Luqman. He had turned around to go back out when he heard the sound of a key turn once in the lock, then a second time. After that, complete silence.
Luqman didn’t understand. He paused for a few moments at the top of the stairs, watching the door and waiting for her to open it. It didn’t open, nor did she come out or make any sign. He got closer and reached out to grasp the handle. He turned it slowly to confirm the door was still locked and that he had just imagined it all.
But the door opened. It let out a slow creak and came to a stop. Luqman put his eye in the gap to steal a glance inside. Everything was very dark and still, but it occurred to him that Lurice must have supposed her visitor was just Salaam.
Luqman stepped over the threshold with a sense of apprehension, but not fear. When the door swung shut behind him, he felt a solid, heavy object crash into the back of his head.
He couldn’t say how much time passed before he awoke. He didn’t see her. He discovered he was lying on the floor, his mouth was muffled, and his hands and feet were bound with various scraps of cloth.
Luqman strained at the bonds on his hands, trying to get free. They were tied too tight, and he couldn’t break them. He started moving like a snake and wriggled along until he reached the wall. He planted his feet on the floor and pushed until his upper half was vertical and he could sit with his back against the wall.
He caught the muffled rustle of steps before Lurice came into view. She didn’t pay him any attention. She just passed through the room as though she didn’t notice him, as though he weren’t there, disappearing again into the opposite room, the door of which opened onto wherever he was. He heard her closing windows and dragging a heavy metal object on the floor. Then she opened a faucet, and he guessed she was in the kitchen. Perhaps she had been thirsty, and now she was getting something to drink.
Luqman looked around, trying to figure out something of his surroundings. He wasn’t able to see through the wall of darkness that lay heavy on his eyelids. He heard the clatter of a car slowly coming closer until it stopped nearby. Its lights reflected up to where he was, illuminating a few details.
His eyes darted around quickly, trying to absorb as much information as possible. He learned he was in the living room. He saw a sewing machine crouched in one of the corners. Around it were rolls of fabric, papers, and scraps of cloth strewn upon the floor. He turned to his left, and he noticed a rope fixed between the facing walls, upon which she had hung a number of things. He stared hard, and it became clear that it was children’s clothing since there came into view the outlines of pants legs and sleeves attached by clothes hooks and floating in midair.
She just had to look at him to see he wasn’t a stranger, come secretly to rob or assault her. I’m Luqman, Mrs. Lurice, he would say to her, the friend of your only son, the Albino. He would be out of there in a few moments. After just a few moments, she would remember he was there, or he would remind her, and she would untie his hands and let him go back home. And from there to the airport.
God! What was it that made him to go back to her? Was a handful of dollars worth suffering what he was going through now? Oh, well. Just wait a little, Luqman, and things will come out alright, God willing. What can a weak, old woman like Lurice do to you, and why should you be afraid of her? Is she going to kill you? Of course not! The worst-case scenario is that she keeps you here and makes you miss your flight. So be it. You’ll take a different flight the day after tomorrow and let Shireen know you’ve exchanged the ticket for some reason.
He swore to God he wasn’t going to lay a finger on her. He’d even forget the matter of her money if she let him go in one piece. But how could he make her understand when she had gagged him, which prevented him from speaking to her and persuading her of his good intentions?
Lurice came back to him. She went over to shut the window. Then she went to the balcony door and closed it. She did the same with the other doors leading into that room, with the exception of the kitchen door, which she left open. She came over to Luqman and bent down to get a closer look. She smiled at him and caressed his face tenderly. He felt reassured, believing she would free him. But she sat down on the floor next to him, leaning her back against the wall. Then she reached over and patted his bound hands, keeping them between hers and pulling them towards her.
“Do you know, Elias, it is the Lord who gave you to me. He came to me at night in a dream and said to me, ‘Stop crying, Lurice! Your breast, which for so long you have laid bare and beaten with your two clenched fists, has pained me. You will have a child soon. In a few weeks, you will be pregnant.’ And so it was. When you were born, your father cried for days. And when he died, I didn’t cry for him. I said, ‘The house still has someone to protect it, and I still have a man: my son, Elias.’
“How did you get away from me? I do not know. How did you grow up so fast and become a different person, someone called ‘the Albino,’ who didn’t spring from my loins or your father’s? God! When I saw you that night, I wished death had taken me and delivered me from that moment, which destroyed me and transformed my life into long years of torture!
“I came straight back home, not turning aside for anything. My heart nearly dropped out of me into the street, and my lungs were choking with the memory of what I had seen you doing. I cried the entire night. I prayed on my knees, asking the Lord to inspire me with what I ought to do to absolve you and redeem your sins. He didn’t answer me. I said I wasn’t strong enough to go on living after that. I said I would die so as no longer to see what was torturing my conscience, separating me from you and making me feel you weren’t my son, but rather an evil stranger who had sold his depraved soul to the devil!
“But a voice spoke to me. I wasn’t sleeping or dreaming, but wide-awake, with my eyes open. I started praying and asking forgiveness for you and for me, but the voice said, ‘What’s wrong, Lurice, and why do you keep beseeching me in tears?’
“I told him about you. I described how I had gone to find you one evening when I hadn’t seen you for days, and I was overcome with worry. I was afraid something bad had happened to you, you had become sick and bedridden, or a sniper’s bullet had gotten you, or a bombardment or an explosion.
“I asked about the building you and your friends had confiscated and converted into your apartments and an office for distributing food. I made my way there, and I thought it strange how you were staying in that deserted, desolate place, which was still unfinished and had no trace of inhabitants. I went up the stairs slowly. On each floor I came to, I looked into the facing apartments and saw they were abandoned and shabby, without any doors. Then a sound of laughter, which I could tell was yours, reached my ears. My heart was reassured, and I said, ‘I’ll turn around and go back where I came from. I don’t want to disturb him. I’ll let him enjoy his evening with friends.
“If only that laugh hadn’t suddenly been mixed with a scream! My heart fell. I turned around quickly and ran up the steps until I heard your laugh again, clear and sustained, ringing in my ears. I said, ‘They’re just playing a game.’ I said you were playing with your friends and joking around with some sick, offensive joke. Then I got there. The broken door opened onto a long hallway. The
long hallway led to a bathroom.
“I saw you...You were laughing! Why were you laughing, my son, when the man in front of you was naked, crying, pleading, wailing, screaming, and begging that you have mercy on his children, if there wasn’t any mercy in your heart for him? Why were you laughing, Albino, when you were ripping out his fingernails with pliers and breaking his teeth with an iron ball, then pouring water on him and branding him with a red hot bar?
“I ran down the stairs. I was crying, not out of pity for your victim, but out of fear of you, of that face I saw on you, the face of a criminal, a tyrant, a beast, a monster. I wanted to slice off the breast with which I had nursed you, to amputate the arms that rocked you, to tear out the womb that bore you, and to cut off the tongue that had prayed to God for you, with the result that your body grew and got big and acquired all your cruelty and depravity.
“I told all this to the voice that addressed me. Then I asked it to take me, so that I might die and have some rest. And do you know what it answered me? ‘Your little one, Elias, is being tormented, Lurice. It’s the Albino who has taken him over.’
“And so it was. I killed you, Albino, in order to bring back my little Elias. I prepared dinner for you. You ate it and got up to go sleep in your room. I waited until I heard the sound of your light, regular snoring. I brought the gas canister in and opened it. Then I closed the door on you...
“But you kept coming to me at night, blaming me and reproaching me. Then the reproaches turned to harsh rebukes, and the rebukes to a torment of blows and threats of strangling. Perhaps it was because you died suddenly when you weren’t expecting it. So here I am today, doing it with your full knowledge. Here I am, telling you I’ve closed all the windows, and I’ve opened the valve on the gas canister so that death will come to you slowly, like a sleep.
“It’s good you came to me tonight because I was waiting for you. This time, I was ready for you, and I hid behind the door. I waited, my heart pounding. I was begging the Lord He would inspire you to come in...and you did!”
CHAPTER 22
For a long time, the clouds had been coming to a halt, piling up, uncertain, above that city.
One cloud asked its sister, “Don’t you see the ground trembling and shuddering underneath us?”
A second answered, “Yes! Indeed, these are the first violent tremors of a devastating earthquake.”
A third said, “In that case, let’s move on. We’ve seen enough here.”
So the clouds gathered together quickly and made ready to leave. They looked down in farewell. Then they exploded in tears.
Oh, Salaam! Page 14