Xanam was now back in our world in fear of Mother, who he suspected of being an Efreet.
“I heard there’s a haunted house here,” he said. “So I thought I should come ask about the rent.”
I attacked him for his repulsive mockery of my mother. He pushed me aside as I was trying to get a grip on his throat.
“Behave yourself, you filthy animal!” he said. “I told you before I’d kill you if I saw you here again!”
I think he avoided a clash with me and Mother as he was scared we would overtake him…yet he went on with his mockery. “Behave yourself, boy! When adults are talking, teenagers shut up. Just worry about your sweetheart!”
Mother kept her cool and used her strict voice. “I said, what are you doing here, son of Santool?”
“I came here on personal business. A wizard requested I do a project in this house.”
And for the first time I heard Mother defend the family of Dr. Abdulraheem: “You filthy liar. The family in this house are better than you and your wizard! Its owner knows God, he prays, fasts and worships, God’s name is always remembered in this house by him or my father!”
Xanam replies: “You have such confidence in humans! You really make me laugh!
It is true, we cannot enter this house just yet.
But, trust me, this is only temporary!
A human no matter who he or she might be, weakens after the first test and forgets about God! Tomorrow you’ll see for yourself. The owners themselves are the ones who asked for me, and no one will be able to stop me from entering the house.”
As Xanam was leaving, he turned to me to say his final filthy statement, only meant to raise the tension between me and Mother: “Don’t forget, cousin, if you need any help with the Human just let me know!”
Mother and I went up to make sure Grandfather was okay. We found him sleeping, so I left her with him and went to my room in the yard, were I tried to organize my thoughts and calm my fear of what the future may hold.
(7)
Cancer and the flower
That night Sawsan invited her friends over—maybe to prove that her house was not haunted. It was a limited-guest event with just a handful of girls. They spent most of their time in Sawsan’s room, avoiding the topic of Jinn for fear of hurting Sawsan’s feelings, or maybe for fear of a Jinni actually showing up. Their curiosity almost gave them away, but Sawsan courageously opened the subject as if she were ending the rumors.
“Girls, I’ve decided to ask the Jinn what upset them on the day of my party.”
Areej understood her objective and wanted to keep Sawsan from any embarrassment, and herself from any terror. “Sawsan, there’s no need for that. Just turn on a recording of verses of the Holy Quran and they will be gone.”
Khulud would not let such a chance pass her by. “If they were good Jinn, they would have enjoyed the DJ with us. There must be a reason. The only solution is to face them! Sawsan, bring a paper from the printer.”
Khulud started drawing the Ouija board. Areej was not happy about it, and the rest of the girls were nervous. I felt a hidden joy regardless of all the tension that was building up. Was it because I was going to talk to Sawsan again? What would I say? Should I seize the moment and confess to her how madly in love with her I was? That would terrify her for sure! Again the girls did not give me the chance to think it through.
“Is someone there? Is someone there?” Khulud called.
I know that if I did not respond they would stop. “M I S S E D… Y O U.”
Oh dear God, what had I done? I could not resist the opportunity! The room went numb until Sawsan brought it back life.
“Hawjan?”
I moved the marker to “Yes.”
Khulud was about to start her question, but I did not give her a chance to interrupt my chat with Sawsan. “F O R G I V E… M E.”
“Why did you do that? Did we harm you in any way?” Sawsan went on.
“N O T… M E.”
Khulud could not contain her curiosity. “Are there other Jinn in the house? Are they Devils?”
I moved the marker to “No.” “G R A N D F A T H E R… S I C K… M O T H E R… U P S E T… S H E… D I D… N O T… M E A N… I T.”
Sawsan looked relieved. “Forgive us. We’re sorry. And please tell your mother and grandfather we’re sorry too.”
“H O W… A R E… Y O U.”
Areej could not pass up the chance to mock me. “My oh my! Your Jinni is drowning, Sawsan. How about if we leave the Ouija to give you some privacy?”
She left the plastic piece, making its movement very heavy, but with some effort I returned to its normal movement, then tried to ease the mood and get closer to Sawsan.
“I… W O R R I E D… A B O U T… Y O U… D O N T… B E… S C A R E D…I… A M… H E R E.”
Khulud noticed the smooth movement of the plastic piece. “Here’s a thought. We should try it with one person. Sawsan remove your finger let me try to move it alone.”
Sawsan did so, and the plastic piece stopped like a rock even though I was trying as hard as I could to move it. If this worked I would be able to talk to Sawsan without her friends having to be there.
“Khulud, let me try alone,” Sawsan said. “Since he’s concerned about me, maybe he doesn’t want to talk to anyone else alone.”
She set her finger on the plastic piece and asked, “Are you there, Hawjan? Can you respond?”
I did my best to move my hand over the plastic piece, but nothing happened. I hoped her soul could detect my movement; usually one soul was not enough to detect us. That’s why movement was easier when more Humans participated.
I tried and tried. There was the word—“Yes”—and I was almost there. Sawsan closed her eyes to focus, and finally the piece moved to “Yes”. That astonished everyone.
“Sawsan,” Areej said, “shame on you. You’ve been moving it from the start and making up this love story with a Jinni? And I’ve been about to faint from terror!”
“I swear I didn’t move it. It moved on its own! Are you there, Hawjan”?
I moved the piece to “Yes.” “I… A M… M O V I N G… I T… I… W A N T… T O… K N O W… Y O U… A R E… O K.”
“Don’t worry. I’m great! I’m glad we cleared this up and that the problem is solved.”
“I… W A N T… T O… T A L K… T O… Y O U… A L L… T H E… T I M E.”
All of a sudden, terrified calm came over the room.
“D O N T… W O R R Y,” I added. “I… A M… M U S L I M… I… F E A R… G O D… A N D… I… F E A R… F O R… Y O U”
That seemed to calm Sawsan down. “How can I be afraid of my neighbor? I’ll talk to you whenever I find a chance.”
Thoughts filled my head. I couldn’t believe I was talking to Sawsan alone! I moved my finger over the board; thankfully the plastic piece did not show the anxiety I felt. It simply moved with a slow elegance. But I was afraid my thoughts would dissipate before I told them to Sawsan, and that I would never get another chance to talk to her alone.
“Y O U… D O N T… H A V E… C L A S S E S… T O M O R R O W… T R U E.”
I was sure Areej would intrude as usual, and she did—but this time to my benefit. “No, no, no. This is too much! Let’s leave, girls, before Hamanjan asks his Efreet friends to kick us out of here.”
Sawsan’s cheeks went red. “Areej, stop teasing me!”
“My driver has been waiting for me for a while now,” said Khulud, resolving the situation even further to my advantage.
“Hamanjan. Please tell Sawsan how we did on our exams, and I promise I will hook you up with all the Human girls!”
They started to leave, and Sawsan was about to walk them to the door, but Khulud told her with a strict voice, “Don’t you dare remove your finger from that piece without saying goodbye!”
And then they departed. And I was with Sawsan alone in her room. I could talk to her directly, tell her how I felt, even flirt! Some moments of si
lence passed. Both our hands were on the plastic piece, smiles were on our faces, and anxiety was in our racing heartbeats.
“Hawjan, are you still here?”
“A R E… Y O U… S C A R E D… O F… M E.”
“Why should I be afraid? Can you harm me?”
“I… A M… S C A R E D.”
She laughed. “You, scared of me?”
“S C A R E D… F O R… Y O U.”
“Don’t worry. I’m more of a Jinni than you are.”
She suddenly removed her fingers from the plastic piece. Leaving me alone on the paper, she got her tablet from her desk and lay on her bed. She opened a typing program and put the plastic piece on it. I understood what she wanted before she even called out to me as if I were a flesh-and-blood Human with her in the room.
“Come here, Hawjan. I think the concept should be the same wither on paper or a tablet”
The plastic piece flowed smoothly on the tablet, but it was too big for the letters. Sawsan removed it and said, “Let’s try it without the piece.”
I put my fingers directly on hers and moved them. I felt as if I were controlling them, but they typed all the letters they passed over on the keyboard, not only the ones they touched, creating long strings of illegible words and sentences. Sawsan released a childish laugh, and soon after, Mrs. Raja knocked on her door. This frightened me, and I removed my hands quickly as if she would have been able to see me while Sawsan switched to a youtube page as Mrs. Raja opened the door asking, “Sawsan? I can hear you out in the hallway. Who are you talking to?”
“I’m watching a new funny YouTube program called AlaaAltayer.”
“It’s late. Don’t you have classes tomorrow?”
“No, Mom, and I’m not really sleepy.”
“Would you like me to make you something to eat or drink?”
“No. I’ll go to sleep in a bit. Thank you for everything. Love you.”
Mrs. Raja left the room, and Sawsan switched back to the typing app as put my hands back on top of Sawsan’s on the tablet. Still lying on the bed, she whispered as if she were afraid her mother would hear her.
“We almost got busted!”
I responded in typing: “That was close.”
Sawsan and I were both shocked by how easy it was to type this way. She was so amazing. She talked, and I responded by typing with her fingers. The inventors of the Ouija board, both Humans and Jinn, would have been astonished by her invention. I wasn’t sure if such a method would be useful to others or if our relationship was a special case.
“Sawsan,” I asked, “what is on your mind?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You always cry alone.”
“Do you always watch me when I’m alone?”
“NO NO NO. I leave the moment you enter.”
“Then how do you know I cry?”
“The X-ray. Is your father ill?”
Sawsan was shocked by my question, and when tears started flowing down her cheeks, I regretted asking it. Her fingers passed through my hands; moments passed and she did not talk. I tried my best to type, but her fingers would not move. I hated myself and how foolish I was.
Then she said: “That was my X-ray!”
The news was heavy on my heart. I couldn’t think straight. This sweet flower who shined happily on everyone and everything around her had a brain tumor? How strong she was!
“I’m okay with my fate,” she went on. “And I enjoy every moment of my life without worry. I act like I don’t know I’m ill, and I don’t think of telling anyone. Allah is generous. He will take care of me. And by the way, you haven’t told me anything about you. Tell me something about Jinn and your family. I want all the details, please. Don’t leave anything out.”
I swallowed my sorrow and told her everything I knew. She commented sometimes and smiled at others, but before long her fingers got heavier and I could tell she was resisting her body’s call to sleep.
“I can’t keep my eyes open Haw…” she said softly as she gave in to her body’s demands.
I smiled as I watched her, sure that she felt it. I pulled my fingers away slowly, afraid my movement would bother her, then sat on the edge of the bed, adoring the smile that never left her face, not even when she was asleep. And my tears flowed—tears of joy for talking with Sawsan, and of sorrow for her illness.
(8)
Four hundred and twenty years
Ihave considered stopping this tale more than once. Why should I waste my time relating my problems and concerns to you? And why would you waste yours reading about them? I guess it’s curiosity—you Humans are full of that. I understand you are by nature worried about what is hidden, about mysteries and the unknown. I guess this insight into my life’s details might somewhat ease your concerns, or it might be an indulgence into your hobby of frightening yourself. I do not understand what you find amusing about terror. You make movies you don’t even watch because you are too busy closing your eyes and screaming! Regardless, I have chosen to go on telling my story.
A few weeks passed. I talked to Sawsan almost every day. We spent hours together, and she never made me feel as if I were a monster from another dimension. She was merely curious about the secrets that joined our two worlds. I never felt that I was more than four times her age; on the contrary, Sawsan’s maturity always astonished me. I did not expect her to comprehend all the information I gave her about our world, but we talked about everything. Our questions would flood the conversation every time, and we would search for the answers together—agreeing sometimes, disagreeing others, arguing even more. I would have loved to share the intricate details of our interactions, but my story has no room for that here.
I spent the best days of my life with Sawsan. I read her books with her, watched her movies, listened to her music… I even helped her buy clothes and accessories off the Internet. She would talk, I would move my fingers over the keyboard, and she would type it directly as if the barriers between our worlds had dissolved, and our souls were entwined.
She once asked me about the secret that kept the Jinn world hidden from Humans—the barrier that all of your advanced scientific and technological methods had failed to cross or even detect.
Humans seem so uninterested in any evidence that you are not the only intelligent beings in this universe, and that is your main problem: your vanity. Every time you discover a trivial scientific fact, you think you know the secrets of existence and refute anything your small world cannot comprehend. Life is much deeper and more complicated than the theories and formulas you try to cram everything underneath!
I tried to explain that to Sawsan so many times.
Life has so many intertwined dimensions and layers on top of each other, the smallest of which is your world. Yes, with everything—all the planets, stars, and galaxies! You call it the material world because you can touch and feel it. But it’s followed by other layers that engulf your world with other worlds you do not feel: our worlds, the world of the Angels, and the worlds of the spirit. Each level feels and experiences the worlds that are beneath its own. However, no one can move between worlds without special abilities that Allah gives to whomever he wishes, or by using pure magic and the secrets of Babylon, or by getting the privileges of the Efreets and Marids.
This is called a multidimensional theory. I watched some of your documentaries on that with Sawsan, and you came close to solving the mystery through the Membrane Theory. However, I think you still need a few decades to prove in a scientific way the existence of other dimensions that are parallel to your own. For now just imagine that we are in similar worlds that are parallel, and that we feel you but you don’t feel us.
The ability to materialize in both worlds is the most powerful weapon of the Efreets and Marids, and varies from simple effects such as making noises or controlling electrical current, heat, and light all the way to materializing fully in your world. Although many claim to have such powers, they are very rare, and a lot of Jinn have died
trying. Not many Humans have survived coming to our side either.
Sawsan felt my existence when I was near her. She knew when I got back from work, and she prepared her tablet and coffee. She offered me some every time knowing I would not taste it, and my heart would melt.
We would talk so long, we would fall asleep, and I would wake to her gentle voice as she fiddled with her tablet: “Hawjan? Are you still here?” As if she were afraid to bother me.
Once when she slept during our chat, I went to rest in her flower garden at the window. But my dreaming was cut short by Mother’s nervous call. I woke up and went straight to the roof, where I saw Grandfather sitting up straight after spending decades lying in his bed. He pointed to me with his shaking hands, beckoning me to sit next to him, as his eyes searched for something out on the horizon. The silence of the night was only interrupted by Mother’s sobs. Then Grandfather decided to talk, and it was as if I heard him speak for the first time.
“When I was a child, I saw The Battle of Harratain. I know no one else alive who has seen that battle.”
“May Allah extend your life, Grandpa, and keep you well,” I said.
“I was in my youth when the city of Yatmah drowned.”
When someone is about to die, he remembers the past and reminds himself of death, especially when one awakens suddenly from a long sleep. That is the awakening of farewell. Mother was sure this was happening to Grandfather despite my attempts to dismiss the thought.
“Grandpa, you need to rest. In a few days you’ll regain your health, and we can go for a pilgrimage… And…”
Grandfather did not hear a word I said. He turned to me. “Meehal was the most chivalrous, manly, and honorable Jinni I had ever seen in my life. He asked me to take care of you and your mother just before his soul left his body, while he was in my arms.”
HWJN (English 2nd Edition) Page 5