Sarai

by Lilya Myers

  Sarah’s parents made no mention that they knew Able had made the job offer. She suspected that he might have asked her father’s permission. He was that kind of guy. So, Sarah thought she’d have a little fun with it that night at dinner. Like pretending that she turned down his offer.

  “So, mom told me that you spent most of the day at Able’s office today,” Dan stated nonchalantly. Able forked in a mouthful of pot roast in case he was expected to be included in answering. Sarah held her own fork at bay to answer.

  “Yes, he put me on a retainer to look over some contracts he was working on.” She sent a weak smile in Able’s direction. He loaded another hefty bit into his mouth. She was going nuts holding back but she had to keep the facade up a little longer.

  You could hear a pin drop. It was never quiet at their dinner table. Usually it was Sarah talking a thousand miles a minute while Dan and Marie listened intently. Tonight, it was like pulling teeth to get Sarah to say a word.

  “Is everything okay? Are you feeling alright, sweetheart?” Marie asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you two get into an argument?”

  “No.”

  “Naw.” Able said, partially covering his mouth after quickly reloading when he heard the question.

  Dan and Marie shot glances back and forth while Sarah seemed to be lost in space over her dinner plate. She certainly wasn’t acting like the bubbly Sarah everyone knew.

  Gee, I’ve never seen Mom and Dad this uptight. Perhaps this approach wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  Her head popped up, the sparkle shown in her eyes, and her full soft lips broadened into that typical Sarah-melt-your-heart smile. For the moment, Dan and Marie didn’t know what to think. Sarah leaped up from her chair, knocking over her water glass, as utensils went skating across the tile floor. Her parents stared at her.

  “As of today, I am officially and gainfully employed,” she announced. “Sarah Somers, Esquire for Able International Trade, Inc.!”

  CHAPTER 37

  ABLE BUZZED SARAH on the intercom. “What’s the status on those contracts?”

  “Actually, confirmation came today.”

  “Great! Start packing your bags, Sarah. It looks like we’ll be going on a trip.”

  “Oh my gosh. How soon do we leave?”

  “About two weeks. I’ve known you too many years – I know it’s going to take you that long just to get packed.” He smiled into the phone.

  “Ha, ha, Mr. Funny. You know that I can be packed and ready in a heartbeat.”

  “Yeah, right. Two weeks if you do it by yourself, two months if you have Rachel’s help.” She knew that he was probably right. It meant shopping for some new business attire and, of course, she couldn’t do that without Rachel.

  “Can we leave in one month, then? I’ll have to take Rachel with me shopping.”

  “Women!” What did he know? He only had four sisters, two older and two younger. “Really, Sarah, we actually have to leave in 12 days.”

  “Can I take a twelve day leave-of-absence to shop? So, where are we off to, Able?” She knew he’d been working on a joint venture between Spain and Egypt for a new building material, called No Fargo. The name meant “No Fire,” developed by a Spanish company. Every time he mentioned the name, he always made sure to give the English translation. She knew he did it just to get a rise out of her but this time she wasn’t having any of it.

  “Able? Hello? Remember, I do speak Spanish. You don’t need to translate.”

  “Sorry, just habit,” he snickered but went on before she could snap back. “Anyway, the government of Egypt placed a moratorium on using the silt from the Nile to make bricks.” The Nile silt fed the Delta, the farming region all around the Nile. If use of the silt kept up at the rate they were using it to make building materials, farming would be severely jeopardized.

  “Spain and Egypt. Sounds like an excellent match up.”

  “I’ve talked with Mr. Romero, the attorney representing the Spanish company. He arranged for us to meet with them at the factory outside Madrid. It’s important for us to see an actual demonstration of how the building material can be molded to suit a host of building situations. And more importantly, they are very proud of its fire resistant qualities. Mr. Romero was very excited about that demonstration as well.”

  “That will be exciting to see! Oh, by the way, I’ve just about got those contracts finalized. Egypt’s laws are 51% ownership in the joint venture.”

  “We’ll have to have them as prepared as we can but don’t be surprised if we’ll have to tweak and make a few changes once we sit down with the Egyptian government. They can be tiresome when it comes to nailing them down. They seem to have a flair for wasting time and changing their minds. Everyone looks so busy, businessmen in suits with briefcases running to and fro…you’ll see what I mean when you get there.”

  “I’ll have copies for you to review in two days. Is that okay?”

  “Works for me.” Able loved the banter so he opened that door again. “I know your Spanish is excellent…”

  “Oh, suddenly we remember that little fact? Really, Able, you’re going to have to start taking some vitamins or something…maybe a girlfriend to help you with your memory.”

  “You’re such a charmer, you know that? I’ll take the girlfriend part into consideration. So, how’s your Arabic these days?”

  “I’d say it’s about as good as my Spanish, French, and Italian. In other words, flawless.”

  “Showoff,” he snickered.

  She flashed back to her childhood. “You know my dad had this thing about me learning several languages from the time I was in diapers. I’m glad he did because it turned out to be an asset when I decided to go into international law. It was probably a setup. Do you think my dad planned it? He probably thought I could take over the Middle Eastern Oil Empire if I knew Arabic.” She let out that familiarly quiet little laugh that meant she could actually be considering it as truth.

  “Nah. I think he had a place all carved out for you as a secret agent.”

  “Yeah, right. You know, most people would almost think it was peculiar.”

  “What do you mean?” Able asked.

  “To this day, he’ll start off a conversation with me, out of the blue, in Arabic. Don’t you think that’s weird?”

  “That’s not so unusual, really. I have to constantly brush up on all of them myself or I’ll forget every word. It’s a good thing he did, especially since we’ll be dealing with an Arabic speaking country.”

  The conversation suddenly took a serious turn and Sarah’s voice took on a huskier tone. “Hey Able, have you seen the news today?”

  “No, and I don’t like the sound in your voice. Don’t tell me…”

  “Another body.” Sarah’s stomach turned over.

  “All I know is that it’s a hundred notches above anything I’ve ever heard before. Poor Rachel has hardly seen Russ since they found the first woman. I spoke to her earlier and all she could say is, “You know, Russ can’t give me details of the case.” But she did tell me that there’s plenty of buzz in the forensics lab about it being so barbaric that the police are labeling it the work of a serial killer. “This is getting scary. I’m going to worry about leaving Rachel behind when we go.”

  “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. My guess is that Russ has Rachel covered, one way or the other. They’re well-connected in the police department between the two of them.” His words were matter-of-fact but the truth and the gentleness in them put Sarah at ease. They both knew it was a false sense of security but neither of them wanted to admit it.

  Despite Able’s attempt at comforting Sarah, there was no way that she could leave Rachel behind with a killer on the loose. She marched back into Able’s office with a brilliant proposition.

  ***

  Sarah and Rachel met for lunch at a great little seafood place at the harbor in Port Jefferson. Port Jefferson, or Port Jeff as the locals called it
, was a favorite area for a lot of the North Shore residents. The restaurant had a great view of the ferry to Connecticut coming and going, as well as lots of sailboats leaving their slips and hoisting sail. It was one of their favorite lunch haunts. They had been coming there for a long time and knew the owner well.

  Earlier in the morning, Sarah texted Rachel to meet her at the Dolphin’s Fin – “there’s a little something…” and that’s where she ended the text. It was just enough mischief and mystery to drive Rachel absolutely insane. Sarah wanted her news to be a total surprise.

  Sarah’s phone rang shortly after her text went through. Rachel. Sarah quickly made it roll to a prerecorded message, “I’m in a meeting. Please leave your name and number and I will call you as soon as possible.”

  Rachel looked at her phone and spoke to it as though Sarah was right in front of her. “I know darn well you’re not in a meeting! Pick up, Sarah.” She clicked off her phone and redialed. Sarah was up to something. And Rachel also knew her well enough that she was going to make her tough it out until eleven-thirty.

  Their banter was never nasty or mean-spirited. The girls had been introduced into each other’s lives when they were just toddlers but they didn’t know that and never had any reason to question it. They thought they had been attached at the hip since birth. Both were beautiful children who matured into drop-dead gorgeous women. They almost shared the same birthday and it might as well have been on the same day. Sarah mostly favored her mom’s side. She was average height with long, wavy dark hair and big brown eyes. Rachel was slightly taller with short cropped blond hair, with a little added help from a bottle. Her eyes were emerald green that turned the color of the Mediterranean when she wore her contact lenses. Rachel’s father, Tom, was Marie’s brother. The girls had grown up together and lived right next door in an upscale community on the northeastern shore of Long Island. They went to the same school, they liked the same music, they shared the same friends, and one never went anywhere without the other. They were closer than sisters and knew each other’s hearts inside and out. Family ties. They actually enjoyed the banter they shared and any intended slight at the other was purely feigned.

  Gina brought their drinks as soon as they sat down. Rachel was chomping at the bit to know just what that “little something” was that Sarah had dangled in her text message. “Okay, you win. I can’t stand it!”

  CHAPTER 38

  WORKING HARD TO provide for his family was what Hashim had always done best. But without a family, it became a compulsive escape from everything else. His aim was not to build the financial empire that had become his. Long hours and the concentrated energy that he poured into his work wasn’t for the money. It was the only way to stave off the pain that haunted him day and night.

  Hashim had long abandoned the political fight in his country. It had cost him dearly. His first and only love, Hasne, had been murdered because of his selfish quest to fight a corrupt and vicious foe. Then he was forced to give away his own flesh and blood because of the malevolence his involvement in the political upheaval brought to his doorstep.

  Many times during those twenty years the temptation to appear at Dan and Marie’s door was worse than a heroin addict’s need for the next fix. The photo of the child he had carried for years was worn and tear-stained. He didn’t doubt that she could have had no finer parents, nor a more loving home apart from the one he and Hasne would have made for her. But she had been kept safe and alive all these years; otherwise he would have known. That’s the only thing that mattered, he reminded himself continuously.

  After two months in Belgium and three months in Argentina, he had only flown back to Cairo that morning. He wasn’t in any rush to get back to his home. There was no one to see, no one waiting anxiously for him to walk through the door. Instead of going back to his flat, he asked the driver take him to the same trendy cafe where he had seen the young woman the year before.

  It was silly, really. A chance in a million that he’d ever see her again. It couldn’t have been her, anyway. He imagined these thoughts were just the mind of an old man conjuring up intrigue to please himself.

  The cafe was slow. Like European countries, most businesses shut down for a couple of hours in the afternoon and reopened when the sun went down and temperatures dropped. A lot of Cairenes went home to nap. Hashim scolded himself for not doing the same thing.

  After ordering coffee and something to eat, he absentmindedly wandered over to the table he sat at the day he saw her and revisited that day in his mind.

  The young woman would have been about Sarai’s age. There was a grace about her movements and the tilt of her head that first caught his interest. It was familiar. A young man sat across from her who could have passed for American, maybe German or Spanish. More than likely, he was Dutch. The cafe was noisy and Hashim was sitting too far away to overhear their conversation. Her back was to Hashim, giving him a view of her dark hair hanging in long waves and moving like spun silk as she talked animatedly. He stared himself into a trance-like state that took his thoughts back to a morning when he and Hasne were first married. She had hair like that. He closed his eyes to see her brushing the long wavy hair that hung to her waist.

  A loud noise from the kitchen jarred his daydreaming just as the couple was standing to leave. The young woman turned in his direction, their eyes meeting for the briefest of moments. For a fleeting millisecond, her expression captured a flicker of recognition as distant as the stars.

  She leaned into the man she was with and whispered something. Without looking around, he cupped his hand under her elbow and quickly ushered her out of the cafe. That face, Hashim muttered to himself. It rattled him to the very core, weakening every fiber of his body. He summoned his composure as he pushed his way through the crowded cafe and out the door. Frantically, he looked in every direction for the pair, who seemed to have vanished into thin air.

  Hashim stood there for the longest time, his arms hanging loosely at his side, his head bowed. He wondered if Sarai remembered anything about him. Had every memory of him been washed away by time? He berated himself for thinking such things. He gave her away. It didn’t matter whether it was to save her life or not. The fact remained that he had given his own flesh and blood away. He had no right to even hope that she remembered him and no right to claim who she became as a person.

  He realized that he must have frightened the young woman in the cafe, staring at her like that. He just couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She looked so much like Hasne. He wished that he could have apologized to her, explained to her.

  Hashim walked in and looked around the cafe. Am I really expecting to find her here? There were a few men wearing the traditional white Galabeya seated at a round table over to one corner. A few of the other tables had been taken by students who appeared to be from the university. What a fool he was for stopping here again. The girl he had seen that time may have only resembled Hasne, he conceded to himself. After all, it had been over twenty years since Hasne died. He had only old photos to rely on and none of them were a true measure of her beauty or what Sarai would look like now. Hashim really wanted to believe that the mind can play tricks on you, if you let them. He had to get out of there. How stupid it was of me to even think to come back here. Maybe it’s time I leave Egypt. Too many memories. Memories that haunted him and that he unconsciously pursued.

  ***

  Sarah’s hand reached into her purse for the envelope with the tickets and stalled there. “On second thought…” She wanted to hold onto her surprise until she prefaced it with an explanation. Sarah’s voice became serious. “I’m deliriously happy for you and Russ. I know that in a blink, you’ll be so busy with the wedding, looking for a house, and…all that.” Her voice revealed the slightest hint of sadness that no one would have picked up on except for Rachel. “Able already has a lot of overseas prospects that will require me to travel with him to work on contracts. Seeing as I’m going to miss a lot of shopping and girl time with
you from now until your wedding…”

  Just the sound of her voice and the nature of the conversation was cause for tears to well up in Rachel’s eyes. They both knew that once Rachel was married to Russ, their friendship would not go away but it would evolve and change. Life would be different.

  “So what I want to know is, will you go on this trip to Egypt with me?” She handed Rachel two first class tickets to Cairo. “I kinda figured it would be the last place we could invade together as single women.” She saw a tear get away from the well that had formed in Rachel’s eye. “Now don’t go getting all gooey on me… I do have another ulterior motive. Able and I were supposed to go to Spain first, then Egypt to wrap up some contracts. That’s when the idea came to me. I talked Able into doing Spain on his own and I’d take you with me to Egypt. It’s part work but that’s only to get a few contracts signed. I thought it would be perfect – our own bachelorette party – kind of. And you’ve never been overseas…”

  That shadow of doubt was beginning to spread across Rachel’s face so Sarah started talking faster, hoping to convince her before that doubt settled in. All in one breath, Sarah attempted to paint a picture of all the fun things they could do. “We could spend a couple of days in Cairo – I’ll get those contracts signed. And then we can go see the Pyramids, the Cairo Museum, I’ll get a driver to take us to Alexandria – there are lot of flats or summer houses on the beach that we could rent… oh, Rachel, the Mediterranean is beautiful. It’s the most breathtaking shade of aqua and this time of year the weather is the best. We leave in ten days.” The fact that Rachel would say no now didn’t even dawn on her.

  Rachel was already thinking, this is going to be my I gotcha. It was the perfect innocent scheme that could give Sarah her moment of glory. Something like the feeling a quarterback gets when spiking the ball just after a touchdown. Rachel hung her head down and kept it there so her eyes wouldn’t give her away. Sarah would see right through her in a heartbeat. “Sarah, honey, no, I’m sorry. I just can’t go with you…”