Binyameen

by Ibraheem Abbas

  “Check… mate?”

  Asked Binyameen, not believing that he had won his first game, his mother applauded him both with her hands and heart, he jumped in joy, his shoulder slammed into the table scattering the chess pieces, the kid shouted as if he had won a real battel, it was indeed a real battle that his mother was preparing him for, he felt the scattered pieces searching for his black knight that he could recognize by its scratches emblazons, he held it over his head as she shouted:

  “I won! I won!”

  She untied the red leather bracelet from around her rest while he continued:

  “I will challenge everyone! No one will beat me after today!”

  She took the knight from his hand, knotted her red bracelet around its base allowing it to hang upside-down, and crowned her child with that neckless:

  “The only thing that can ever beat you is your vanity Binyameen”

  He felt the knight with his fingers:

  “I will become the world champion, nothing is impossible, right ma?”

  “Winning my dear child is not by beating others… winning is by helping them and bringing them joy”

  “I want to bring you joy ma”

  “If you trolley want to bring me joy, then you must promise me something”

  The horrors of life distracted her from the fact that she was speaking to a nine-year-old child, she saw her husband’s persistence and dreams in what remained of his eyes:

  “You must promise me that you would dedicate your life to change this world to the better”

  The horseman tightened his grip on his knight:

  “I promise you mother! I will change the world”

  She held him in her arms, she knew her child will do anything for her, she felt that he would fight a devastating war with the devils that were dragging the world to their hell… he moved his fingers over her face, and looked directly into her eyes as he continued:

  “And I promise you that I will see you ma, I will see you with my eyes as you see me now”

  His world unleashed a flood of tears as she squeezed him into her ribs:

  “Sure you will see me Binyameen, future advancements in medicine will…”

  The knight child cut her off:

  “I will not wait for medicine to advance; I will make my eye myself!”

  *****

  Binyameen gasped, his mother vanished, he woke from his dream and came back to his pains. His gasp squeezed on his wound’s pain that spread from his gut to his ribs. Elyana -who had not left his bedside for the entire ten nights he had spent at the military section of the Sheba medical center at Tel HaShomer- rushed to him and so did Amal after Elyana was able to pull enough strings to get her from the orphanage. Amal wrapped her arms around Binyameen’s neck with joy.

  “Amal! You will hurt Binyameen!”

  “Let her be Elyana, this is but a simple wound”

  “Simple wound?! You lost two ribs and a kidney! Spent five days in a coma in intensive care, and you say a simple wound?!”

  Elyana regretted her failure to keep her emotions in check in front of Amal, she did not notice that she was occupied by her secret dialogue with Binyameen, who held her small palm and started tapping it with his fingers while at the same time talking with Elyana:

  “I am fine now, don’t worry one kidney is enough for me!”

  She handed him the tinfoil that she brings every visit:

  “Fine, try not to lose it as well, I’m not so keen on donating my kidney!”

  He took the tinfoil, and handed half of it to Amal and started working on another hobby that they share with no one else, Elyana sat as she watched them squeezed the tinfoil into works of art while continuing their tapping dialogue… Binyameen made the tinfoil into the shape of his mother’s face before serious knocks on the room’s door brought and end to their abrupt moment of joy, the knocker did not wait for an answer, as he, actually she, entered with heavy footsteps that shot shivers down Elyana’s spine, so she pulled Amal by the arm:

  “Come on Amal we must go to the waiting room, we will come back to Binyameen later”

  Amal tried to resist Elyana, but her fright forced her to leave Binyameen alone with Tzipi.

  “Inquiries will start tomorrow”

  She said as she sat on the edge of his bed and crossed her arms and legs, he replied:

  “That is kind of you, by the way, thank you for the flowers”

  “Don’t you ever stop your mockery?”

  She pointed towards the tinfoil statues placed around Binyameen:

  “I think you got enough presents; you exhausted your security detail while searching every tinfoil for hidden codes”

  “Don’t worry, I am but an injured blind casualty under tight security!”

  “You listen to me, I want to know everything before the inquiry starts, please Binyameen, I gave you my trust, my reputation and history of serving Israel is at stake here”

  “I have simply figured out the secrets of the Premuda Triangle, Roswell and the location of the Arc of Covenant. In short, I solved most of the mysteries and paranormal activities that have baffled the world for centuries”

  “Binyameen!”

  “Creatures from other worlds vanished the plane for an instance, exactly as they did when they threatened the American government of abducting more planes and ships at the Premuda Triangle”

  “Listen, management almost left you to die after your fatal injury, but we decided to do everything we can to save your life and find the truth”

  “Ah, kept me alive and one whole kidney… I am speechless, can’t find the words of gratitude for your kindness… damn you… damn you very much!”

  “I knew that your recklessness will cost you your life, but I never thought that you would be so stupid that you would resist a special forces battalion!”

  “Is that the story Danny came up with?”

  “An ambush to retaliate on the special forces battalion, high risk action that required the elimination of all those involved… that is the official report, you can add your statement tomorrow if you wish”

  “I thought you were smarter than that my lady, you know Danny and you know me, if someone among us was stupid it surly would not be me. He fabricated his entire story to settle his beef with me, I am sure his mercenaries will testify for him”

  “I do wish you are lucky enough to convince the committee of that”

  Binyameen pointed to the cavity where his bionic eye was supposed to be, he tapped with his index finger on its metallic base inside his skull:

  “The shooting was not at all justified, everything is recorded, sound and picture!”

  “And you think Danny will give back your bionic eye?”

  “I let stupid Danny believe that he succeeded in tracking my eye’s signal and that he was watching me all the time, I had triggered its system self-destruction before he removed it”

  Her eyes widened and jaw dropped:

  “You weasel! You sent the recorded files to another server”

  He smiled as if he could actually see her dropped jaw:

  “Everything is recorded on my beloved cloud! And sending a copy of all the files to political figures in Israel, France, Saudi Arabia and America will not even require me being alive!”

  Tzipi stood suddenly and held him by his shirt in a manner that was not appropriate for a woman of her age and shouted at his face:

  “Now you listen to me you freak, you made me regret the trust I placed in you, you have erupted a diplomatic crisis, especially after your friend’s wife rallied the social media networks and ignited public opinion to save her husband, add to that the destruction of a fighter plane at one of the most volatile points in the Red Sea, do you know what this all means? America has gone mad and sent an investigation team, you have destroyed all of their future deals for selling the F-35!”

  She tightened her grip on her shirt and as she grinded out each letter:

  “If you dare compromise Israel’s securi
ty, I will rip your head off your corpses with my bare hands!”

  Binyameen laughed so hard multiplying the pain of his torn gut, he answered her by passing his fingers over her face gestures and hair:

  “Oh my God I have never seen you this angry, only now do I miss my bionic eye! Would you allow me to make a tinfoil statue of your angry face!”

  She flinched in surprise, she did not notice her hairlocks that were still in his fingers, she swallowed her anger that he had succeeded in erupting despite her experience and stature, she listened to him as he continued:

  “Do you really think that someone like myself cares for keeping his head on his shoulders? Rest assured, my list of objectives till this moment does not include compromising Israel’s security, my only objective is to serve humanity… to hell with Zionism and its interests that appose humanity’s!”

  “You are such a scoundrel traitor to his nation”

  “I carry two passports, one with an eagle and the other a candelabrum, but I owe no allegiance to either of them, my only allegiance is to humanity! However… at least my American nationality promises the marching of armies if I was ever harmed, and it had not snatched my kidney so far”

  “You better not brag about your American nationality; I have been briefed about the details of the movements of EI8, the organization that you had established there!”

  “Movements? Organization? Are you still stuck in the logic of the Mossad? Exponential Impact 8 is a formal company, Google owns half its shares and has eight of Singularity University’s brightest under the personal supervision of Ray Kurzweil, our objective is to positively impact the lives of eight billion people on this planet! That is a thousand times as many lives as those you squandered your life for”

  “Stop theorizing Binyameen; tell me, what is it exactly that you want?!”

  “A generous offer from a woman that doesn’t believe in concessions! What I wonder terrifies you so much?”

  She pulled out her phone and exhaled:

  “Stop fooling around! How can we get rid of this disaster that you have brought upon us?”

  She played a video captured by the security cameras in the intensive care unit at the military hospital in Tel Aviv, it showed Eyad’s motionless body connected with tubes and wires, everything was calm for a few moments… suddenly the room’s lights went crazy, and with it everything else… then something… or… someone started screaming and demolished the fortified walls then uttered one sentence:

  “I will burn you all”

  Then a second echoing scream before the image vanished… Binyameen saw nothing, but the noise, screams and the terrifying statement at the end was enough to convey the image, Tzipi commented:

  “An invisible Efreet attacked the military hospital, the door to the ICU vanished along with parts of the wall”

  “My Efreet friends must have wanted to say hi”

  “We have enough enemies as it is Binyameen, we can’t face any new ones… not like this, I beg you close the doors of hell that you have opened! After that you can leave Israel and go to your friends in America”

  “All I want is for you to secure the return of Husam and Eyad to Saudi Arabia, and Elyana and Amal to the US if anything should happen to me”

  She did not expect his request, but he went on confidently:

  “I will take care of the rest; I just need you to protect me from the stupidity of Danny!”

  The iron woman did not know that Binyameen had actually started executing his plan, a plan that included escalation by sending an electronic message to one of the most prominent members of the Freemasons, a master that holds a rank that most Freemasons don’t even know existed, British royal blood ran through his veins and chairs the throne of the London lodge, a very short message of only three words:

  “Found the Arc”

  Elyana drove her miniature car on the costal road returning from Tel Aviv to Haifa, Amal leaned her head on the window, her fingers did not stop tapping the glass as if Binyameen was responding to her taps. Her tapping stopped, prompting Elyana to ask:

  “Amal? Did you fall asleep?”

  One can’t tell wither she was asleep or awake as her eyes were closed in all cases.

  “Why did they try to kill Binyameen?”

  “Don’t worry, Binyameen will be fine, we will all go to live in America… do you remember everything he told you?”

  “Of course, every letter!”

  Elyana’s anxiety increased, she switched off her phone and turned into a side road as a precaution to insure she evades her surveillance.

  “Can you tell Mr. Emad now?”

  Amal’s body shivered; she was never convinced that Mr. Emad Zaki whom she became the emissary between him and Binyameen was a normal person, she nodded and Elyana whispered in a quivering anxious voice:

  “Mr. Emad? you are with us, are you not?”

  Moments of silence passed that almost paralyzed her, then a voice came from the back empty seat:

  “Yes Elayan, I am here… What did Binyameen tell you?”

  The two girls gasped, although this was not the first time they had a dialogue with a creature from another universe, the real terrifying moment was when Hawjan detached from Eyad after he had to remain in Eyad’s body to maintain his vitals after he got a fatal shot from Danny’s solders, Hawjan knew that Eyad’s body will not survive unless her remained possessing him and forced his heart to beat until his vitals become stable. The plan Binyameen set in motion before they get attacked by Danny depended on Hawjan communicating with Elayan, the only person Binyameen trusted.

  Hawjan left Eyad’s body and the military hospital after the shock of panic he caused them, he was unable to leave the fortified room at first, so he had to yank the door and throw it in another dimension, then he headed directly to the address he got from Binyameen… Elyana’s address. Their first encounter was terrifying for Elyana, yet calming at the same time, as she found out that Hawjan was the one who’d attacked them and almost brought down their plane was no on their side.

  Amal started detailing everything Binyameen told her by tapping on her hand, the communication method that never occurred to the strict surveillance imposed on Binyameen, how could they have anticipated that this was a complicated code not mere child’s play. Amal turned to face the back seat thinking someone was there, she hesitantly said in Hebrew while Elyana translated for Hawjan:

  “ I told him everything you asked me to, told him that Husam had quickly recovered, and that Eyad was still in critical condition at the ICU, and he said he needed secure access to the internet”

  “Impossible!”

  Said Elyana, Amal pulled out a few hairlocks from her pocket and offered them to the back seat:

  “Binyameen said that Mr. Emad’s wife can impersonate Tzipi if she got her hairs”

  *****

  Whoever said that that clock hands move at a constant speed? Does it not flee from joy? And stall with sorrow? As for moments of anxiety, will those cause it complete paralysis! That paralysis engulfed everyone at the reception hall at Mr. Mansour’s palace north of Jeddah city, everyone was sad and silent, save for Jumana and Elyaseen, as their small hearts did not know how to carry the weight of worry, their play became whispers on a silent canvas that included Mr. Mansour, Mrs. Manal, Mrs. Raja, Sawsan and Maram… and Jumara.

  “My God bring them back safely”

  Said Mrs. Raja who’s anxiety did not reach the same levels as everyone else as she patted her daughter’s hair, Mr. Mansour commented:

  “I got a call from the office of the Minister of of Foreign Affairs, the US has just appointed an Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and they are meeting with him the moment he arrives tomorrow and let us know once the meeting is over”

  “Hawjan!”

  Jumara called out then jumped to the door before anyone knocks… she threw herself in his arms and Elyaseen followed her to be part of this family hug.

  “How could you trust that Israeli after all th
at he had caused us?!

  Said Mansour after Hawjan told them what had happened, he answered:

  “Binyameen was about to lose his life right in front of my eyes as he tried to protect Eyad and Husam, in any case, we have no other option!”

  “But how? How will he help us while he is held under guard by the Israeli military?”

  “He has a plan to pressure the Israeli government to return Eyad and Husam… but…”

  The breath of hope he breathed into the room dissipated when he continued:

  “But we need Jumara… she must impersonate Tzipi!”

  Everyone’s gaze shifted to Jumara who courageously commented:

  “I am with you Hawjan! By God’s grace we will bring Eyad and Husam back!”

  “Me too! I must go with you… I must help you and protect mother, right?”

  Said Elyaseen in a strict tone as if he was an adult, Hawjan bent his knees and looked at his son and said:

  “Elyaseen… how did you carry Jumana when the explosion happened?”

  Elyaseen shifted his gaze between his parents fearing that he was in trouble, Hawjan continued:

  “Can you move any human?”

  The boy stared in his father’s eyes, he felt the plea in the tone of the question, no one understood the intentions behind the question other than Mansour who realized that Hawjan was exploring every possibility to save Eyad… he came close to them as he encouraged Elyaseen:

  “Elyaseen, I have a game! Can you get me out of the house without anyone noticing?”

  Everyone including Hawjan were shocked by what Mansour said, Manal gasped:

  “Mansour! Have you gone mad?!”

  Mansour turned to her and her statement knotted her tongue:

  “Hawjan as risking his life to save out son… you want me to just sit here and watch?!”