Read Online Dreams of Water by Nada Awar Jarrar - Free Book Online Page A

damp. Aneesa tiptoes through the rooms, afraid of recalling too much. Standing in the doorway of Bassam’s old room, she suddenly understands her mother’s fear. What if Ramzi remembered nothing at all? She hurries back to the front door, steps outside and locks it behind her.
    In the back garden, Waddad and Ramzi are sitting on a stone ledge where the rose bushes had once been. Their heads are bent close together and they do not hear her approaching.
    â€˜Father was a good man,’ Ramzi is saying. ‘But he just didn’t understand.’
    Waddad nods, puts her hand through his arm and waits for him to continue.
    â€˜Bassam followed him around with that bucket whenever he pruned the roses, hoping to be praised for what he did, but all along the boy knew it was Aneesa his father wanted with him.’
    We were in the house once and you told me you needed to have your hair cut. You picked up the newspaper on the coffee table and put your hand on the front of your shirt and patted your chest. I rummaged in my handbag and handed you a black ballpoint pen. I moved to the sofa and watched you draw a wide, oval-shaped arch on the corner of the paper where there was no print .
    â€˜ This is what my hair should look like,’ you said. ‘On the right side, it’s exactly right.’ You turned your head and smoothed back your hair. ‘See ?’
    I looked at you and nodded .
    Then next to the first arch, you drew another, this time in a square shape .
    â€˜ But on the other side, it’s all wrong, like this,’ you continued .
    I stood up, crossed over in front of you and looked at your left profile .
    â€˜ You’re right,’ I said .
    â€˜ I know I need a haircut, but they can never seem to get it right here.’ You put down your pen and shook your head. ‘I miss my barber in Beirut .’
    I put my head back and laughed loudly .
    â€˜ Come to Beirut with me then,’ I said. ‘Come homewith me and we’ll get your hair cut the way it should be .’
    But when I looked back at you again, there was only sorrow in your face .
    Aneesa does not remember the last time she saw Bassam. Instead, there is a persistent image in her mind of a day they spent together only a week before his abduction.
    It is summer and they are at the beach in the south with a group of their friends. The fighting seems to have come to a temporary stop and the war is far from all their minds.
    Bassam has brought with him a young woman whom Aneesa has not met before. She is petite and very pretty, with fair hair and startlingly green eyes. Bassam introduces her as Leila and the two spend much of their time sitting together on the sand or jostling each other at the edge of the water. Aneesa wonders if her brother has fallen in love. It is not something they have ever talked about and she feels a momentary distance from him, as if he has changed in some way, as if there are many things in his life that she does know about.
    The sea is especially beautiful today because rather than being its usual still self in the heat of summer, Aneesa can see ripples of waves in the distance that move down to the shore lazily and end in a frothy foam on the wet sand. She watches Bassam and his friend step into the water and swim out into the distance. They come to a stop and move closer to one another so that their shiny heads seem to be touching. Aneesa looks away and turns on to her stomach and tries to listen to what a friend next to her is saying.
    Later, as they prepare to leave, Leila comes up behindthe car where Aneesa is getting out of her bathing suit and putting on her clothes.
    â€˜Hello,’ says the young woman. ‘Do you mind if I get dressed here too?’
    Aneesa shakes her head and pulls a blouse over her head. She does not look at Leila.
    â€˜We didn’t really get a chance to talk, did we?’ says Leila. ‘Bassam has told me so much about you.’
    Aneesa puts on her