Read Online Yalo by Elias Khoury - Free Book Online Page A

on.”
    She said that she had undone the kokina and let her hair fall down over her shoulders because she was afraid, because when she looked into the mirror she did not see her image.
    â€œI look at the mirror and I don’t see my face. The mirror has swallowed it. Do you see anything?”
    Yalo looked at the mirror and saw his long tan face next to his mother’s round white face and her curly chestnut hair.
    â€œTie your hair up again. It’s hanging down like a witch’s.”
    â€œCan you see my face?” his mother asked.
    â€œIs this what you woke me up for?”
    The woman lowered the candle from her face and froze in front of the mirror.
    â€œTake a good look. Do you see anything?”
    â€œOf course I do. Now go to sleep.”
    â€œI can’t see myself,” she said. “Poof! Gaby’s gone. The mirror has swallowed my face, it’s as if I’ve disappeared.”
    â€œThat’s enough of these games. Go to sleep.”
    Yalo went back to bed but his mother stayed in the bathroom. Then she started spending nights in front of the mirror and Yalo grew afraid of her. He did not understand what was happening to her. During the day she was fine and did not talk about her image, but would stand in front of the mirror, combing her hair. At night, however, the mirror became her obsession, her face disappeared, and the woman was terror-struck.
    Gaby began coming into her son’s room almost every night, would wake him and ask him questions, claiming that all she could see in the mirror was a white spot.
    â€œMy face has become a white spot. Oh my God, that means I’m going to die.”
    And the fear set in.
    The fear led Yalo to agree to run away to Paris with Tony.
    â€œI went with Tony. Yes, we robbed the barracks, and left.”
    However, the interrogator did not believe a word of what he said, so how could he tell him about his mother?
    Why had his mother said that he had fled Beirut?
    The interrogator said that his mother had told him everything, but he did not divulge what that was. So, what could she possibly have said when she did not know anything, indeed when there was nothing to know? And what did this man want, bathed in sunlight, blocked from Yalo’s closed eyes?
    â€œYes, sir, I confess that I raped her.”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œYes, yes, I took money from her.”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œYes, I called her every day.”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œYes, I used to wait for her below her house, and then when she left I’d follow her to work, and wait, and then follow her home.”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œNo, I wanted her to see me, I did not hide. I wanted her to know.”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œI was wrong, yes, but she was wrong, too. Why did she come to Ballouna with that man who left her and ran away like a rabbit?”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œMen are all afraid. Women are braver than men, sir, I saw then, how they abandon the women as soon as they catch sight of my rifle. Women are different. No, no, I did not rape her because I am a coward. Just as you say, sir, just as you say.”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œI am ready to confess to everything I’ve done.”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œThat’s untrue, love killed me and disgraced me and humiliated me, if it hadn’t been for love, if she hadn’t known that I loved her, she wouldn’t have come and complained about me.”
    â€œ. . .”
    â€œSir, it never occurred to me. She made me feel that there was hope. I wanted her, I don’t know what I wanted from her, she’s the one who made me feel that way.”
    Yalo smiled.
    He said nothing, but he smiled at the thought that he was on the verge of saying these things. These things could never be said in an interrogation, but he said them to himself.
    Tony got angry and asked him about so many things, and Yalo replied that he had already