WHO DREW A TREE
THEN WENT FOR SLEEP
BY
IBRAHIM ALNAJMI
-( He is eccentric boy )
-( deals with things in ways none of his age can do )
-( He caught by mania )
-( The devil knew where to find itself. )
Thus they were babbling about him .He was the only one she had following years of supplication to Allah, torture and bitterness of wait, and although she tried not to pay attention to all that, but she found herself every time flaring up with rage saying ( Fool ! they’re hanging around and doing nothing, but tattling and kicking the others )
Her husband spared no time to cool her down, nevertheless a feeling of fright adhered to her about the boy, and here she is still remembering how much and long years she spent between the physicians and the spiritual jurists wished for having a baby, by the window sitting recalling his birthday : A wonderful day it was, night and the rain is thread from the heaven, and hardly come to her ears clamor of some women of her relatives ( Waau, O Allah ! just cast a look at him, how beautiful he is ) One of them has said ( Prophet face he’d. )
-( Say the name of Allah ) Another one said moving her aside gently, added that the mother told her that she didn’t stop dreaming of the birds ( Green, warbling and their wings of light ) She explained, doing up the pillow under the head of the mother who was watching almost ” half absent ” the gathered women around her ( Angle ! ) One was saying, splashing some water on the mother’s face ( praise be to Allah for your safety ! ) while another one rested the baby in the arms of mother who hugged him, buried her face in him, swimming in endless spaces of lights and love and beauty and….
2
-( Do you hearing what he’s saying?)
The husband says ( says it had been more better if you brought me a book instead of gun )
-( Ha . haa ! ) She said ( But he didn’t tell you his wish ) and she told him how whenever she asked him what he would like to be he told her wants to be engineer to teach the farmers how they cover the land with the greenness in order not to come back the heavy shoes then cover it with the mines )
He smiled and played with the hair of the boy saying ( Come on then, Mr. Engineer ) and he commenced giving him some help for his work while the mother sat to her sewing machine, hoping to finish the boy suit as the feast on the doors :
-( Dad ?)
-( Yeas, dear)
-( Do you know what my grandfather was saying ?)
-( ……… )
-( The land for Allah and we’re His servants )
-( It’s true, we just use of it, exchange it, today for us and tomorrow for others )
-( But some wanted it only for themselves, what should we suppose to call them, pa.? )
-( …………)
-( Robbers ?! )
-( You can say that )
-( And …. )
-( and what else?)
-( The trees… why they grow and not die ? ) .
Just then the father’s eyes abounded with luster almost not void of admiration, and no sign of excitement seemed upon him for he knows the great abiding liking of his boy with the trees and not forgotten yet how he was one day shaking and crying in his bed until the morning, cursing the one he saw cutting off the wood trees. It was unforgettable day pushed him to fill the walls, the doors, the books and the school benches with the trees and to avoid the response he picked one of his paintings saying ( Ooh, what’s this ? good boy, you still drawing the trees then ! they’re beautiful indeed )
-( Okay , mama gets the answer, ) The boy said casting challenge look at his father and then pointed at his mama ( This is tree and you are the fruit )
that may steal him of his study )
The father smiled and carried on Good boy, the trees are life, the sun , the rivers and ) At that moment the boy stood up crying loudly ( Viva ! Viva the trees, long live, long live the trees ! )
3
It was night and the city is swimming in world of lights and joy ( I thought it bride ! ) that pilot had announced, damned himself , and back to throw his bombs in the sea . Night it was as the city breathing grass, love poems and aspirations for bright and happy coming day, beautiful and laying down in the swing of moon resting its silky hair over the sea surface, blessed the brilliant colors of dreams in the whole world where the things like to live in lasting love and peace ( The one couldn’t believe his eyes) The father says ( endless world of colors and lights and music, Oh god, undoubtedly the things got their own souls that we’re not conscious of them ) and then he stopped sending deep sigh and vanished into far dreams. The mother was watching her husband without uttering a word , persevering leaning on her sewing machine, and as soon as he came back from the world of his dreams he found the boy sleeping face down and came close to him saying ( The boy is tree of the trees , look at him how he drew a tree and went to sleep )
The mother has said when she was about to close the window ( We take him to the bed then ) Ten past two morning and everybody was out, un uproar, smoke and red sky and …..
4
Here are his steps, his smell, here is where he was painting and vanishing in the heat of color and its glow, oh, boy, don’t be afraid, they have gone, fled and never be here again. Killers! Didn’t they have kids? Show me your suit , oh, no doubt that you will like it , it’s beautiful, wanna to fix it ? no, it’s for the coming feast ) That was what his mother was repeating continuously after his death and certainly she will become remembering him ever and forever, glowing, painting his trees and dreaming of the suit of feast.
From the activities of literary festival with the Libyan writers : Fouad Kabbazi and Radwan Abu Shweisheh which held in Republic of Malta in 1987.