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tales of orontes river
him this major news. Well,
the bloke was overcome,
and he f lipped out, basically
– he got so carried away
that he bought two giant
trays of Nightingale Nest
pastries and shared them
out among the neighbours,
even though he was really up
against it f inancially – yeah,
they were absolutely dir t
poor, that family. I swear
to God, the way Salamu
treated Om Salah was so
indulgent – we’d never seen
anything like it. I remember
seeing him – your grandad’s
roof overlooked theirs, you
see? – so in the worst days
of deep-frozen midwinter
your aunties and I used to
see Salamu up on his roof,
standing on one of those
lit tle bathing stools from
the hammam – cos he was
so short! – and hanging out
the washing, in case his wife
got a chill out there. And
his wife didn’t need to ask
twice for anything, that ’s
for sure!
–Right, and so then what
happened?
–Wel l , Om Salah got a
craving for pomegranates.
And you should ’ve seen
how Salamu ran around
like a maniac getting those
pomegr ana tes for h i s
pregnant wife. Well, to cut
a long story short, the dark
Events started – and bless
you, may your eyes only
ever see bright light, son.
Anyone who was able to run
away from the soldiers f led,
and anyone who couldn’t
get away was mowed down
in front of their family, or—
Well, unmentionable f ilthy
things were done, ya lateef
. . . The soldiers’d storm the
houses and smash and loot