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zaher omareen
the pomegranates he was
going to get from the Salim
family in Hamadia, so that
his little boy Salah wouldn’t
be born with a pomegranate
birthmark on his body.
Well, they tried everything
they could think of to
convince him not to go,
they really grappled with
him about it every which
way – but he was he was
ut ter ly stubborn, to the
end, and also he really lost
his manners, he got totally
unbearable, you know,
shout ing and swear ing ,
insulting people. We were
afraid that the night patrol
would hear the commotion
– and we had three men
hidden in our house, you
know, we had to be careful
not to cause ourselves an
even bigger problem by
trying to solve this one.
So in the end your uncles
had to let him go. He broke
away from them and ran
of f towards Hamadia, and
Om Salah went back to her
house crying and wailing and
cursing Abu Pomegranate
and the day she’d conceived
a child with him.
–So did he bring her the
pomegranates then?
–Wha t pomeg r ana t e s ,
son? He never came back
at all, with or without any
pomegranates! That night
was the last we ever saw
of him. Some people say
that he was taken away
with the group who were
executed against the wall
of the old French Palace;
others say a sniper got him
near the Roman arches
and his body was dumped
in the Orontes; and other
people say he was taken
to Tadmor prison, and died