Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

tales of orontes river

freaky one, that one!’ – it was one of his catchphrases – and he understood straight away that it applied to Abu Ahmed. And I can tell you, Abu Ahmed certainly got straight to the point – he barked at the doctor: ‘Before you go in there and see my woman I want you to become her blood brother because of halal and haram.’ Doctor Mukhtar just nodded, but his eyes were almost popping out of his head with the effort of suppressing his rage and contempt for this nonsense. He was a God- fearing man, but, in another of his frequently repeated catchphrases, ‘nonsense and I are two parallel lines that never intersect – and if they ever do, then God help us all.’ No, he didn’t suffer fools, that man, that’s for sure! So anyway, Dr Mukhtar, your granny and Om Ahmed’s

daughter all went off to deliver Om Ahmed’s baby. Once Om Ahmed had got herself appropriately covered and veiled, with her daughter’s help, your granny was the first to go into the room. As she went in she handed the doctor a knife. ‘What’s this for?’ he said. ‘Are we planning to slaughter the woman, or deliver her baby?’ ‘It’s so you can cut your thumb, and become blood kin with Om Ahmed.’ ‘I’ll do it in a minute,’ said the doctor, ‘let’s just see what’s going on in there first – the woman’s roaring her head off in agony right now: do you really think this is the right moment for that?’ Your granny could tell the doctor was irritated, and hearing the blood-curdling noises Om Ahmed was belting out she realised she’d better draw the line there, and she

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