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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781467070133 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 03/26/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 108 |
| File size: | 436 KB |
Read an Excerpt
Face Off
July 13By A.K
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 A.KAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4670-7015-7
Chapter One
At the beginning of the end, on the day that would seal the completion of Ahmed's life, his friend came to him and said, "I'll introduce you to someone whose sister you will find attractive and who could be a mother to your children." Ahmed was hesitant, but he went along. They visited the home of the beautiful lady, described to Ahmed as the perfect match. Ahmed and his friend were welcomed with an open heart and were provided with delicious foods. He could not enter the home of his wife-to-be, so he obliged himself to bring a gift for her mother. Gold nickels and hand bracelets and a few thousands Somali shillings; their value was less than three hundred US dollars. His marriage was fixed to Sara with her light, beautiful skin, medium size, long hair, and large eyes. Ahmed, who was thirty when he wed Sara, was neither rich nor poor; he made his living as a teacher of young children to whom he taught math and Arabic. Being a teacher wasn't enough to raise a family. What he earned could pay for their livelihood but allowed nothing for saving, vocations, or a retirement plan.As time went on, he learned many were traveling to Saudi Arabia for work. But little did he know that would cost him more than he earned in his paycheck. The difficulty was not having enough money, but the government was so corrupt that individuals who were known to be tribesmen were given visas. Tribesmen have complete loyalty to one another, even if the other is wrong. Even though Ahmed belonged to a tribe, his loyalty was not with his tribesmen; rather, his loyalty was to Islam. A devotee like Ahmed knew that if there is a will, there is a way, and he would find one. Ahmed didn't have to bribe anyone, nor did he spend a penny to get his visa to work in Saudi Arabia. During prayer time, Ahmed was among the congregation. When prayer was over and he was walking back home, a neighbor who recognized him called him by name. "Ahmed, how are things going?" Ahmed said, "Things are great, but I have been trying to go to Saudi, and I am unable to get visa at the moment. No one is taking my papers, nor am I being given any opportunity to talk or make an appointment to come back to have my papers processed." The man said, "I'll make it happen for you; just come to the embassy" So it happened. From among the crowds who lined up at the embassy, Ahmed was handpicked and escorted inside the embassy to get his papers processed. Ahmed was going to Saudi Arabia, leaving behind his wife, his young boy, and his unborn baby boy.
In Saudi, he shared a room with fifteen others. His routine of devotion to his creator didn't change. He would wake up in the middle of the night and pray. The kind of work he did was labor, but that didn't matter because the sole purpose of doing it was for his family, not for himself—a selfless intention. When Ahmed was young, he had lost all of his siblings due to sickness; he was his father's last surviving child. When Ahmed's eldest brother died, he left behind a wife, two boys, and two daughters, leaving Ahmed to look after his brother's heir at an early age. The oldest nephew was ten years younger than Ahmed, making Ahmed more like an older brother to his nephew.
Sara gave birth a couple of months after the departure of Ahmed; she was strong, dedicated, and had developed connections soon after giving birth. She became a businesswoman. She delivered clothing to stores and homes that she could reach. Her earnings were based on the dozens she sold. She says, "My third child was a blessing or a sign," because her earnings were not restricted to the income of her husband, a 180-degree change.
At the time of her wedding to Ahmed, people of her tribe were outraged and in complete disapproval of it. It wasn't because she was young and beautifully wedded; it was because Ahmed was of a different tribe, and he didn't have a load of money. Sara's father died when she was a small child; the only ones who were there to give her away in marriage were her brothers and mainly her mom, Amina, the grandmother of Ahmed's children. Relatives told Amina that if her husband was alive, she wouldn't have done what she did. Amina stood firmly against them because she saw Ahmed as a good man, a noble one, just as her husband had been. As for Sara's brothers, they were the first to meet Ahmed, and they brought him home with open hearts. They approved of him as the right man for their sister.
Ahmed reached his fourth year in Saudi Arabia, and he hadn't seen his wife or children. His third child, whom, when Ahmed left, was in the womb of his mother, was also four years old. After four years of enduring laborious work, Ahmed decided it was time to visit home. Ahmed's third child was told for the first time by a lady in the house next to them, "That man who is walking this way is your father." The child points and asks, "That man?" "Yes, that man" The boy refuses to believe it, because he has never seen such a man come to their house. The hot air and heat of Saudi Arabia made Ahmed a little darker then he was normally. Maybe it was the duty that made him worry or maybe the heaviness of the responsibility; either way, he wasn't as light as Sara. Ahmed hugged his third child, named AK, kissed him and picked him up in his arms. Still the kid was not convinced that this man was actually his only father. Ahmed was treated to homemade food by his beautiful wife, and his kids whom he hadn't seen for ages were around him.
AK was born in 1984. He remembers vividly the first time he met Ahmed. He wondered why Ahmed's children were light skinned and why Ahmed was dark. AK would sneak around the house and when called, he would hide himself away. Ahmed's third child questioned, "Why is this man in our house?" Ahmed's stay came to an end after few months, and later Sara discovered she was pregnant and was to have a baby boy after AK.
Sara tells about the dream she had before she became pregnant. She says, "I had a dream of a man who said to me, 'You'll have a boy child, and he is a trouble maker, but be patient with him.'" So he was trouble. AK broke his arm when he fell down from a tree. He went under the tree to grab his sandals, was in a state of dizziness and went in circles, and then bumped into the tree with the arm he had broken, fell on the ground, got up, and picked up his sandals. Every child is stupid at one point—why would he go under the tree to grab his sandals, especially after he just broke his arm? That wasn't the case; he didn't feel the pain. He didn't realize he had just broken his arm. One of the neighbors saw AK and brought him home to his mom, who was praying at the time when AK was outside with other kids playing. She didn't even finish her prayer; she rushed him to the hospital. AK's hand had to be stretched out to get the bone back in place. He cried an awful cry, and his eyes were full of tears he never expected. The cast irritated AK so much that he used to bang it against any hard concrete surface. At night he would sleep over it. After the cast was taken off, the look on his face showed how displeased he was with the discoloring and smell of his hand. Yet he seemed curious, even though the pain of his newly healed hand continued for some time. AK was never far from Ahmed and remembers very well his first gift from his father. At least he thinks it's the first. His father gave him some currency, and he never told anyone. AK was one of those people who remembered his youth. AK used to sell peanut butter at the instructions of his mother. She told him, "Do not take the large twenty bills." But he did, and those bills were of less value and no one accepted them. His mom was unhappy with him; he had caused her a loss.
Ahmed was sent back to Somalia for living in Saudi Arabia illegally, and a few months later, a civil war of Somalia took place, and Sara gave birth to a baby girl. She prayed that God would give her a baby girl, and her prayers were answered, not just once but three times.
The first bang happened while AK was at school, and the sight of the missile made him forget everything. At that moment, the school principal announced that school was closed and everyone should go home. AK received one other instruction. His brother told him, "Go home and tell mom I'll be there later." No one expected that later would turn into hours, and AK's mom went into an extreme worry, an anxiety that could only be alleviated by looking at her child's face, which she hasn't seen for hours. The war had already begun by the border; it just hadn't fully reached AK's hometown. The men in uniform turned against each other, and the police turned against civilians. No one was left untouched. One of Sara's brothers worked for the US Embassy and was asked if he and his family wanted to go to the United States, but they refused to leave. He felt things would cool down, but little did he and Ahmed know that it was just the beginning of all-out destruction. To flee from the war zone, Ahmed took his family to where he was born and brought up.
Ahmed was born in 1945 in Marka, Somalia. It is a beautiful city that is sandy, with salty waters and a beautiful blue ocean. AK remembers they lost everything except hope. AK's family lost birth certificates, photos, and other important documents. When the UN processed a lot of Somali immigrants who came to the United States, those immigrants who couldn't prove their birth date were given January 1 as their birth date, to make the process easier. Now many people's birth dates are January 1, as if they are all twins with the same father and mother, and maybe they are after all.
In one of the old photos of his uncle's wedding day, AK was sitting right in the middle among the crowds that gathered for the wedding, drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola. All that was gone and more. No one knows where they went; they just vanished. AK's first time ever to ride a bike was on a bike that had three wheels; he loved it and he would ride it all day and night. It didn't last; it vanished just like the rest of the things in the life of AK disappeared.
As the war hit the cities, towns, and villages, and the buildings tore into pieces, the scarring of families took its toll on everyone. Sara had three sisters and two brothers; she later found that one of her sisters still remained in Mogadishu, while the other two went as far as Kenya and Yemen. Sara and Ahmed came back to live in Mogadishu, the most dangerous city on the planet. Tribesmen were on the hunt; his wife continued to pressure him to leave Mogadishu and the country itself, but he wouldn't, until one day when he went to sell the thermostat to buy food for his children. That never happened, because the thermostat was stripped from him; they shot him, and the bullet went through the side of his garment and missed his body with their final attempt to take away the last thing he hoped for: food for his family. They hit him with the bottom of their pistol on the back of his head. Every now and then, he would complain about the injury he received that day. He bled and was saved by a pharmacist who insisted on treating him, even though the thought of receiving free care left him with an unsettled mind. After learning about it, AK visited Ahmed at the Mosque, and he watched him from a distance.
AK recalls other times when Ahmed and his sons were with him. Ahmed and his sons were on their way back home from the market when a man met them. He informed them to be careful because there were guys out there with guns who were roping. The unfortunate thing was that they couldn't keep watch, because that was the only way back home. Ahmed bravely told his children, "Let's go," and of course they were stopped. Each of his children had bread with a sweet substance inside made of pure sugar. Little did they know that these were monsters who left nothing untouched. The younger of Ahmed's children said, "Am fasting" One of them took his bread. He bit half of it as he held the other half in his hand and chewed, but he couldn't swallow. The older one showed a brave heart but soon found himself with a gun at his belly. Lucky was he, his father was there to prevent his own death. And the youngest one was utterly speechless. He stood there, holding his bread with both his hands, his mouth open in shock. The men turned against each other, not knowing what to do with Ahmed and his children. The men said to each other at gun point, "If you eat that half, I'll shoot you." He wouldn't dare eat it. They turned to Ahmed and told him, "Leave and don't look back."
AK knew Ahmed, and during the war in Somalia, AK saw Ahmed being violated but couldn't do anything except watch. He watched as Ahmed tried to protect and preserve the only beans he had for dinner for his family. Ahmed wouldn't give it up. The violator surprised him and said, "Give it up?" Ahmed said, "You can take it over my dead body." One of Ahmed's children was with him and cried at the scene as his father was struggling to prevent the theft so they could have something to eat for the night. Finally, the violator said, "Go away. You are something else."
Pressure mounted on Ahmed. Finally with pressure from Sara, neighbors, friends, and relatives, Ahmed agreed to leave Somalia for good. AK didn't see the departure of Ahmed from Somalia to Kenya. He was out there playing hide and seek with other kids. He was never told Ahmed was leaving the city; he just happened to stop seeing him. Sara feared for Ahmed's life. She was left with five children. For her own safety, she didn't come out of the house. Her oldest son and AK used to go out and help her fulfill her needs for her home, where it was dark by day and night. At the time Ahmed left, Sara had her second baby girl. Sometimes she had to place her hand in the baby's mouth so intruders walking around the area would not hear her cry.
In 1993, the UN (United Nations) and the United States Army arrived in Somalia to do humanitarian works and to get rid of the warlords. AK witnessed the biggest organized army of international forces and humanitarian aid he had ever seen. They marched in the hundreds and thousands right around his home. Every morning, AK would go to one of the UN centers to receive oatmeal. His mother hardly ate three meals a day. AK was watching a crowd in line for food. They were to receive rice, flour, and oil. A young man tried to force himself ahead of the crowd and when the security tried to stop him, he wouldn't stop, so they fired a shot. Being so close to gunfire was never a surprise. The unfortunate thing was that it struck the leg of an innocent man, and the guilty man got away. AK saw the blood and the leg in two pieces, as the young man screamed, "My leg!" Somehow that never changed him to have fear of death.
A young lad came from another town; he and a relative lady of his were fond of each other. They came to Sara to borrow the wheelbarrow from her. Sara noticed she was all dressed up and looking beautiful. She asked, "Why are you dressed up today?" She said, "I am going to get water." but at the end of the day, they were dead. The young lad and the girl went together to get water for their family but were struck by a missile that landed feet away, cutting her neck and the young lad's belly to pieces. AK heard the last of her words, "Fix my neck." And she passed away right there and then.
Sara decided to take her children to another city—Afgoye, where her near relatives lived—where she felt as though her family would be safe. As Sara traveled to Afgoye, it became a quest for herself and her children to safeguard against the enemy and starvation. Her children lacked the daily nutrition intake; one of them was at the brink of death. Her oldest daughter got extremely sick with an illness that no one understood. Sara was ready to bury her, but not while her baby still breathed. One of Sara's brothers insisted she would not make it to Afgoye; however, the oldest daughter survived, and they all arrived safely in Afgoye. Afgoye was a city of clay—muddy and windy. Its people had a funny accent: Sara's children had the most fun playing with chickens, going to the farm, and picking corn and watermelon. Swimming in the nearby river brought joy, happiness, and safety, but she knew she couldn't stay there forever.
After living in Afgoye for several months, the family heard rumors that Mogadishu was safe. Upon hearing Mogadishu was safe and the war was over, Sara and her children boarded the bus. However, it was just a rumor, and things had actually gotten worse. Upon arriving in Mogadishu, Sara decided to go to her sister, the only sister who was left in town. Sara knew that she couldn't live off her sister. She started to deliver cloth to the stores and homes in a country torn by war. Her sister advised her not to go, but she did and took one of the elder sons to accompany her.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Face Off by A.K Copyright © 2012 by A.K. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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