Shumaisi by al-Hamad Turki; Starkey Paul;

Author:al-Hamad, Turki; Starkey, Paul;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saqi

27

• When he went back to Abd al-Karim’s house in the afternoon, all his old friends were there except Adnan. They embraced warmly. The chat centred on Hisham’s moustache, with a lot of ribald comments about why he’d suddenly decided to grow it. He thought at first that Abd al-Karim must have passed on some of what he’d told him that morning – Abd al-Karim had been known to be indiscreet in the past. But he soon realised that his suspicions were unfounded and that it was just a bit of fun. He asked after Adnan, and Abd al-Karim told him he’d sent his younger brother out to get everyone, but Adnan hadn’t appeared.

Nothing about the group had changed. The topics of conversation were the same and the repartee almost the same. He felt a new kind of boredom creep over him. Was this what he had been pining for all that time in Riyadh? Spending time with this gang had once been the most delightful thing in Hisham’s world. So why was he so bored today, when he’d hardly been with them for ten minutes? He felt deathly silent in the midst of this group of people who seemed strangers to him. Was this the ‘world of innocence’ he had felt guilty about, when he had smashed its ideals and ripped off the veils of its innocence? He looked around at his friends all sipping their tea and laughing, envying them their composure and innocence. But he didn’t want to go back to their world – and couldn’t even if he wanted to. He had discovered new worlds of excitement – worlds of fear, unease and pleasure – and it wouldn’t be easy for him to return to the innocent world his friends still lived in. These worlds might be wicked by his mother’s standards and the standards of the innocent world in which this gang lived, but they’d become an indispensable part of his life. Without them, his life would be tasteless, colourless, devoid of smell. These guys hadn’t tasted women, their heads hadn’t known drink, they had not experienced the thrill of adventure and the fear of the unknown. Was anyone who hadn’t passed through this tunnel of pleasure and fear really living life? It might all be a mistake, but what was life’s pleasure without mistakes? A mistake meant experience, and experience meant freedom of choice, and the whole of life consisted of moments of choice and rebellion. Those beautiful, innocent days in the past might have been blameless, they might have been pure happiness, but it was a routine happiness, a tune played on one string. How could one know pleasure without pain, or know error without the sharp bite of sin and the lashes of guilt? How could one feel life’s warmth without the restlessness of adventure and the desire to plunge into the unknown? Hisham had uncovered new worlds, making it impossible for him to return to his old world. A learned man could not become ignorant again, even should he want to.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.