Trapped by Alexandra Karb

Author:Alexandra Karb
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771833493
Publisher: Guernica Editions
Published: 2019-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Montreal — Beginnings and Disappointments

IWAS TO start my first position as a researcher in physiology at one of the renowned McGill medical research centres in the first week in August. I would also have university teaching duties, and I looked forward to teaching the students I knew I would find there.

Leaving Toronto was bittersweet. Even though the student families in our housing complex all left eventually, both Tareq and I would miss the friends we had made who were still there. Sara and Rania also had to say goodbye to many dear friends and classmates. The professors, staff, and other students of the department organized a goodbye party for us. There had been many long nights and days of hard work for me, but also lots of fun times and camaraderie. But the Montreal area was home to me, and my brother Philip and his family were my only relatives left in North America.

We sold our furniture to other incoming students and packed the remainder of our belongings into a trailer, which Tareq hitched to our green station wagon. We intended to drive to Montreal. The following morning we got up at dawn and carried the drowsy children into the station wagon. In those days before most of us knew anything of child safety seats, we settled Sara and Rania into the blankets and pillows in the back seat, where they had some games and books to amuse themselves. I held baby Maysun in my arms most of the way.

Later that afternoon we pulled into Saint Leonard, a residential section of Montreal, where my former sister-in-law Sophia lived with her new partner, Bobby. We stayed with them a few days, while we found an apartment to rent nearby.

I reported to work at the McGill Research Centre and Sara and Rania went to the nearby school. Tareq would stay home with Maysun until he found work.

Tareq was a fun daddy to a baby and toddler. He would get on all fours next to Maysun, stacking blocks, playing peek-a-boo, and acting as silly as babies love adults to be. He also took Maysun on outings in her stroller to a nearby playground and mall. When Sara and Rania came home from school, he’d ask them about what happened at school, what they learned, but also whether they made friends. Although he made clear to them that they could only have girlfriends, their friends were all welcome at our house, and Tareq would play games with them and entertain them, so that children loved coming to our home. I was happy that my children now had a seemingly normal childhood.

Nevertheless Tareq was starting to show himself as a strict disciplinarian regarding schoolwork. He expected the girls to do their homework immediately after returning from school. Both were good students and loved school, but I started to worry when Tareq berated them for bringing home some B grades instead of straight A’s. I remembered how he had yelled at his nieces in the village when they wanted to play, and now he was using the same tactics on his own daughters.

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