True Arab Love by Issa J. Boullata

Author:Issa J. Boullata
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Linda Leith Publishing
Published: 2016-04-16T01:35:09+00:00

The situation was approaching a crisis. When Randa, at the end of her second year of teaching, told him she was going back to university to study for a PhD, he hit the roof.

“A PhD requires at least five years of study and research, perhaps more,” he thundered. “Do you think we need that?”

“I’ll be much happier with a PhD and with a better teaching position at a college,” she ventured.

“But our family, our son, our needs—these cannot be put on hold for so long, Randa.”

“They don’t need to be.”

“Do you think Mark Antony or I enjoyed being by ourselves when you were busy doing your MA? And do you think we’ve liked it when you’ve been busy teaching?”

“I’m telling you, Gaby, I’m going to do a PhD,” Randa said firmly.

Mark Antony listened, then went upstairs to his room to be alone with a picture of Alexa and his thoughts.

Gaby loved Randa no less, even when she was busy with her PhD studies. But he gradually withdrew from her life. He soon withdrew from his son’s life and stopped giving him those talks, which Mark Antony liked, about his own teenage experiences.

People began to notice that Gaby was seen less and less at social events, and was becoming a recluse. This affected his responsibilities at Dupont. He was eventually asked to resign, and received a severance package from the company after appearing before a medical board. Even when Randa invited some of his and her friends to celebrate his birthday or some other occasion, he would sit in silence like a zombie. The only word he would utter in response to any remark or question was “Alexandria!”

Randa asked him to seek psychiatric help, but he wouldn’t hear of it. One day, he disappeared and left a note saying he had returned to Alexandria, but he left no address. Randa’s efforts to locate him were in vain. There was no trace of him in Alexandria, and his parents, who had moved to Vancouver, knew nothing of his whereabouts. Mark Antony was disturbed. Was his mother responsible for his father’s condition? What was he to do? Should he keep up his relationship with Alexa? How and where could he look for his father? Should he give his mother more time and attention? He was confused.

He was only seventeen, and life seemed so complicated. There were urges within his body, thoughts in his mind, feelings in his heart. He could not think straight, and he could not understand how his mother was able to concentrate and pass her comprehensive doctoral examinations under the circumstances. Perhaps he should become like her, close himself off from the outside world and focus on his studies. But there were so many beautiful things in the outside world, things to do, things to see, things to enjoy. And there was Alexa.

Randa was determined to complete her PhD by writing her dissertation within one year of passing her doctoral examinations. She knew this was a tall order, but she also knew she could do it if she put her mind to it.

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