The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction by Denys Johnson-Davies

Author:Denys Johnson-Davies [Johnson-Davies, Denys]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-48148-1
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2006-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Betool Khedairi

(b. 1965)

IRAQ

Betool Khedairi was born in Baghdad to an Iraqi father and Scottish mother, and now lives in Amman, Jordan. She took a degree in French literature and then divided her time among Iraq, Jordan, and the United Kingdom. Her novel A Sky So Close, excerpted below, was published in Lebanon in 1999. Its narrator, growing up between two cultures, feels that she belongs neither to Baghdad nor to England.

FROM A Sky So Close

I say goodbye to my mother at sundown from the back door, when she hears the tooting of David and Millie’s car horn. She walks out on tiptoe, trying to stop her high heels from sinking into the mud pillows where you had planted some mint seedlings that morning. You enjoy the leaves with your cup of tea, or on a slice of the local white cheese. I watch their greeting ritual from where I’m standing by the garden tap. The car stops, David gets out, giving my mother a hug and a wide smile. Millie gets out of the front seat quickly, vacating it for my mother, then takes up her place in the back seat quite happily. Another brief hug before the car moves off. A quick glance backward from my mother. She looks toward me, but doesn’t see me.

I spend Friday finishing my school homework. I then clean my glass fish tank and change its water. I watch the dancing many-colored, scaly creatures inside it. I speak to them but get no reply. Eyes without lashes stare back at me through the glass; they’re continuously sending out kisses and bubbles. We had river fish and rice for lunch. In the afternoon depression sets in, until we dispel it with the flavorings game.

Together we prepare a bag of popcorn and take it up to your room. You say to me:

—Today we’ll be working only with colors, which is why I allowed you to eat the popcorn, as its salty taste would spoil your ability to pick out the various flavors. This week I received a contract from a new company that produces paints and emulsions. They want to compete in the local market and have asked me to come up with unusual and exotic names for them, and to give them suggestions for how to promote their products. I want you to help me. Today we need to let our imagination go free, to the end of the rainbow.

—What about tasting the products? I’ve been looking forward to that all week!

—There are many projects, my little one, and there will be a lot of that in the weeks to come. Now, let us start work.

You take out the largest collection of colored squares I’ve seen in my life. Meters of samples, shades that can’t be imagined. Fluorescent ribbons, shiny ones, and others with rough surfaces wait for us to give them names. Rectangles, triangles, and circles of color compete in the degree of their purity. We spread them out on the floor in your room and start with the most appealing ones.

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