The Jewish Neighbor by A.M. Khalifa

Author:A.M. Khalifa [Khalifa, A.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

More time passed and the absurdity of the conspiracy theory she had spun about Felix being a Mossad agent felt more shameful than credible. The more she thought about what he had done for her, and how she had behaved in return, the more her insides were corroded by a lethal combination of shame and guilt.

Then one day she looked herself in the mirror and had an epiphany as clear as the reflection of her face in the Yarmouk River on a glorious summer day. Umayma’s reaction to Felix was every bit as despicable as the two men who had tried to rape her. She had judged him and condemned him based solely on her preconceived notions of his faith and heritage. She had treated Felix with utter contempt. And wasn’t that exactly what these two men had done to me?

Islam regarded Jews as descendants of the same patriarch, Abraham, and referred to them as people of the book, to be protected and respected. Muslims believed God had sent his revelation first to the Jews through Moses, and hence there was an important link between Judaism and their faith.

Something else continued to puzzle her about her encounter with Felix. When he had rescued her, her head scarf had been pulled away from her by her attacker. But she had woken up on Felix’s couch with the scarf neatly tied on her head. Felix had thought about what the veil meant to her, and how she wouldn’t have wanted a man other than her husband to see her hair exposed. Even as she lay unconscious at his mercy, he had the decency, even humanity, to respect her beliefs and traditions. Precisely what sort of ‘enemy’ behaves like that, Umayma? What sort of ‘heathen’ goes to so much trouble? Her own husband, a devout and practicing Muslim, had shown no such consideration for her well being.

Felix’s religion began to matter even less in Umayma’s mind, and she started thinking of him simply as a man. One she was rather attracted to. His understated masculinity and his magnetic presence had made her quiver. Still makes her quiver. The memory of him squatting on the floor to put her shoes back on so she wouldn’t hurt her ribs played vividly in her mind. And when his fingers first touched the soles of her feet, those tiny electric waves of pleasure travelling through her tired, abused body, had reignited a shimmer of desire in her. Even when she had stepped out of her element and did something sexually forthcoming with her feet, there was nothing dirty about how he reacted. He hadn’t behaved like any other man she knew who would have wasted no time to take advantage of her yearning and show of weakness. With little words and fewer actions, Felix had shown her what a real man looks like. Protecting and caring for a woman. She craved his orbit. A chance to go back in time and relive that critical moment when he revealed he was Jewish.

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