HWJN (English 2nd Edition) (4 page)

“I’m okay,” she responded with a slight laugh.

“I like your Jinni. He’s so cute!” said Areej.

“Okay, so who of us do you hate the most?”
Raghad went on.

“E Y A D.”
I moved the ring without thinking

“Eyad?
You know Eyad?” asked Sawsan.

I moved the ring to “Yes.”

What had I done? I was so stupid! I’d just admitted my love to Sawsan, and my jealousy of Eyad! I was frightening the poor girl. This was enough. I moved the ring and hovered over “Goodbye.”

Sawsan responded faintly, “Goodbye.”

The ring stopped, and I left the room in a hurry, as if I were afraid that Sawsan might see the look on my face. She kept staring at the window after I left. I had gone too far this time. I’d crossed the line, and I was angry at myself for being so reckless. But, I had to admit, I also felt a joy I had never felt before—the joy of telling Sawsan I was near her, that I had feelings for her…and that I was jealous. At least I’d let her know I existed. That was enough for me!

In the yard I found my mother standing in front of me, her face twisted with anger and sadness. “Hawjan, you disobeyed me! You disobeyed me!”

She vanished without giving me a chance to speak. Even if she had, I would not have found the words to justify my disobeying her when she’d made it clear to me that I should stay away from Sawsan.

(5)

Xanam

I
t was a very tough and heavy period. Mother would not talk to me, and I did not dare get close to Sawsan again. My life was split between home and work. I kissed Mother’s forehead every day, and still she would not look at me. I was sure her good, sweet heart would give in eventually, but it just wasn’t happening fast enough.

One day I came home from work and, as usual, went to kiss her forehead, but found her just sitting there looking at nothing. I asked her, “Mother? What happened?”

She did not answer, and she did not move. I repeated my question.

“Mother?
What’s wrong? Did something happen to Grandpa?”

She answered in a short, worried tone: “Xanam.”

“Xanam? Son of Uncle Santool? What about him?”

“Your cousin Xanam was here! He asked about you, and about your grandfather!”

Xanam was the worst of my cousins. A devil in the service of sorcerers and the worshippers of Satan! He lived a luxurious life and cared about no one except for himself. What would he want of me?

Mother pulled me out of my thoughts. “He insisted that you must go to him. He said it is urgent.”

“I should go to him? No way will I set a foot in Qummah after what happened to father. There is nothing between Xanam and me.”

I ignored the topic. I had enough issues. But at least he’d gotten Mother to talk to me.

A few more boring, routine days went by, then one day I was surprised by a black cat waiting for me in the yard. He attacked me before I could figure out what was going on, and turned into my cousin Xanam.

“Playing hard to get?” he asked. “You think I cannot get to you?”

“Xanam? What brings you here? What do you want from me?”

“Shame on you!
Is this any way to great your cousin? Is this how your religious father raised you?”

“If you ever talk of Father again, I will kill you!” I said while removing has hand from my shoulder.

He threw me across the yard with ease, then came close and said, “I’ll be more civilized than you and not respond to that insult. Just remember I can throw you to a place where no one will find you!”

“You’re a Marid now. True?”

“Almost. I’ll be an Efreet with your help. Of course I will pay you for your efforts.”

An Efreet is a Jinni who has physical material powers. He can control everything and can take forms. If the Efreet was a devil, he is called a Marid. And, as you can expect, they are not all the same. Stronger Marids can perform harder tasks, thus making more money.

I felt the weight of the world on my belly as Xanam stepped on me, making it harder for me to breathe. He continued without looking at me; he looked instead at Sawsan’s window and said with total indifference, “Didn’t your Human masters teach you love is blind? And for love there must be sacrifices?”

I understood he was hinting at my love for Sawsan. I tried to release myself from him as I said, “Don’t you dare—”

“Do not talk, you humanized fool! In short you either sacrifice for Sawsan, or you sacrifice Sawsan!” He increased the pressure on my belly, then removed his foot. “She is a Human, and Humans care most about their basic animal instincts. That means even the worst Human can provide more to her than you can. However, I have the key to both her and your happiness. Imagine living a real life with her and providing her with everything she ever wished for. It would be the most amazing love story—and no one would know you are a Jinni. Don’t worry, the sacrifice is very simple and won’t cost you a thing. You’ll live with Sawsan as a Human—flesh and blood—in the form she wishes for. You’ll become the knight of her dreams! Not the imaginary ghost that can’t protect her or touch her or talk to her.”

Honestly,
Xanam’s speech awakened my dreams, but I was sure his damned soul was hiding a catastrophe. I tried to hide my emotions. “And what do I have to do for this intriguing offer?”

“The blood of Elyaseen, your grandfather!” responded Xanam without hesitation.

I cannot remember what happened after that other than my outrage and my injuries. I went at him, but it was an unbalanced fight that left marks on me that will be there forever—along with Xanam’s words.

“I only spared your life because I need you.” Then he told me as he slowly flew away, “You fool! Your grandfather hasn’t much time to live. Death is better for him than the pain of his illness. Do you know what we can do with the blood of a Nafar? We can achieve all our dreams easily. Become Efreets, do anything! But do not forget who you are. Don’t forget that the grandfather you defend was the one who turned your father on his own family. He made your father rebel against the way of his ancestors, and
live and die as a beggar among the humanized!”

“Do you mean to tell me you’re proud of the way your father died?” I shot back.

“He died doing his Job” angrily responded Xanam.

“He faced the torment of this life even before the next, and was burned up by a meteor while in the upper atmosphere performing a deed for black magic!”

Xanam did not comment. He merely smiled and vanished in an instant, leaving me in terror and astonishment.

I could not go to work that night. My pain and sorrow were too much. I sat next to my grandfather, Elyaseen, who had fought through this life for more than four centuries. You Humans cannot imagine the pace of events we Jinn face; your lives are very short compared to ours, and your events are fast. Although we’re much faster than you when it comes to transportation, time does not carry the same weight for us. We see you as a short movie played in fast motion. When I was born your lives were not much different than what it has always been for thousands of years, there were no TVs, radios, cars, planes, or electricity. You were still moving on camels and donkeys. World War I happened just after I was born, and in World War II I passed by your planes as they shot at each other and fell from the skies like locusts. I was coming back from a visit with my father to The Islands of The Damned before his relationship with my uncles deteriorated.

All the Humans I knew in my age have died, and their grandchildren too are old—and all of this in less than a century. So imagine what stories I will tell your great-great-great-grandchildren when I am as old as my grandfather! Elyaseen lived through a long period of your history; his life was entwined with yours to a very big degree. He was born in Maddan (one of our greatest cities north of the Red Sea) after his grandfather had moved there to spread the teachings of Islam. My grandfather lived through a third of Islamic history. His grandfather’s father was one of the Nafar who heard the Quran directly from Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him!

All of these thoughts passed through my head as I sat in front of my grandfather. He lay there as usual, nothing moving other than his lips. They keep uttering the name of Allah. Elyaseen looked at me every now and then with a gaze that went through me, as if he knew what I was thinking. I hoped to ask him for advice on how to get rid of Xanam, but I surely would not dare tell him what my cousin had in mind. Xanam could not harm my grandfather directly, as my mother always said protection words before she left him. Besides, a crime like that would cause an unimaginable war between our two families. That was why Xanam had come to me to help him kill my grandfather in a way that would not raise suspicion.

The situation made me hate myself. There I was, putting my grandfather, my mother, and Sawsan at risk because of my foolishness. I cried as I never had before. I felt my grandfather’s hand on my head, and for the first time in years he pointed to the sky and smiled, his lips still uttering Allah’s name.

(6)

Father’s grave and Mother’s tears

M
other gave up on talking to me about Sawsan. I had to admit I had utterly broken my promise to her on that front, because of my foolishness and impulsive behavior I could not put a stop to that situation. On the contrary, I was even more obsessed with Sawsan. I thought about getting close to her every night and every day, of finding a way to talk to her and spend time with her. Mother on the other hand had changed her view of Humans because of me, specifically of Dr. Abdulraheem’s family. Now she couldn’t stand them. She refused to eat their food, and did all she could to avoid seeing them. But that was not all. She hated them so much, she almost revealed our existence to scare them out of the house. It was the night when Sawsan invited her friends to a DJ party on the roof. I came back from work at dawn and heard the loud music far before I got home—and I heard Mother screaming. I went directly to the roof only to see Sawsan and her friends dancing to the DJ’s music, and Mother next to Grandfather in the corner.

“Enough!” she shouted. “Enough!”

And suddenly the party lights became very bright, and all burned out at the same time in a contained burst. The DJ’s speakers exploded, followed by a sharp whistle from the microphone. Parts of the DJ’s equipment burst into flames. The girls screamed in fright, and Sawsan tried to calm them down. Dr. Abdulraheem and Hattan raced to the roof.

I could not believe Mother had done that. I didn’t even know she had such abilities! However, even after the party was ruined and everyone left, she continued her crying.

“Mother, what have you done?” I asked.

The roof’s door slammed shut behind me. That was her response.

“Mother, you know scaring Humans out of their homes is not allowed. Allah would not accept this!”

“And what they do to us is acceptable? Can you see what’s happened to us? Can you see how your grandfather’s health is deteriorating? Can you see the way you act? Does Allah accept all of this?” Tears flowed from her eyes.

I tried to hug her and absorb her anger, but she avoided me. I knew deep down she repented for what she had done, but how could I calm her down? My heart bled for her sadness, and for my fear for my grandfather and my concern for Sawsan.

In the end, I decided time would help her to calm down, and things would return to normal. I just hoped this was not a weak attempt to calm myself. I didn’t even get a second’s sleep that night, and my worrying pushed me to stay around Sawsan the next day to know what her response to the incident was,
as well as her family’s and friends’. They had a vast spectrum of responses. Dr. Abdulraheem insisted it was a normal electrical surge, I did not know if that was because of his cool head and vast wisdom, or because he could not comprehend the fact that his dream house, on which he had spent his entire life savings, was haunted. Sawsan’s friends exaggerate the events and connected them to what had happened with the Ouija board. They agreed Sawsan’s house was haunted, and that Sawsan was possessed. Even Sawsan was convinced she was surrounded by Jinn who wanted to harm her.

A couple of days later, Dr. Abdulraheem came home with a scholar who read versus from the Holy Quran and throw holy water around the corners of the house, especially on the roof. It hurt me to see Mother crying next to Grandfather. I watched in awe. How could this be? That a scholar from the Nafar was being treated like a devil? My mother, in her sadness and despair, was about to close the roof’s door behind the doctor and the scholar when they left, but Grandfather signaled to her not to do so. I wanted to leave, as my existence was adding insult to Mother’s injury and to her sensitivity toward Humans, but she called to me. I was shocked. I had not expected her to talk to me after the pain I had caused her.

“Hawjan, I need you. Don’t leave!”

She walked out the door, and I followed her until
we were out of the house. I kept following her in silence. Mother moved faster. That kind of worried me.

“Mother, what’s wrong?” I asked. “Is something bothering you?”

“Shut up and follow me.”

In a few moments, I found myself far away from the city, on a mountain where
no Human nor Jinn lived. Mother sat next to a water trail under a large boulder and moved her hand over the sands.

“Mother, I know you’re upset, but I swear to God I
didn—”

I was shocked when I saw the sand move beneath her fingers.

We cannot interact with your world directly.

Our universe is parallel yours, like a one-way window—we can see and hear you and have limited interactions with your world, but you cannot feel anything in ours.

Mother wanted to let me know, without saying a word, that she was an Efreet, and that she had some Efreet capabilities. Such powers are limited to a very few of the Jinn elders, and I do not know how to gain them other than cooperation with Devil Marids, who ask for impossible terms to grant such difficult requests. So impossible that lots of Jinn lose their lives before their requests are ever fulfilled.

“I am not an Efreet,” Mother began, “but your father, before he died, taught me how to protect myself from Humans. I met him for the first time here. Our hundred years together passed like a dream.”

I listened, as I expected she would reveal to me the story of her and my father that she had always hidden.

“Our village was behind the mountain,” she said, “and I loved to come here alone on the day of a flood to play and watch. Our lives were simple. We rarely saw Humans save from afar, when travelers would pass through the valley. One day the floods were really strong and washed away the boulder I was standing on, taking me with it. I thought I was going to die!”

I tried to comfort her as she looked so over whelmed, but she went on as if I was not there.

“I then opened my eyes and saw your father. I’m not sure if I was happy because I had been given a new life, or if I was terrified because I was now at the mercy of a Marid. Yes, your father was a Marid! The strongest of all his brothers! In fact he was the chief of all Marids after your grandfather died. Anyway, when I first saw him, he could have easily taken my life without any of my family ever knowing. They would have thought I had been taken by the flood. But he didn’t. Instead I became
the reason your father rebelled against your uncles and your entire tribe. He sacrificed everything for me. He left his possessions in the world of Marids and sorcerers, and fought the world so would could live together even though we could barely make ends meet.”

This was a shock I almost couldn’t comprehend! My father had been the chief of all Marids? And had fought his family over his love of Mother!

She got up, and we walked in the valley, the winds creating a dust storm along our path. “There was no one
like your father,” she went on. “Do you know how many of the Nafar had proposed to me, and your grandfather refused to let me marry them? Yet he accepted my marriage to your father. That’s why the Nafar abandoned him. They told him, ‘How can you refuse us and marry your daughter to a Devil Marid?’ Your grandfather told them this Marid had repented in a way that made him closer to Allah than any of us.”

Mother suddenly stopped and turned to me. “You are all that remains of your father. It’s like I can see him here in front of me when I look at you. Even in your foolishness, craziness, and feelings. But you need to know something important: love made your father sacrifice the world of blasphemy, his power, and his entire family to live with
me, and your love is making you sacrifice yourself, your family, and your love herself for your foolishness. You will not be able to live with the Human or protect her, and you will destroy her future! Tell me, how can you communicate with them? Or are you planning to turn to blasphemy and live in Qummah so the Devils will kidnap her for you, and then you will be assured a spot in hell?

Do you know what the difference is between you and your father? He loved me with nobility while you love the Human with villainy. Your father repented when he loved me, and you will sin because of the Human.”

How could I respond to that? These were the harshest words I had ever heard from mother in my life.

“Hawjan.
Bury me here,” she said.

“Wait. What?”

“My will is for you to bury me here when I die. Under this tree, next to your father.”

“My father is buried here? Then whose grave have I been visiting for the past thirty years?”

“If your uncles ever found out where your father is buried, they would dig him out and bury him with them. That’s why no one knows his real gravesite other than me—not even your grandfather. I buried him here.”

A shiver went through my body as my mother fell on to her knees and started weeping. “Oh, Meehal, why did you leave me? Oh, how I wish my
day came before yours! I wish I would die now and be relived of the burdens of this life!”

“Mother, do not say such things. Forget about the Humans. We can take our stuff and go live somewhere else.”

“May Allah ease my pain for leaving you, Meehal.” Then she suddenly stopped crying and stood up straight. “Your grandfather! We can’t leave him alone.”

She raced back home as if her intuition had told her that Grandfather was in danger, and I followed. I saw him at the dumpster near the villa—I saw Xanam.
A black cat with a filthy, mocking gaze. I knew what he was up to, and I wished I could sever his head from his body, but I couldn’t touch him when he was formed in your world.

Mother noticed him and went toward him. He tried—but failed—to hide his fear of her behind a sarcastic smile. She told him “What business do you have here, son of
Santool?”

“How did you know me, daughter of the Nafar?”

“Your uncle taught me a lot of things that you cannot imagine!”

Xanam quickly moved behind the dumpster and came out the other side in his original form. He understood what Mother meant

She could easily kill him while he was in his cat form, as he could only do what the body he was in
could do unless he were an Efreet or a Marid. That’s why most Formers like to form as snakes, cats, or dogs. Each has its own abilities, and none of these animals are hunted, thus reducing risk. Formers also prefer the color black as it’s easier and more intimidating, so Humans will avoid them. If you want to know a formed Jinni, look directly into his eyes. His gaze is different from a normal animal’s, and you can easily distinguish the two because of the spark of intelligence that normal animals do not have and Jinn cannot hide, that is why a Jinni would avoid eye contact in fear of being found out.

Xanam was now back in our world in fear of Mother, who he suspected of being an Efreet.

“I heard there’s a haunted house here,” he said. “So I thought I should come ask about the rent.”

I attacked him for his repulsive mockery of my mother. He pushed me aside as I was trying to get a grip on his throat.

“Behave yourself, you filthy animal!” he said. “I told you before I’d kill you if I saw you here again!”

I think he avoided a clash with me and Mother as he was scared we would overtake him…yet he went on with his mockery. “Behave yourself, boy! When adults are talking, teenagers shut up. Just worry about your sweetheart!”

Mother kept her cool and used her strict voice. “I said
, what are you doing here, son of Santool?”

“I came here on personal business. A wizard requested I do a project in this house.”

And for the first time I heard Mother defend the family of Dr. Abdulraheem: “You filthy liar. The family in this house are better than you and your wizard! Its owner knows God, he prays, fasts and worships, God’s name is always remembered in this house by him or my father!”

Xanam replies: “You have such confidence in humans! You really make me laugh!

It is
true, we cannot enter this house just yet.

But, trust me, this is only temporary!

A human no matter who he or she might be, weakens after the first test and forgets about God! Tomorrow you’ll see for yourself. The owners themselves are the ones who asked for me, and no one will be able to stop me from entering the house.”

As Xanam was leaving, he turned to me to say his final filthy statement, only meant to raise the tension between me and Mother: “Don’t forget, cousin, if you need any help with the Human just let me know!”

Mother and I went up to make sure Grandfather was okay. We found him sleeping, so I left her with him and went to my room in the yard, were I tried to organize my thoughts and calm my fear of what the future may hold.