Beirut Nights

This is supposed to be a first draft of a part of the first chapter of the novel I am dreaming to write..

Chapter (1)
Beirut Nights

“You are not my daughter and I don’t know you”, said the father, Elias, with his thick angry voice to his 28 year-old daughter, Lora. She bowed on her knees on the cold ceramic floor crying. He left to his room quickly without looking back behind him. Lora wiped her tears with her shaking fingers, got up, put her jacket on her and left the house.

It was a cold February night in Beirut; she had no place to go to except her best friend, Patricia’s house. Nothing was going in her mind at that moment except the question “Why? What did I do wrong to deserve all that?” 

  Lora Hanna is a blonde, green-eyed girl. She is about 176 centimeters in heights and 70 kilograms in weight. She has the most beautiful smile on her face. She is a Lebanese girl, though she doesn’t look like one, everyone think she is European, and she always answers them with “I have Greek roots”.

She has three siblings: Rafi, who is six years older than her, Ronza, one year older than her, And finally Reem who is 13 years younger than her. They were typical siblings, love each other’s for sure but keep fighting on the silliest things, especially Reem and Lora.  But their major problem was their parents; they didn’t take good care of them, their work was more important than their children, or at least, that’s how it seemed. They leave the house in the early morning and don’t come back before the night falls, leaving their children in responsibility of themselves. But they got used to this situation and to the never ending fights between their parents in front of them.

   Lora always thought that her parents love her other siblings more than her, maybe because they are calmer than her and they do whatever their parents want them to do, and she was the opposite, but that didn’t make her hate her siblings. Lora and Ronza are so close to each other, it might be because there is only one year between them; they always sit together all night talking about their problems and their feelings until they fall asleep. And they both take care of the house when their parents are away; they cook what they are able to cook, wash the dishes and clean the house.

But sooner than Lora thought, Ronza turned 18 years old and finished high school; it was time for her to go to university, and just as her brother, Rafi, her father wanted to send her to the United States to study in California in the same university her older brother studied in. Lora was sad, maybe sadder than ever, how is she going to stay alone without her sister and the only one that listens to her? She wanted to feel happy for her sister that she will go to a new place, a more beautiful place maybe, but she couldn’t imagine how her life will be without her.

“Only one more year, and you will follow me!” Said Ronza, trying to cheer her sister up. “You really think dad will send me to California? No way! He doesn’t even let me go out of the house!” Replied Lora, staring at the floor beneath her. Ronza walked to her and hugged her; “Believe me you will follow me. And don’t forget I will come back here in holidays!” Lora smiled and hugged her sister back.

Ronza left Beirut and went to the new life waiting for her in the United States; and Lora spent the first couple of nights doing nothing but thinking about her sister and crying. But after that, she moved on and got used to the new situation and found some other ways to have fun. Lora was full of life, always smiling and loves to have fun no matter where she goes. At school, she hated studying, she used to laugh and make fun of everything with her childhood friend, Patricia, in all the classes; she just wanted that year to pass as quick as possible so she can go to her sister.  But at the end of the semester, when she received her grades certificate, it was shocking. She didn’t have good enough marks almost in everything, except English, and of course, when her father saw it he got mad and yelled at her.

“What are those grades? Do I send you to school and pay for it to get those grades? And you wanted to go to America! You are going nowhere except your room now!” said her father as loud as his voice could go. Lora ran to her room crying; she kept crying the whole day, she didn’t know what to do, and she decided to call her sister.

“Ronza?” Lora began the call while she was still crying.
“What’s wrong, Lora?” asked Ronza.
“I received my certificate today, and it was bad, horrible! Dad yelled at me and told me I am not going to go to you!”

“Lora, of course you can’t even get to any university if you didn’t get good marks! You have to work harder Lora, please; you still have the next semester couple of months away! If you started working hard from now, you are going to make it, and dad will change his mind, I am sure. Do it for me Lora, please”
Lora promised her sister she will change in what’s left of the school year and will work hard and take studying more seriously. She wiped her tears after hanging up with her sister, and went to sit on the balcony to watch the beautiful night view of Beirut and think about what she is going to do. She then decided to call Patricia and tell her about her new plans and that they need to study well together in order to go to California. Patricia was surprised Lora would actually care about studying, but she sure could understand her motivation, she also wouldn’t imagine if Lora left her and went somewhere away from her, they weren’t just friends since childhood, they were more than sisters. Patricia agreed on Lora’s plan and told her she will also do the same and they will help each other. Lora stayed in the balcony staring at the sparkling lights of the city in front of her until she got sleepy and decided to go to bed.

The days passed slow and boring for Lora in the spring’s holiday, she didn’t have anything to do except taking care of her little sister, Reem, all day. Patricia went with her family to France for two weeks, which made it more boring for Lora. But at the end, no matter how long it took, the break was finally over and school was going to start on Monday.

Patricia was back from France, she decided to take Lora and go out to buy the school supplies together, since Lora’s parents don’t even care for these things, but of course, she had to take her little sister with her. They bought what they needed, had lunch out in a restaurant and then left back home. Lora was counting the hours until Monday comes, staying at the house with nothing fun to do was so boring for her.

 

On Monday, school started. Lora went excited, for the first time ever; it is probably the fact that at the end of these 9 months, if she studied as she should, she will get to see her sister who she misses already. In classes, Lora started paying more attention and tried to understand everything and ask questions and answer them, it was so clear that she was serious about working hard this semester. She was happy; she felt that she is actually smart and could do anything she wants. Her grades were improving, and she had the hope of going to California back. She fulfilled her promise to herself, she and Patricia used to study and do the homework together and they both worked as hard as they could.

On 22^nd of June in 2001, it was Lora’s 18^th birthday. Patricia decided to make her a small party at her house and invite some of their friends, they had a very good time and Lora was so happy she had such a great friend. After other people left, Patricia decided to talk to Lora before she goes back home.

“You know now you are 18, and I became 18 a month ago!” said Patricia.

“Yeah, I know. I can’t believe how old we are” said Lora and laughed.

“We can do many fun things when we are 18”
“What do you mean?” Said Laura after a short pause.

“Last night I went to a night club, and I tried few drinks and it was awesome!”

“Drinks? You mean alcohol?”.
“Yes! I met few nice guys, too! We should try it together soon, I am sure we will have fun”
“Are you crazy? My dad would kill me! You don’t know how religious he is? and how all these things sound like sins to him?”
“He doesn’t have to know! You will tell him you are staying at my house”

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

I know it needs LOTS of edits but I want general opinions about it, if it seems good or no.

Reviews

[Char]

Great introduction :) Looking forward to the next one!

[Amal N]

Thank you very much :)

[Luke Cowan]

Really liked the story and the dialog was very good. Look forward to the next chapter :)

[Amal N]

Thanks a lot :))

[A. Amos]

General opinions is you are a story teller and I'm interested why Lora father kicked her out?

[Amal N]

Thank you for reading and reviewing :)
I guess you will have to wait to find out lol

[A. Amos]

You're most welcome

[New Theory]

Ok, so Beirut Nights have begun and they seem fairly good, the work needs a lot of editing. Send me a RR when you have the next chapter. This chapter was good in introducing the characters and the story just began.

[Amal N]

Thank you, New Theory. Yes, I know it needs a lot of editing and correction, it is just a first draft, I wanted to see if it seems good enough to attract readers to my story or if I should just forget about it :)
Thanks a lot for reading and reviewing, I sure will let you know once I write more.

[New Theory]

you are welcome :)