The apartment

An excerpt.

As soon as Zachary left her Nour went to the bedroom to check it meticulously again. There was a huge mirror on the wall opposite her bed, she went over and looked at her face for several seconds. She pulled the "thing" out of her mouth and checked her face again; and then she fit it in her mouth and had another intent look on her face.

Well it doesn't change me much though the blond color of my hair becomes me very much, but if I'll use a lipstick and makeup, I won't be recognized neither by my parents nor by Abdul Karim, but enough with that torture device and I'm tired. She summed her examination resolutely but encouraged. She went to the bathroom and filled the bathtub with warm water.

The apartment looks like a hotel suite, the only difference is the kitchen with the abundant fridge with bottles of pineapple juice; so they know what I like but I should tell them what I miss, Ken's presence. Allah how am I going to pass the next two weeks till he'll come to visit me, and how long would he stay with me? She wondered as she undressed and walked stark naked to the bathroom.

The next morning the phone on the low chest of drawers next to her bed rang continuously. She woke up bewildered not knowing where she is, it took her several seconds to remember that she is in Ankara Turkey, and not in her Beirut apartment. She raised the receiver and listened.

'Good morning Nour,' she heard Zachry's voice in Arabic. It was not the tone of his voice that she recognized but that different dialect, which sounded a bit guttural, compared with her own mother tongue.

'Good morning,' she answered him clearing her throat several times.

'Would you be ready in half an hour?'

'Yes,' she answered avoiding on purpose to mention his name, to keep him at a distance from her; and not get into too friendly terms for only Allah knows where it might lead her, in her desperate state of mind.

At a quarter past nine there was a knock on her door. She was already ready and dressed up, she went to the door unlocked it but did not unchain the door chain. At the first glimpse of Zachary's face she shut the door unchained, opened the door up moved the door aside to let him in.

'Have you slept well?' He asked her smiling.

'Yes thank you,' she replied with the same frozen expression.

'Alright let's go down to have breakfast and right afterwards we'll return and see what you need and I'll explain to you a few additional things, okay?'

'I need a wardrobe,' she reminded him.

'Yes I know we'll buy for you a few things before lunch, when the shops are not crowded. Do fit in your mouth guard please    Nour.' He reminded her.

She watched him with a reproachful stare for a friction of a second, but did not say a word and went to the bathroom to fit the "thing" in her mouth.

They had breakfast and he took her the mall at Argentine Caddesi, where they have spent some three satisfying hours in several boutiques. They had lunch in of the mall's restaurant, while Zachary carried Nour's shopping bags, and hailed a cab and they returned to Nour's apartment.

Nour seemed to Zachary quite relaxed and in a much better mood after the three hours shopping spree, which solved her immediate problems. She went to her kitchen and returned with a cup of black coffee for her trainer and a glass of pineapple juice for herself.

Thus when Zachary met Jack at the Israeli embassy that evening, he was glad to admit how right Jack was in his assumption that Nour's feelings and behavior would improve after the shopping.

© Haim Kadman November 2013 " all rights reserved.