The door creaks open, and Haleem appears – his plaid shirt flung open, belt barely done, sweat pooling over the wrinkles of his forehead; sweat that he could easily wipe away with the edge of his sleeve but chooses to ignore instead, sweat that Thuraya hates to see although they’ve been married for decades, and she knows the smell and taste and texture of his sweat like she knows her own.
He walks through the door, careful not to step on the specific floorboards he knows will squeak. Afterall, he knows this house, this farm, this land, like he knows his own name, and the thought of leaving it never formed in his mind. That is, until Thurayya gets ill, and living in this house, running the farm alone, becomes unbearable. But up until her sickness, his life had been a series of mundane events.
Haleem and Thuraya had bought their house a few years after their marriage. At first, they lived with Haleem’s parents, mainly occupying his childhood bedroom. Thurayya helped his mother around the house while he worked on the farm with his father. His wife had always wanted to build a career of her own as a seamstress, but Haleem always delayed her dreams – “now is not the time,” he would say, or “maybe when we move to a house of our own.” But when they finally moved to a house of their own, Haleem’s father passed away and the farm became his sole responsibility; after that came Ramez. But even before all that happened, his mother loved having them around, especially Thurayya, whom she dumped all the house chores on. Thurayya would wash, peel, and cut vegetables, deskin chicken, scrub the floors of every room. She would even pick flowers from the garden to put in a vase at the dinner table every night.
Ramez was born a little after Haleem’s father had died. His mother moved in with them for a few months before she, herself, passed away, and all through this time, Haleem didn’t look at the tragedies rationally. In the quiet, bitter corners of his mind, he viewed his newborn son as a bad omen. Whenever something bad happened around the house – a broken cup, electricity outages, anything, he would, without realizing it, blame his son. It was rarely ever the corruption of politicians that there was barely any electricity and he had to pay extra for a generator and its diesel, it was Ramez. It was also Ramez’ existence that caused his mother’s death, not her old age. Ramez grew up breathing this heavy, unspoken accusation that translated into a complicated relationship with his father, and when he realized it, he began to push himself at school, studying long hours and asking for help even when he hated it, just to make sure that when he graduated, he could leave the village to the city. Or better yet, leave the country. And that is what happened. Ramez graduated school, moved to the city for university, graduated, got a job there, and then moved away. It wasn’t that Haleem abused him; it was worse. His father ignored him, and his mother let it happen. Ramez despised the fact that he was viewed as a curse while other parents looked at their children as blessings.
When Thurayya fell ill with cancer, and Haleem could no longer afford her chemotherapy because they didn’t have insurance, and she could no longer sew and make extra cash, he sold the house and they moved into a smaller apartment. And when that money ran out because Thurayya was getting worse and needed life-saving surgery, Haleem sold his father’s farm and took on another form of job. And at that point, he realized what he had to do, no matter how much he didn’t want to do it. He had to talk to Ramez.
He picks up the phone, and searches through his contacts. At first, he can’t find the number; it’s usually Thurayya who calls him, but after a few tries, he finds it.
By the time Haleem reaches him, and Ramez makes it back home, Thurayya has already been buried for days – her illness couldn’t wait for anyone. Life is just starting to get back to normal after a pandemic had swooped the world by surprise, and flights are still scarce and expensive, but Ramez tries his best anyway, and his best brings him back home after the tragedy had happened, and Haleem can’t help but think that Thurayya would still be alive had he not called him.
The first thing Ramez does after arriving in the village and realizing that his childhood home is no longer his home, is visit his mother’s grave. He cries, and asks that she forgive him for leaving her for so long, for leaving her in the first place. He confesses that he only did it to get away from his father, but that he then grew to love the life he was building, even though he had always missed her and missed his hometown. He heads back to his father’s apartment, which would now be his home for the unforeseeable future. The apartment is similar to the ones in the city, except bigger and with cheaper rent. He would know because he lived in the city for some time; when he was booking his flight here, he initially wanted to stay in the city but decided against it because he’d have to rent a car and drive up and down for an hour and a half every day. Money is not an obstacle for Ramez. He was able to secure a good job before moving abroad, and had been promoted several times since. This is in parallel to his freelance work, which is always easy for him to find in his field of web development. He also has taken several courses in graphic design, and accepts freelance projects in branding or web design from time to time, so saving money is not an issue for him. At first, he was saving to buy a house back home, but that never happened, so he now has a hefty sum of savings that he’s not sure what to do with except for help his father.. His father, he comes to see over the next few days, has been working at the local supermarket. Its owner, Jalal, whom he remembers from his childhood, died and left it to his son who didn’t want it. So when Haleem had sold everything and found himself without a job, he offered to take over operations and split the profit with the son, who gladly agreed. During the first few days, Ramez doesn’t visit the supermarket, but when he does, he sees how his dad sits behind the counter, a miniature of his old self – miserable, with sweat wrinkles carrying new droplets of sweat with every passing second.
After a week, and barely any interaction, Ramez decides to spend a day at the supermarket with his father. Up until then Ramez had spent most of his days visiting his mother’s grave, going to the city to see friends or tend to errands, and coming back to silent dinner with his father. He has seen how tired Haleem has become over the years. People spend more time in the supermarket that day because Ramez would strike up conversations with them left and right, and they would find themselves laughing and sharing stories – especially the older women. His father, on the other hand, remains quiet. Over the coming days, Ramez would bring life into the little shop. The older women would gather themselves and make it a ritual to pass by for their morning chat with Ramez over coffee. He even went to the city and bought some supplies that he noted people needed in bulk, quantities that would last for months; things they didn’t have available across all shops or were sold for ridiculously higher prices if available. Still his father remains quiet during his visits, until one day he asks Ramez how he knows how to do this, to make people linger in the shop and strike up conversations, that he thought his son was a shy, little boy hiding behind a computer somewhere far away. Ramez doesn’t take offense, instead, he tells his father to keep an open mind to people when they show up, to listen, and to maybe share with them like they share with him instead of staying so quiet. He tells him it’s what Thurayya would have wanted him to do, to enjoy his time. That night, the dinner is not silent, instead, the two remember Thurayya.
Over the following few days, Haleem would take Ramez’ advice and interact bit by bit with his customers. The older women who would come for their morning coffee with Ramez, would stay for Haleem too now, and Haleem and Ramez, when they were alone in the shop, would apply Ramez’ advice on their own relationship, slowly, and by some miracle, mending it. Maybe he isn’t a curse after all, Haleem would think, but wouldn’t say. That is until Ramez tells him his decision to move back – not right now, but soon, he will move back and live in the city. He will continue to supply the supermarket with additional inventory, and he will fulfill his dream and buy a house.
It isn’t until months later that Ramez settles back in his home country in an apartment in the city, and commutes to the village every weekend. And it isn’t until years later, when the shop has become a supermarket, and when Haleem only visits for a few hours to check on his staff before spending the rest of his time recovering in bed, that he tells Ramez the magic words: maybe you aren’t a curse afterall.
