The Endless Golden Dunes

Chapter 7: The Time Before the Storm

SALMAN

There is a lot to do when one moves to another city. Unfortunately, not all of them are entertaining in the slightest. Salman was unpacking the few things they had and placing them where it was appropriate. The living room had a floor of carpets that looked to be from Persia, some calligraphy of ink on the walls, most saying the shahada: La illaha illallah, muhammadur rasullullah. There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His final messenger. There was also a table on which food was served, a hallway that led to the kitchen, and a stair that led to the second floor. Overall, a modest, yet comfortable house. His father had told him he had bought it off a glassworker for a cheap price.
  
Abdullah groaned heavily as he lifted a chair. Salman went towards him.
  
‘It is all right, I can handle this.’ He said as he took the chair.
  
Abdullah groaned from his work and sat on the sofa, wiping the sweat that was forming on his brow.
  
‘I think we both need a break.’ He said.
  
‘I think it is just you that needs the break.’ Salman said slyly.
  
‘Nevertheless, I am tired.’
  
‘I will be truthful; so am I.’
  
Salman sat on his nelly set chair and sighed in relief.
  
‘Our limbs are tired, but I think our tongues are still willing to work,’ Abdullah said. ‘What do you wish to speak about?’
  
‘My mother, of course.’ Salman replied.
  
Abdullah frowned.
  
‘Why do you want to talk about Fatima?’
  
‘I want to know about her, want to know the woman who birthed me.’
  
Abdullah sighed.
  
‘She left us when you were but a year old, that is all you need to know,’ Abdullah said in a monotone voice. ‘She left because she was selfish, only cared about herself. There are many cruel words I should call her with, but Allah does not like the ones who curse.’
  
‘I know that is not it. She was a person before I existed. I need to know what she was like before she married you.
  
‘Ha! What good is there to speak of her?’ Abdullah spat. ‘She was something one would call a woman misusing her powers. Let me tell you here, my ibn, she misused all her abilities. With the way she used to walk along the streets, she would have been forbidden from Paradise. No burka, might as well have been naked. Wherever she strolled, men watched her, drooled, begged her to marry them. But what would she do? She would just give them fake promises and go on to take advantage from another man. One of those men, unfortunately, was me.’
  
They both fell silent. Salman nodded. It was the same exact story his father had told him so many times, yet it always bothered him. He hated his mother just as much as his father did, but he had the mind of a scholar, and curiosity was natural for him. He wanted to know more about Fatima, know all the layers of her personality.
  
Abdullah simply sighed.
  
‘Astagfirullah,’ he said. ‘Allah, forgive me for everything bad I have said. Give me patience.’
  
‘Ameen.’ Salman replied.
  
There were a lot of good qualities about Abdullah that Salman noted. But in particular, he had the rare quality to never say bad things about someone for too long. He simply wanted peace in life, and he would say that hate was the first thing opposite to it.
  
‘Let us simply talk about other matters.’ Abdullah said.
  
Salman nodded. Perhaps that was the best course of action.
  
‘About the Mongols?’ Salman suggested.
  
‘You move from one depressing matter to another. What is to speak of them? They continue to conquer everything in sight. I also hear the army needs to hire more troops. They are coming to Baghdad again for recruitment. I think I will join.’
  
Salman frowned.
  
‘You are too old for that.’ He said.
  
‘I have fought in battles before. What choice is there anyway? You can’t do it as you are too young.’
  
‘I am quite sure they recruit men younger than me.’
  
‘I will not allow you to go. There are dangers in these worlds, horrors only the imagination can think of.’
  
‘For example?’
  
‘I will not tell. I have bad memories of it. Just know that in war, love does not last.’
  
Salman sighed. Again, not the answer he wanted. He just stood up again.
  
‘I think I will go back to work.’ He said.