“She cried, of course, and said, ‘Do whatever you want. I don’t want a divorce from you. Your being my husband and the father of my children is an honor for me. You are my crowning glory, and I want you to be my husband in the afterlife too.’ She remained strong in her convictions and came to understand me. She even gave me strength and resolve by encouraging me and promising that she would take my place in managing the house and the family. She would beseech God on my behalf in her prayers. In exchange, she asked me to spare no effort in searching for you. I promised her, and then we bid each other farewell. She offered me her gold jewelry, but I told her that I had plenty of money, some of which I gave to her.
“Then I departed, like you, one dawn long ago, and I haven’t since gotten in touch with her. What’s more, I haven’t even been concerned with my promise to ask about and search for you. That couldn’t really interest me.
“In Baghdad, our restaurant became a favorite among important officials, people of influence, and the rich. We would seduce them with our hospitality and our flattery. We acquired their friendship and facilitated their depravity. In this way, we learned much about them. At the same time, we inflicted upon them many carefully planned attacks. We gathered critical information, which Azad delivered to the rebels and the opposition. We learned that the young man I was searching for had been appointed as some kind of attaché in the Iraqi embassy in Spain. That’s how we began looking for some way to get me to him.
“Then it happened that some officials from the Ministry of Information came with a delegation of Spanish tourists to our restaurant for dinner. I met Rosa, and one thing led to another. Wait a second, Saleem! Don’t think that I used Rosa and deceived her, even though, to be honest, I wouldn’t have hesitated to do that. I’ve done much worse in the company of my brother Azad. But what happened to me was the coming together of my goal and my emotions, for I actually loved her, and she loved me. She is the only woman that I have loved and chosen by myself, for myself. As you know, your grandfather chose your mother for me, and the first time I met her was on our wedding night. My love for your mother is strong, but it isn’t the typical love between a woman and a man. How can I explain it to you? I mean, we were a very successful couple, but we weren’t passionate lovers. As for Rosa, I fell in love with her and chose her purely out of my own desire. There were many things that brought us together. And so it came about that she undertook all the arrangements for my coming here. She spoke with the Spanish embassy and the immigration office, she signed the documents and the required guarantees, and she paid the fees for everything, including the flight here.
“We settled first in Barcelona; then I persuaded her to come to Madrid and set up this business with me. But she doesn’t know anything about my other objective, which I’ve made good progress toward achieving. I’ve compiled plenty of details about when this animal comes and goes, about his house and his favorite places. And I’ve acquired the trust of two strong thugs who will help me, professionals from a Colombian gang. They’re ready to make a move any time I want. Executing my goal and fulfilling my oath is nearly accomplished. The only question is choosing the appropriate time and place. So, what do you think?”
CHAPTER 12
I certainly didn’t think anything at that moment. I just reeled from the sudden shock. My father, who clearly noticed my surprise, didn’t insist upon hearing my immediate impression, nor did he object when I changed the subject. I invited him to come out with me and pretended to focus my thoughts on resolving Rosa’s fury.
He said, “You go ahead to the club and wait for me there while I call her now. We’ll see what happens.”
I found the club’s outside door half-open. I stuck my head in and called to Fatima, whose voice came back to me: “Come on in!”
I slipped in without opening the door any further. As soon as I got down and looked around, I was taken by a second surprise of an altogether different kind, which lessened the bitterness of the earlier one with my father. The place was as clean and neat as if a team of professionals had just then installed the furnishings. In fact, Fatima had just succeeded in getting everything in order. She was putting on the finishing touches and spraying air freshener, circling around and aiming it into the corners.
She smiled and asked, “So, what do you think?”
I was able to give her, of course, my immediate opinion: “Amazing! How did you do all that? You’re my hero!”
Her smile broke into a contented laugh. She went behind the bar while asking me if I wanted something. “No,” I said. “I’m waiting for my father to come down.”
“How was he when you saw him?”
“Fine,” I said, but I was quick to change the direction of our conversation to anything else. I asked her, “How’s your hand doing?”
“Perfect. I told you it’s just a scratch. If only all our injuries were like this one!”
Then I turned to routine questions along the lines of whether she would be going home or whether she would work today. This was interrupted after a little by the sound of the door being thrown open. My father came in, vivacious and happy, spreading his arms like a stage performer and boisterously calling out: “Ta da! Fatumi! Fafy! Good morning, my dear!”
“Hi, Mr. Noah! Good morning! How are you doing?”
“I’m as strong as an ox, as you can see! Saleem and I are going to have lunch. Do you want to come with us?”
“No, thanks! I have to go home. I need some more sleep, and we have a lot of work ahead of us tonight too.”
“Listen, if you don’t want to come, you don’t have to. Just give me a call so that I can arrange something. I do especially need you to be here tonight, but you worked so hard last night and today that you deserve more of a rest.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Noah. I’ll be here for sure.”
“Fine. In that case, to pay you back, I’m also giving you Wednesday off, in addition to your usual Monday and Tuesday.”
My father patted my shoulder, saying, “All right then, let’s go, Saleem! You go now too, Fatima. We’ll see you tonight. And you can arrive late, if you want. That is, after midnight, when the party gets going. See you later!”
We went out, and he led me to the Chinese store to buy another pack of cigarettes. His mood was convivial there too, and he joked with the woman behind the counter. He kept repeating a few words in Chinese, which I understood to be a greeting, and a couple other words that may have been obscene because the woman laughed and replied, turning them back on him, “No, no! You are, you are!”
After that, we left, and he led me from one narrow street to another and through several alleyways until we arrived at a traditional Spanish restaurant, whose façade testified to its antiquity. The scent of ancient wood wafted out as soon as we went inside. My father had been calm on the way there, admiring the pleasant weather, praising Fatima and the goodness of the Chinese shopkeepers with banalities that were nothing more than attempts to fill the silence. He tossed a few coins near the head of a vagrant sleeping in one of the corners, saying, “Poor guy, he’s got AIDS.”