SQN - Sine Qua Non - Issue Two - Journal - Page 36
SINE QUA NON
Tossing her onal core to the nora and fauna, in the distance she saw waifs scattering
along the road, ducking into ditches. She could not make out the disturbance at orst, until
she saw a uniformed solider from the south brandishing a rine. He was aiming for anyone
and anything.
Qamariyyah took of with energy that came from some unknown source in her legs. She
would not succumb to any soldier from the south, that much she promised. People behind
her were wailing as they could not run with gimp legs or wounded backs. She ran of-road
and toward the sound of rivers and creeks. If the water could escape, so could she.
Before this they would meet at Starbucks. Before the Beirut port explosion that shattered
glass and window, much of it still embedded under her right shoulder. Before they were
forced back to Rashaya. |e rise of innation made their dream of a university life in Beirut
altogether laughable. Before all that, they would sit in Starbucks for hours. It was one of the
few places that doled out for air conditioning and free WIFI, apart from the Intercontinental
Phoenician hotel where the foreign journalists stayed, but Qamariyyah and Nasri were always
shooed out of that lobby. At the Starbucks, she and Nasri would sip on drinks way too strong
for their palette, and entirely unpronounceable, and play games on their phones, laugh at viral
videos, and work on their essays for their philosophy lectures. Sometimes, the large leather
sofa in the café would free up on the quiet days, so they would sit shoulder to shoulder. If
she moved, he would make sure to readjust so his shoulder was still touching hers. Innocent
enough that no one would take notice to complain about indecency. Sometimes they would
walk along the Corniche. Sometimes they would window shop. Her favourite evenings were
when they bought ice cream in cups (the cones allowed too much to melt and dribble down
their hands) and sit in Raok Hariri Square, watching the young boys kick balls around.
|en the port exploded into a cloud of grey and brown plumes, and her family returned
to the Beqaa valley, forcing her to give up her spot at the university. An ofer of employment
at a school in Aitaroun meant relocating again. Ummi was delighted, even though the south
was often the site of connict with the armies on the other side of the border. But it had been
so quiet for so long, so she reasoned with her mother.
