Shawakh

Mahra bint Ahmed

 
Shawakh had never confided these secrets to anyone, burying them in a very distant place where no one could reach them. However, she knew that painful secrets affect the soul much like obesity affects the body: they make the soul flabby... and with time, it develops rheumatism, losing its lightness... becoming heavy and sickly! She had to get rid of them before she became their unwitting victim.
It later turned out that Dr. Mohammed Ghaleb specialized in treating soldiers returning from wars. He would rescue them from the bloody nightmares that haunted them, from the pain of loss, from the panic attacks that struck them if a balloon popped in a child's hand, from excessive sweating and pallor if a metal spoon fell on a marble surface... That's why he couldn't see Shawakh's distress, even though her struggle was real. But the doctor needed death, blood, destruction, and the roar of bombings and bombs... to acknowledge the existence of a struggle!
As for Shawakh, her scattered struggle revolved around the question: "How can two people inhabit one body?"
Mahra bint Ahmed.......