Raja Alem - The Dove's Necklace

“Your mosque?” Yusuf’s head was pounding.

“We are his servants, earth-renouncing,” said the third man who’d been silent the entire time. “You’re dirty, boy, and you’re defiling the Lord’s House. Your hand defiles the key.”

“Yusuf, the key …” The Eunuchs’ Goat repeated himself like a broken record. “If you don’t cooperate, my brothers will kill you. If you continue being stubborn, it will be out of my hands.”

“You’ve got brothers now?” Yusuf’s question embarrassed the Eunuchs’ Goat.

“Give me the key, and I’ll drop you off at the nearest highway.”

“Believe me, there’s no way I could I even get my hands on it. I don’t have it.”

“You lying infidel!” the Ethiopian shouted. “We read all your articles. How dare you say that God is in our hearts and in every morsel we eat, when everyone knows He is in heaven exalted?” The man seemed totally convinced of the idiotic things he was saying and he strode past the Eunuchs’ Goat to deliver a kick to Yusuf’s torso. The Eunuchs’ Goat answered this by shoving the man back and then the two men squared up, ready to fight. Just then, a cacophony of pots and pans broke out and people began to disappear; they melted back into the piles of garbage and the sky swallowed up the hordes of children. The Eunuchs’ Goat grabbed Yusuf and ran off into the volcanic mountains surrounding the garbage dump. He dragged Yusuf’s limp body over the trash mounds with superhuman strength. Yusuf was scratched and bruised, numbed by the putrid smell; his body was unreal. The time he’d spent in isolation in al-Lababidi’s house had made it more transparent, and the odor that permeated everything was enough to tear his limbs apart. All he wanted was to be left there to die. He pulled at the Eunuchs’ Goat’s hand to stop him, to ask what was going on, but he was so worn out all he could do was gasp, “Leave me here. I’ll find my way.” The Eunuchs’ Goat just dragged him on further, not breaking his stride.

“You don’t even know where you are. You’re not in Mecca any more and you’re not allowed to go back. This is Jeddah.”

“What?”

The Eunuchs’ Goat had no choice but to stop. “Yusuf, you know who your ancestors were. Mecca has no choice but to exile people like you.”

“Like me?”

“Come on, we both know it. I was with you when you went up to Bull Cave to prove the Yemeni man was your father.”

“But I don’t understand. Why would who my father was mean that I was evil?”

“I’m not the naive Turkish boy made of marble any more. I’m a soldier in the Mahdi’s army and he’s commanded that you be killed.”

Yusuf began laughing hysterically, but a slap from the Eunuchs’ Goat shut him up.

“I just can’t believe you’ve become so violent.” Yusuf pleaded, ladylike, with the Eunuchs’ Goat’s hardened marble exterior.

“You’ll never believe how far I’m willing to go to win the coming battle.”

“What battle?”

The Eunuchs’ Goat dragged him forward and began running again. “The police are raiding the dump. If they catch you here, you’ll end up rotting in jail. This isn’t a joke, it’s a warning. Now move as fast as you can!”

Yusuf ran on, fueled by every last drop of fear inside him. He ran on and on, he didn’t know how long for or where to, but by the time the Eunuchs’ Goat finally stopped him they were at the top of one of the volcanoes and the police cars that had raided the dump looked about as big as matchboxes below. They were roving all over the place, rounding up the undocumented workers who used the dump as a hideout.

At the top, all around Yusuf, the residents of the dump were celebrating their escape from the raid down below and feasting on half-squashed fruit they’d rolled up in the folds of their clothes. Biting down, nearer and nearer to the rotten bits and then even those. Yusuf thought back on the rotten charity his own body had been raised on. As an orphan, he had attracted all manner of unwanted “gifts” of food and clothes. Only then, did the Eunuchs’ Goat turn to answer him.

“So you asked me why I’m here? As you can see, our world is sinking under all your garbage. If we don’t put a stop to this, you’re going to swallow up the entire world.” Yusuf found the emptiness in his eyes chilling.

“Our garbage? Are you serious? Do you even hear yourself? You’ve got the same name as my childhood friend the Eunuchs’ Goat but other than that, everything about you has changed. Who are you?” The Eunuchs’ Goat couldn’t bear to look at him. They were standing face to face among a hellish-looking crowd. No one there paid any attention to Yusuf; the other leaders had each escaped to the nearest mountaintop.

“I have orders to get rid of you. Your life isn’t worth so much as a trash bag if you can’t lead us to the key.”

“But I don’t have it.”

“There are some people, some very powerful people coming after you. They hacked into your email to lay this trap for you. You saw the red car. They want you gone. You’re fair game, either to me or to them. The only difference is they won’t give you a second to breathe.”

“And you? Are you going to give me a second?” The Eunuchs’ Goat looked unsure. “Are these your brothers now?” Yusuf asked, gesturing at the haggard faces surrounding them.

“This is the army of the Mahdi, which will soon conquer the world.”

Yusuf didn’t dare argue with his boilerplate answer. From where they were standing, the policemen and police cars down below were nothing more than toys amidst a cloud of shrieking crows.

A loud boom rang through Yusuf’s head, a tremor that reminded him of the bulldozers in the Lane of Many Heads. He was vaguely aware of a streak of blood trickling down the Eunuchs’ Goat’s left cheek and in the moments before he lost consciousness, he understood that they’d been attacked.

Nasser began his morning with the news, which filled him with panic:

… while Jeddah Police spokesman Col. al-Mi’ayd said the force had launched a number of raids on a garbage dump in east Jeddah, arresting dozens of illegal aliens. He noted that routes leading to the site were notoriously treacherous, enabling a small number of criminals, who reacted quickly, to escape, but he offered his assurances that they would soon be apprehended. Meanwhile, the mayor of Jeddah has announced that the municipality is nearing completion of a new garbage dump of four and half million square meters, at a cost of thirty million riyals. The mayor added that the new dump, which was constructed in accordance with the strictest international guidelines for environmental preservation, would be open to receive the city’s garbage soon.

A Key for a Drink

Y USUF WOKE UP BESIDE IBRAHIM GATE. HE CAST HIS EYES OVER THE ROWS OF worshippers; his memory was a blank. He had no idea how he’d gotten back to the gates of the Haram Mosque. Had those hours in the garbage dump been a nightmare? His eyes fixed on the tops of the minarets whence flocks of pigeons soared into the sky with every prayer and prostration. He couldn’t understand why the most critical moments in his life were always getting mixed up with his dreams and nightmares.

He felt a surge of pain when he tried to stand. His broken rib was testimony to his miraculous survival. “They want you dead.” The words echoed inside of him, urging his feet along. Limping, he hurried back to al-Lababidi’s house. Every time he passed a trashcan, he had visions of the barricades, hidden trenches, and escape tunnels at the dump. He was certain that every trashcan was a lookout post for the army of the Mahdi who were advancing from the Eunuchs’ Goat’s camp to launch their apocalyptic war against the one-eyed Antichrist who was being formed in the bowels of the city and its kitchens and was about to be resurrected.