The Sheikh's Son Read Free

bedroom door.
    “I’m sorry about his behaviour. It’s probably best if we leave him for a moment to let this sink in.” Sarah sat back down in the armchair. She knew that there was no point talking to Ali now. She would let him have a cry first and then, once he’d calmed down a bit, she would speak to him and try to explain the situation. However, she wasn’t really sure she knew what was going on.
    “It’s a bit of a shock for him seeing you here,” she said. It was a shock for both her and Ali. The last thing she expected that day when she came home from work was to see her husband, Sheikh Akbar, standing in her doorway. She’d thought about him every day since she had left Yazan and there were many times when she’d been on the brink of booking flight tickets.
    A couple of years ago, when she was on leave from work and Ali was on his school holidays, she even made it as far as the airport to see whether there were a couple of standby tickets that she could buy. All the way there on the London Underground, she told Ali stories about the desert, the camels, the Bedouin camps, and the labyrinth of street markets where you could buy everything from spices to horses. However, when they got to the ticket counter at Heathrow, the woman behind the desk told them that all the flights that day were full because it was a major public holiday. If they returned on Monday, she’d probably be able to get them a pair of tickets. On the way back home, Sarah took Ali out for a hamburger and an ice-cream, and told him that they’d visit his father another time. By Monday morning, Sarah had changed her mind. What good would it do to go back to Yazan and search for something that she no longer wanted or needed? And now, here he was, sitting in her dismal living room in a London suburb on a rainy afternoon.
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Akbar asked.
    “About Ali?”
    Akbar nodded.
    “I didn’t know I was pregnant when I left and then, when I found out, I didn’t know how to contact you.”
    “You could’ve come back.”
    Sarah didn’t want to tell him about the times that she almost had. Instead, she said, “I called him Ali Akbar, after you.”
    “It’s a fine name and he’s a fine boy.”
     “I’m sorry about what he said just now. He’s not normally like that. He’s had a difficult day.” However, what happened to Ali at school was nothing compared with the surprise of meeting his father for the first time when he got home.
    “I can see that you have a firm hand with him. Children need discipline, but there are many ways of doing it.”
    “What do you mean?” Sarah didn’t like the implication that she was bringing up Ali the wrong way. What did Akbar know? He’d only just turned up.
    “The bruise on his face and the cut above his eye.”
    Sarah couldn’t believe what Akbar was suggesting. “I would never hit Ali! What a terrible thing to suggest.”
    “But if you didn’t, who did? Is there another man who thinks he can take my place as his father?”
    “No, I’ve told you already, there isn’t anyone else. Ali got into a fight at school with some other boys.”
    Akbar smiled. “So my son is a fighter. Excellent! Does he always win?”
    “It’s nothing to be proud of. Ali shouldn’t be fighting, but some kids have been teasing him.”
    “Teasing him? How dare anyone pick on my son! No one does that to an Al-Zafir. I need to speak to the boy.” Akbar got up and went to find his son.
    Sarah tried to get to Ali before Akbar, but he was already on the stairs and his broad frame took up the entire space of the narrow staircase, making it impossible to pass him. He threw open Ali’s door and demanded to know who’d hit him. Over Akbar’s shoulder, Sarah could see Ali lying in a ball on his bed, half covered in his red Manchester United bedspread.
    “Go away!” Ali yelled.
    “Ali, please,” Sarah said from behind Akbar. “I know you’re upset, but…”
    “I don’t want to talk to