"THE PATIENCE STONE" "Al-Qahhar..." "Al-Qahhar..." "Try to hold your breath." "Just once." "If you're able to breathe, you can hold your breath." "Hold it!" "Can you hear me?" "No." "Nothing." "The mullah said that after two weeks, you would talk and hear." "Today is the 16th day." "Still nothing." "What else can I do?" "I've had enough of praying all day long." "I must talk to the mullah about it." "Mommy!" "Mommy!" "I'm coming!" "What do you want?" "There are no bananas left." "We'll go buy some." "You're killing me." "I'll fetch some more serum." "Okay?" "Come on, girls." "We're going out." "We're coming, we're coming!" "Bibi!" "Come on, let's go!" " Bibi, has the water-bearer been yet?" " No." "Come on!" "Hurry." "Here's your medicine." "Sister, you need to pay me." "The pharmacist refused." "We owe him too much." "We'll do the same as before." "Water with sugar and salt in it." "It'll keep you going a few days." "I have to go see my aunt." "To ask her for money." "I'm going, all right?" "Why do I ask for permission?" "Who is it?" "What do you want?" "I'm here to see my aunt." "Your aunt?" "She moved out." "Where is she?" "I don't know." " Where?" " I don't know." "My aunt has left." "She didn't let me know." "No one knows where she is." "I have no one left!" "She doesn't know what has happened to us." "What's going to become of us?" "What's going to become of us?" "Don't leave me alone." "Don't leave me alone." "Your brothers have left, too." "With your mother." "The brothers so proud to see you fight." "A mother who'd have sacrificed herself for a lock of your hair!" "They've all left instead of helping me." "The cowards!" "They didn't try to find out why you were wounded." "They didn't know you fought because of an insult" "just because a man said to you," ""I spit in your mother's pussy!"" "Someone on your own side!" "You get insulted and end up with a bullet in the neck." "A fight..." "Such an absurd fight!" "They've all left." "The cowards!" "Come back!" "Come back, for the love of God." "My God, help him." "Help him!" "He fought so long for you, and now you abandon him like this!" "The mullah won't come tonight." "He's afraid of stray bullets." "The water-bearer hasn't been either." "I hope he's still alive." "Mommy, it's dark." "I'm scared." "I'm coming." "Don't be scared." "I'm here." "Mommy, I'm thirsty." "Me, too." "So is Mommy." "There's no water left." "Mommy, who are you talking to?" "Your father." "Why is Daddy angry?" "He isn't, but he will be if we bother him." "Who is it?" "It's me, the mullah." "Hello, my sister." "I'm here for the prayer." " Not today." " Why not?" "Since yesterday, I'm impure." "What?" "Impure!" "I have my period!" " So did Eve." " All right, all right." "It was a Tuesday, wasn't it?" "A Tuesday?" "Perhaps..." "That's possible." "I'll come back in a few days' time." "If you want your husband to recover, pray." "May God preserve you." "Daddy?" "Are you asleep?" "Take this out!" "There's a fly!" "Yuck!" "Get it out." "Daddy, tell us a story." "What are you doing?" "Get out!" "There's a fly in Daddy's mouth!" "What have they done to you?" "I hope they haven't hurt you." "Just a second, I want to check on something." "Still not healed." "It's taking so long!" "Can you feel anything?" "Does it hurt?" "No..." "It doesn't hurt." "You're not in pain." "You're never in pain." "How can you live with a bullet in your neck?" "You're the one wounded, and I'm the one suffering." "Brothers, the enemy plans to attack our homes." "Come to the mosque!" "Our venerable commander will give you weapons to protect your families and your honor!" "They're handing out more weapons!" "They're going to fight." "They're pleased." "Get up!" "They'll kill you!" "Come on, get up!" "I don't know what to do with my brother." "He refuses to set foot on the ground." "In God's name, be careful!" "What have you done to him?" "The poor thing!" "Are you okay?" "It's better here, right?" "You see." "They're behind that wall." "The water-bearer still hasn't been." "The war still isn't over." "There'll be reprisals tonight." "I can't leave you here." "You should be down in the cellar." "But that's impossible." "Your head mustn't move." "If only a stray bullet could finish you off." "I'll go back down." "I can't leave the girls alone." "Freeze!" "Otherwise, I'll waste your ass!" "You hear me?" " What's that in his mouth?" " No idea!" "Where's your gun?" "There are no guns here." "Someone else finished him off first." "He doesn't need his ring." "Search the other rooms." "Nor his watch." "Go on, get lost!" "Can you hear me?" "You're dead to the world?" "I'm talking to you." "Or you're dead?" "Guys, where are you?" "What are you doing?" "Look, he has a wife." " I know." " How?" "Did he talk?" "He took his ring!" "Let's go!" "Where's his wife?" "There's no one in the house." "I think I know him." " Is he one of ours?" " I think so." "He's a good Muslim." "We didn't bomb the neighborhood for nothing!" "Let's go!" "Mommy, have you seen this?" "What is it?" "Go inside." "What on earth?" "Your wedding ring?" "Your watch?" "Was someone here?" "Thieves?" "They searched the house?" "Bibi djan!" "Bibi!" "Did you see anyone in my house?" "King of kindness!" "I weep over my loneliness" "It is time to return" "King of kindness!" "I weep over my loneliness..." "The king was here." "He caressed me." "Do you have bread, my daughter?" "I gave all my bread to the king." "Where are they?" " Your husband, your son?" " Right there." "In the house." "They're angry." "They won't speak to me anymore." "They'll talk to you." " Where are they?" " Come and see..." "Look!" "My heart grows impatient at your absence..." "My daughter..." "The king caressed her..." "I can't go on." "I can't stay here any longer!" "Come on, girls!" "Get your things ready!" "We're leaving!" "We're leaving right now!" "I have to find my aunt." "Go to hell!" " My doll!" " Stay here." "You again?" " I beg you, tell me." " I already answered you!" "Tell me or I won't move from here." "I'm staying here!" "Thank you." "Let's go." "Up you get!" "Right, I'm leaving." "I'll bring her back tomorrow." "You can come in now." "I've been lucky." "I've finally found my aunt." "She lives in the north of the city." "I didn't know about a lot of her life." "You knew that I'd been married?" "Yes, I did hear that." "My parents married me to a very rich man..." "A fool." "Two years later, we realized that I was sterile." "I was no use at all." "My husband sent me to his parents." "To become their servant." "When my father-in-law found out I was sterile, he came to fuck me every night." "One evening, I snapped." "I couldn't take any more." "Using his own pickaxe that I had hidden under my bed," "I split his skull open." "He died instantly." "I fled." "I made them believe I'd killed myself." "I vanished." "I left the children there." "She gave me a little money." "I think..." "That..." "I can't do anything more for you." "I heard our neighborhood is the front line." "They'll destroy everything here." "You knew that, didn't you?" "You knew it very well." "But you didn't tell me." "You knew it." "His brothers knew it, too." "That's why they all left." "You know why they didn't take you?" "Your husband was alive." "Because you were alive." "If you had been dead..." "One of your brothers would have married me." "Perhaps they wished you were dead." "They could have fucked me..." "At last." "Your brothers have always wanted me." "The three years you were away, when I washed, they watched me through the bathhouse fanlight." "I could hear them panting." "They were masturbating." "I don't know what I'm saying." "I'm sick." "You're listening to me for once." "You've never listened to me." "We've been married 10 years." "How long have we actually lived together?" "Two years?" "Three years?" "You were never there." "Even at the wedding!" "Like all heroes, you were absent." "At our engagement, a photo stood in for you." "I was proud." "Proud to be engaged to a hero at 17!" "Your mother would say," ""Victory is coming soon!" ""My son will return!" ""Victorious!"" "When she saw that victory was still a long way off," "she must have said," ""Leaving a fiancée so long at her parents' is dangerous." ""She has to marry."" "That's why you got married to his dagger." "I got married to you" "without you." "In the meantime, I had to sleep with your mother." "She watched over my virginity." "The day you returned from the front," "when I saw you for the first time..." "I remember it so well like it was yesterday." "You were just like you are now." "Not a word, not a look." "You sat down next to me, indifferent." "But me," "I was watching you on the sly." "I knew nothing about men, about husbands..." "I watched your every gesture." "But you..." "You were still thinking about the war." "I wonder if you even noticed me that day." "I have to leave." "I've talked a lot." "I have to see to the girls." "My only example of married life were my parents." "What an example!" "The only thing that my father was ever interested in were his quails, his fighting quails." "I would often see him kiss his quails, but never my mother, my sisters," "Me." "Never." "He would always sit cross-legged, take his quail in one hand and rest it against his lower belly." "With his other hand, he'd stroke it..." "He'd stroke it for hours." "Even if we had visitors, he'd keep on doing it." "If he lost at a quail fight, he would go mad." "As soon as he got back, he would look for any excuse to beat us." "As if it were our fault." "He would hit my mother, my sisters." "I hated his quails." "But he was so proud of them." "It was as if they were all he lived for." "I remember..." "I was nine or 10." "It was very cold." "I saw my father put one of his quails in his trousers." "Be gone with you!" "For a long time, I thought all men had a quail between their legs." "One day, he must have won a lot of money at a fight." "Well, I suppose so." "He had bought a quail, a very expensive one." "He trained it for weeks on end." "But he lost." "There you are at last!" "Hello." "May I?" " Brought your quail?" " Yes, I have it with me." "Your bird's running off!" "That's it, you lose!" "Come on, hand over the money!" "He had staked too much." "He couldn't afford to pay." "So he gave away my elder sister to honor his bet." "My sister, aged 12, left with a man of 40." "I was scared of becoming the stake in a bet, too." "I was really scared." "Guess what I did." "A cat used to come to our garden." "One day," "I took the quail from its cage." "I gave it to the cat." "It carried it off to a corner to eat it in peace." "I followed it." "But the cat turned on me." "It scratched my face." "Right here." "You never asked me about this scar." "Why am I telling you all this?" "I never wanted anyone to know, not even my sisters," "not even my aunt." "It's because of you." "You're compelling me to talk." "You hear everything I say." "I'm sure of that!" "You just want me to talk, to tell you everything." "Go to hell!" "Dear God, forgive me." "Leave us." "What's happened?" "Are you scared?" "Scared?" "No, I have a strange feeling." "I have the impression..." "A bad feeling?" "A diabolic sensation?" "Diabolic?" "No." "Ever since he was wounded and I tell him everything," "I feel delivered of a burden." "Strange, isn't it?" "What you're saying reminds me of my childhood." "My father talked about a stone." "A magical and legendary stone." "He'd say, "If you find this stone, set it down before you," ""tell it of your suffering and your secrets." ""The stone listens." ""Everything you never dare say to others," ""say it to the stone." "Talk to it." ""It listens to all your secrets." ""It hears everything." ""And, one day," ""the stone shatters." ""It falls to pieces." ""And, that day, you're delivered," ""delivered of all your pain."" "What's it called?" "The stone?" "The patience stone." "The patience stone." "Yesterday, I nearly abandoned you." "I had the impression that you wanted that, too." "That idea comforted me, relieved me." "But, this morning, I realized that it wasn't your death that relieved me." "It was something else." "It was the fact of talking, talking to you," "revealing my secrets," "revealing all my secrets to you." "You have stayed alive just to listen to me." "You've been living for three weeks with a bullet in your neck." "You're living to deliver me of all my suffering, of everything I've kept in my heart in 10 years of marriage." "In 10 years!" "You've grown old so fast!" "I've never kissed you." "Never." "And now..." "I can do anything with you." "I can do everything." "I can talk about everything..." "Everything." "My patience stone." "Do you remember our first night?" "Without a word, you pounced on me, excited, panicked." "Your mother was keeping an eye out." "She was dying to know if the virgin had been deflowered, if she could have a grandson or not." "A few months later, when she saw that I wasn't getting pregnant, she started complaining," "thinking I was sterile." "Sterile!" "She'd always come looking for me." "She'd pester me." "She'd urge you to take a second wife." "And you..." "You don't know what I had to do to make you keep me." "If you had known, you'd have killed me." "I didn't want you to abandon me." "If you had abandoned me, everyone would have rejected me." "My father, my mother..." "Everyone." "I still have so much to tell you." "Someone's in the yard!" "They're burying the neighbors in their garden." "Sister?" "Hello, sister." "Hello." "Are you well?" "I'm alive." "How is your husband?" "He's alive." "They'll be launching more rockets." "Stay indoors." "May God preserve you." "May God preserve you." "There'll be more bombing tonight." "I have to leave." "The militia are everywhere." "They're searching houses." "If they find you, they'll kill you." "The cellar is flooded." "I won't let them kill you." "Your head!" "Just a second." "I won't let them kill you." "Go back in!" "Sit down!" "Sit down!" "Are you alone?" "Are you alone?" "No." "God is with me." "Hey, you." "It's me!" "Come in!" "What's going on?" "Ceasefire." "What?" "Ceasefire." " Until when?" " I..." "I don't know." "Go and stand guard." "We'll camp here tonight." " Go on!" " Cigarette." "Here!" "Go!" "Go!" "All alone..." "Aren't you afraid?" "Don't you have anyone?" "No, I'm a widow." "Do you have children?" "Yes." "Two daughters." "Where are they?" "At my aunt's." "Why are you here alone then?" "I..." "I work." "I have to earn my living." "I have two young daughters to feed." "What's your job?" "I sell my body." "What?" "My body." "I sell my body." "I don't understand." "I sell my body for men's pleasure." "Shame on you, insolent, debauched woman." " Aren't you ashamed?" " Of what?" " Of what you say." " Of what I say or of what I do?" "Don't smooth-talk me." "You understand?" "Are you a Muslim or not?" "A Muslim?" "Why?" "I'll stone you right here on the spot!" "Insolent creature!" "I curse your father!" "You soil the name of Muslims!" "They're being killed and you sell yourself." "I'll kill you!" "I curse your father, bitch!" "Whore!" "Forgive me." "That's enough, go and squabble elsewhere!" "Now, what was I saying?" "Ah, yes!" "You were right to say that or they'd have raped you." "Come on in." " That's what I thought." " You were right." "They never rape a whore." "You know why?" "Because that kind of man doesn't put his dirty thing in a hole that's been used thousands of times." "But raping a virgin makes them proud." "It proves their virility." "They're stronger." "Stay here tonight." "I'm afraid he'll run out of serum." "Have some tea then." "I wanted to come back to you." "To stay with you." "I'm afraid something bad will happen to you again." "The girls are safe with my aunt." "They love my aunt." "Every evening, she tells them a story." "What would they do here?" "There's no water or electricity." "Halt!" "I still have so much to tell you." "Maybe I'll tell you everything." "I don't know how you'll take it, what you'll say about it." "I'll tell you everything tomorrow." "All right?" "I'm tired." "I have to sleep." "Who are you?" " How..." "How much?" " What do you want?" "What?" "How much is it?" "What?" "How..." "How much is it?" "But I'm not a whore!" "Is it over?" "Shut..." "Shut up!" "Was it your first time?" "Get up now!" "Or..." "Let me get up." "Are you from here?" "The poor boy..." "He made me think of you." "His heart was beating so hard." "You were as clumsy as he was." "I didn't know what to do." "I had no idea of what I had to do." "I thought the way you did it was the right way." "I felt nothing, only pain." "Afterwards, I started pleasuring myself." "Some nights, when you slept, I'd caress myself." "One night, you woke up asking me what I was doing." "I told you that I had a fever." "I was hot and drenched in sweat." "You sent me to sleep with the children." "My aunt is right to say," ""Those who don't know how to make love make war."" "The mullah came back." "I lied to him again." "I told him I still had my period." "He wasn't pleased." "He left again, complaining." "The poor man has become a coward." "I've lied to you, too." "On our first night, you thought it was the blood of my virginity." "But I had my period." "I kept that from you, on my aunt's advice." "I was a virgin but I was afraid..." "Afraid of not losing any blood." "Out!" "Come on!" "Get out!" "Go and play in the garden." "Come on!" " What are you doing?" " You can see what!" "It's time now." "Take it off!" "You've been stringing me along for three days!" "Show a little modesty!" "You're kidding!" " Can you deliver me some water?" " All right." "I have a little money." "I've bought serum and eye drops." "I've bought food, too." "I'll wash the sheet." "I won't be long." "What do you want now?" "I felt pity for him." "At one point, I got the giggles." "He thought I was making fun of him." "He nearly left." "Do you know why I laughed?" "Because of my aunt." "I told her about that boy, his stammer, and how he came too fast." "My aunt told me," ""Advise him" ""to fuck with his tongue and talk with his dick."" "As soon as I remembered those words," "I laughed!" "Then I thought of you and I stopped laughing." "It's dangerous to hurt a young man's feelings like that." "They only think of their dicks and nothing else." "Anyhow, it's over now." "Water-bearer!" "Water-bearer!" "The toilets!" "They're empty!" "The boy's a fast learner." "He isn't like you." "He accepts everything that I teach him." "It doesn't anger him." "You'd have killed me if I'd said such things." "All that mattered to you was your soul." "Your soul, your honor." "And what was I?" "Nothing." "A piece of meat." "With that boy..." "I take his hand." "I place it on my breasts, between my thighs." "He doesn't resist." "I guide him." "Where are the prayer beads?" "Why am I telling you this?" "The other women never talk about it!" "Never." "But me..." "I'm possessed by a satanic spirit." "The Koran?" "Have you seen the Koran?" "Which sura had I got to?" "The peacock's feather?" "The peacock's feather?" "Where is it?" "It holds all my secrets." "Forgive me." "Forgive me." "I shouldn't talk about all that." "Today, I wanted to tell you everything." "I couldn't manage it." "Someone has mended the gate." "Last night, I had a dream." "I gave birth to a boy." "His face was all wrinkled, like my grandfather's." "It's you!" "Hello." "Hello." "Not today, I can't." "Not today." "Only..." "No, no." "I can't." " Today, I can't." " I..." "Mended the gate." "So that was you?" "Thank you." "Can..." "Can I..." "Come in?" "No, I said no, I have to work." "One..." "Minute." "I know we can do it quickly." "But I have work to do." "I'm expecting someone else." "Only..." "Only to..." "Talk." "Go on in." "What do you want from me?" "I told you that I couldn't today." "I have to see someone else." "All right, tell me." "The commander from..." "From..." "The other day..." "What's this on your body?" "What is it?" "It's a burn." "A..." "Cigarette burn." "Who did this?" "The commander..." "Who came here the other day." "I have burns on my back, too." "The bastard." "The son of a bitch." "That commander who spat at me." "The one who wanted to kill me." "You know what he does to that boy?" "He was an orphan." "He found him on the street." "By day, he puts a Kalashnikov in his hands, and, at night, bells on his feet." "His body is covered with burns." "His chest..." "His back..." "He burns him with the barrel of his gun and with his cigarettes." "The bastard!" "The son of a devil!" "Allah asked Muhammad to say," ""If I knew the hidden meaning," ""I would have made kindness mine" ""and turned evil away from me."" "One day, the Prophet said to his wife," ""Oh, Khadija, I am going to go mad soon." ""I am possessed." ""I hear voices coming from the stones." ""At night, a monster approaches me."" "So Khadija told him," ""Warn me when it next appears."" "And, one day, the Prophet said," ""Khadija, I see it."" "So Khadija bared her hair and asked Muhammad, "Do you still see it?"" ""No, I don't see it now."" "So Khadija said," ""That wasn't a monster or a jinn." "That was an angel." ""A jinn would have had no respect for my hair." ""It wouldn't have Fled..."" "What bothers you about that story?" "That the Prophet says," ""If I knew the hidden meaning," ""I would have made kindness mine" ""and turned evil away from me."" "So?" "Evil could have attained the Prophet?" "My girl, the Prophet was a man, an envoy of God, like the hundred thousand other prophets." "What did Khadija want?" "Khadija?" "She didn't want the Prophet to feel..." "Bewitched." "She wanted to open his eyes." "She wanted to tear him away from his illusions." "She wanted..." "Muhammad to attain his prophetical truth." "Khadija is the one who should have been a prophet." "Everything's calm today." "Maybe they'll raise the curfew." "I can stay late." "I'm very tired." "I didn't sleep well last night." "Who's that?" "Someone just dropped this off." "He's gone mad." "He's lost his mind." "I should have killed him the first day." "I couldn't." "You don't mind me telling you about him?" "That I welcome him here?" "I have no illusions." "Don't worry." "I know he can become horrible, like you." "If you come back to life, you will become the same animal again." "Right?" "Or you'll change." "You'll change." "I'm sure of it." "You'll smile at me." "You'll kiss me." "You'll take me in your arms." "You'll make love to me the way I want." "You'll love me." "Because now you know all my secrets." "You and me, we're not the same anymore." "What am I doing?" "My God, what am I doing?" "God, help me!" "The Koran!" "Where's the Koran?" "Someone's taken it." "My God!" "Help me." "I'm going mad." "No, no." "No, I'm not mad." "Neither mad, nor bewitched, nor possessed." "I don't need anyone." "Anyone." "I thought it would be hard to say it to you." "Impossible even." "But now..." "Now, with you, everything is possible." "We can do everything, say everything." "Where shall I begin?" "With our first child." "When I was pregnant, I prayed I'd have a miscarriage." "That child carried my secret." "He was my secret." "At the birth, I wanted to stifle him between my legs..." "But they gave me opium." "I was too dazed to do it." "On seeing it was a girl, I felt reassured." "A girl wouldn't give away her mother's secret." "Do you know why I didn't want that child?" "She wasn't yours." "Neither was the second." "I wasn't sterile." "You were." "Nobody knew that." "Your mother didn't want to know." "Remember?" "She wanted you to take another wife." "What would have become of me?" "My aunt came to my rescue." "I asked her for advice." "She found the solution." "Tell your mother there was a healer who worked miracles." "All the money your mother spent!" "She said nothing to you." "Each time, she told me, "It's your last chance."" "After several consultations with him, I got pregnant." "Want to know who he was?" "He was my aunt's pimp." "Want to know what his miracle was?" "Shall I tell you?" "He put me in a dark room with a man in a blindfold." "A totally dark room." "The man wasn't allowed to speak to me, or touch me." "We were never naked." "I never saw his face." "I think he was young and strong, but inexperienced." "My aunt gave me advice to guide him." "The first time, nothing happened." "At first," "I wept softly." "Then I cried out and threw up." "They hounded me from the room." "I didn't want to go back." "Little by little, I got used to it." "I accepted it..." "With a feeling of guilt." "When I got pregnant, your mother praised the healer." "She told people he worked miracles." "She often bought talismans from him." "For the second child, I don't know if it was the same man." "Always in the dark." "You?" "You've come back to life?" "My patience stone." "You've come back to me!" "The patience stone." "You've shattered!" "I've brought you back..." "Me..." "Me alone." "I have become a prophet who has accomplished a miracle." "I have become a prophet..."