Chapter 3
Al-Qasim smiled, showing his teeth as he almost smashed them: A computer and an internal network, you think you are still in Britain, we are here with nothing but the basics in treatment and a severe shortage of medicines and we are trying with weak capabilities to help patients, and you say a computer and a network, let's go to the patients.
He left her behind, staring at his unjustified agitation for her, then she moved quickly, trying to keep up with his movements.
After a full day of exhausting work, Maryam returned to the housing that had been allocated to them during their six-month stay in Palestine, which was a residential building with two apartments, one housing for women and the other housing for men. Dr. Mariam was sharing a room with a Palestinian doctor from another governorate. She also came to Jenin for help. She is called Al-Anoud (meaning overcast cloud).
Mary stretched her body on the bed and closed her eyes, remembering the last thing her father told her before she traveled to come to Palestine. She sighed with a smile when she remembered her father's words when he learned that she had been chosen to go to Palestine with the peacekeeping forces in a medical convoy for six months.
(My daughter, I dug in you the love of Palestine, for it is the land of all Muslims. Yes, I will be saddened by your separation for six months, but this wound is bandaged by me that you are going to the land of loved ones, and my wish is that you do not take any material reward from them.
Maryam smiled and opened her eyes and then got up to help Al-Anoud in arranging the table. Today, the food making is located in the room next to her, which is inhabited by two girls, one of whom is British and the other is Syrian.
Raghda: What's wrong with you? Why is your laughter going to kill the neighbors?
Al-Anoud: How can I not laugh while Mary is talking about the Italian pasta that we will only eat on Blanca Day
Blanca speaking fluent Arabic: If you don't like pasta, don't eat, go to bed and starve
Mary: No, I will eat it even if it is burnt
Raghda with a smile: Blanca why don't you clear the dishes and leave me your day of cooking
Blanca: No, I don't like Jaly's dishes, but if Mary leaves me to arrange and organize the apartment, I'll leave her to cook with pleasure.
Al-Anoud: Yes, I agree with you. We heard that Mary cooks perfectly as she does in surgery, and you and I exchange roles in the rest of the work.
All the girls laughed and sat together, exchanging conversations during the meal, and when they finished, Maryam went to the kitchen to prepare tea and Raghda cleared the dishes, while Blanca and Al-Anoud rearranged the table and then sat together in the reception room. After the time passed, the girls went to the beds and fell asleep so that they could get up early and go to the hospital. After several days, it is considered routine. Mary goes before everyone else to the hospital and tries hard to prove her worth at work in front of the al-Qasim, then she returns exhausted from the many work that al-Qasim throws on her to the housing.
Inside one of the two-storey houses only Arafat and his son Al-Qasim are sitting with Arafat's wife and Al-Qasim's sister, who is called Bayan, who is in the first grade of secondary school, smart and diligent in studying. The mother is called Salha, and she is forty years old. She worked as an Arabic teacher in the only school in the city before her foot injury, they all sat eating Food food and they chat.
Arafat: How do you work with the following doctor with the Qasim convoy?
Al-Qasim: She is an excellent doctor, my father. I really do not know how she agreed to come here. I also know that she does not accept the symbolic fee set for her and distributes it to patients.
Arafat: Yes, Benny. She also came today. She suggests that you take some doctors under the supervision of someone from the city and go to homes to help patients who are unable to move to the hospital.
Salha: And yes, the girl, my Lord, guards her from all evil.
Statement: I hope to be like her one day
Arafat: I hope this is my daughter
Al-Qasim: And what did you answer her? Will you allow her to roam between the houses?
Arafat's concern then added: - Why don't you go with them, because you are aware of the needy inside the city, and as you know that it is a small city.
Al-Qasim: - God willing... Come on, I will go up to my room so I can rest a little and go to Absal's wedding tonight
Salha: Do not forget to convey our congratulations and apologize for not being able to go, as you can see, I cannot move
Al-Qasim smiled and nodded his head in obedience, then went up to his room and lay on his bed and fell asleep for a short period of time. After waking up, he got ready and went to the neighbor's house on the street behind the house, and the sound of slavery, the flute and the old Palestinian songs was resounding from the house.
Al-Qasim sat next to his friend Absal in the men's part. This is how the joys of Palestine are divided into two parts, the harem and the men, so that the harem can rejoice freely without being embarrassed by the men. In front of the house, some horsemen were dancing with horses, and this is a manifestation of their joy.
Time passed quickly, and the groom took a bride and went to their house next to the family's house, not far away. As for Al-Qasim, he returned to his home happy for his friend, whom God had completed his joy.
The next morning.
As usual, Al-Qasim went to the hospital early and started following up the cases, but this day was different because for the first time he started looking for the new doctor with his eyes, but she did not come yet. The medical pant, while she was placing the stethoscope around her neck, was surprised by the entry of al-Qasim, a rebel and shouting angrily.
Al-Qasim: Now you have been honored and attended the hospital. What do you think that you work in one of Britain's cafes, here are human souls, you are not coming to open up, Hanim.
Mary, placing her hand in front of her chest: I'm done, did you look at the watch in your hand?
Al-Qasim looked at the clock and found that it was six in the morning, meaning that it was not late and that he was the one who was at fault, so he ran his hand through his hair with a tense movement and then spoke
Al-Qasim: - Yes, it is six. You should be here at six for ten minutes. There is a waiting process. Hurry up
Al-Qasim rushed out in front of her so as not to give her a chance to respond, so she whispered behind him imitating him:
Maryam went to the operating room, and there he was starting to prepare the operation. She stood next to him, helping him in silence.