Hunters and Thieves

I found out on the morning she was coming. It was summer and I was having breakfast with Dad on the balcony that overlooked the valley. Cheese grease oozed out of the manakeesh we ate and puddled in our plates. Olive, fig, and jujube trees gleamed a rich green. In the centre of the valley, Mounir’s chickens pecked their breakfast on the farm, and we heard their grateful clucks up to our house.

Mom walked out with a tea tray. She sat, poured me a cup, then said it: “Malek’s cousin is visiting from France today. She’s here to get a good impression from him, so be on your best behaviour.”

Dad's jaw slowed down so that he looked like a cow chewing grass. The cheese grease from the man’ousheh I gripped with frozen hands trickled like a trail of tears to my elbows.

Lulu was Malek’s cousin from his father’s side. Malek was my cousin, too, but from his mother’s side, so Lulu wasn’t my cousin. They met a few times when they were kids, back when Malek’s dad afforded trips to Europe. Lulu hadn’t visited Lebanon in years, so I thought her parents picked one hell of a time to do so. The fighting in Beirut got so bad that Malek and his parents were staying with me in the mountains.

“Why?” I asked.

“Malek’s parents have been thinking about it for a long time...” Mom said carefully. “Lulu is here because Malek is moving to France next year.”

The chickens clucked. A chewed-up chunk of dough and cheese got lodged in my throat. I coughed.

“For how long?” I managed to blurt out.

“Forever, Saif,” Mom said. “He and Lulu are getting engaged.”

I tossed my breakfast on my plate, then I hunted Malek down.

He was sitting on the front steps outside, shooting pebbles at passing cars with my stick-and-rubber-band slingshot.

“What does Mom mean you’re going to France forever?” I confronted.

He scrambled to his feet. “Please don’t be mad,” he begged, “I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d be upset. I thought meeting Lulu right away might help change your mind."

I doubted that. We were twelve years old! It was too early to be thinking about grownup nonsense. It wasn’t even an official thing. Malek explained that their parents just wanted them to meet again before Malek moved in a year. The papers and rings wouldn’t come for few years more.

“How can you be okay with this?” I asked.

“It’s not all bad,” Malek shrugged. “Dad says living in Beirut is no good right now. It’s already been five years since the war started. Who knows when it’ll be over?”

“You don’t see me abandoning ship,” I snapped. “This is home. We stick it out here no matter what. And why’d you have to get engaged anyway? Why leave at all when you could stay in the village with me?”

“Dad thinks there's no future here,” Malek mumbled. “You know I wanna be a French writer someday. How am I gonna do that if I grow up in this little place?"

When we were kids, Malek and I talked about owning a farm together. We even planned to rob Mounir’s farm clean of its chickens so we could sell them back to him and buy his place with the money. I still wanted a farm, like my late grandfather used to have, but when Malek turned twelve, he started reading a bunch of French books I couldn’t understand.

Frustrated, I remembered the cheese grease coating my hands. I shoved a palm unto Malek’s face and rubbed.

“Yuck!” He staggered back. “What is that?”

I picked up my slingshot from where he dropped it, then I stomped back inside.

Be it that day or the next year, my best cousin was going away and I had no say about it. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try and do anything about it either.

Dad and Malek’s dad drove Lulu and her parents up from their hotel in Saida. As soon as she got here, all she and Malek did was speak French. My village school didn’t teach me any, and since Lulu didn’t know any Arabic, her mom, Malek’s auntie Mia, asked her to speak English with us.

Mom warned me not to play hunters and thieves before we went outside. She said Lulu wouldn’t enjoy playing in the dirt and sweating under the summer sun in her pretty clothes. She wanted us to sit in the front yard and just "talk". It sounded as boring as playing tawla or another one of Dad’s old boardgames.

So, I knocked on Dani and Rami’s door, my ten-year-old twin cousins and neighbours, and I led everybody down the white stone steps to Dad’s gardens.

Malek and Lulu buzzed in my ear like fat mosquitoes the whole time. They couldn’t take their eyes off each other. The twins kept glancing at them, too, covering their little “o” shaped mouths with tiny hands and snickering.

“I wanna be famous for my stories,” Malek said.

“Wow," Lulu grinned. "One day, I want to teach stories.”

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I told Lulu that if she wanted to hang out with us that day, she had to go through some tests.

“Like what?” she asked.

“You’ve gotta free Mounir’s chickens, put them all back, then steal us the prize.”

“The prize?”

I smirked and crossed my hands over my chest. “Two branches of old man Hameed’s finest jujube fruits.”

“Not old man Hameed!” The twins gasped.

Malek pulled me aside.

“Saif, what you described sounds a lot like my usual role.”

“So?”

“So! You can’t ask Lulu to be thief. She’s a girl, and I wanna make a good impression. You know how rough it gets with the thief.”

I was going to make fun of him, but then I looked into his eager eyes, big and brown like shiny olives.

“Fine,” I sighed. “Dani will play thief.”

Pleased, Malek joined Lulu, then we started the trek down Dad’s large gardens. Lulu struggled down the way, treading carefully to avoid slipping. The gardens were long stretches of land that led down to the centre of the valley like broad soil stairs. When we reached the final garden, we took turns hopping from Dad’s land down onto the road that cut the valley.

On the other side of the road, we hopped over the wire fence and into Mounir’s farm. Lulu hugged her skirt to her legs, trying to stop weeds from scratching her bare skin.

Malek and the twins found a patch of soil and started brushing away stray weeds so we could lie down. While they were busy, I pulled Lulu aside.

“Don’t tell Malek you’re thief, okay? You should surprise him. He’d think you’re so cool if you pulled off all the tasks.”

Her blue eyes lit up, sparkling like clean river water. She nodded, then walked toward the chicken coop.

“Wait, where’s Lulu going—?” Malek noticed.

Dani yanked out some weeds and tossed them onto Malek’s head. I took my place on the ground beside them. Rami kept lookout from the gate in case Mounir spotted our heads popping out like coyotes.

“What do I do?” Lulu whispered.

“The latch,” I motioned.

She twisted it, pulled the rusted thing, and out came the buck-buck-buck-eeek’s! Lulu screamed and ran around like a chicken herself.

With a roar I stormed onto the field, Dani in tow. Malek called for me, but I ignored him.

“The thief’s getting away!” Dani warned.

“My sword!” I demanded. He tossed me the invisible thing, then I hunted down the thief.

I hit her lightly on the butt then tackled her to the ground.

“Had enough yet?” I grunted.

There was mud and dried bits of grass on Lulu’s clothes. I tingled with the anticipation of her being all kinds of mad. She whined, struggling against my grip on her arms, but she shook her head firmly, no.

Then she let out a laugh. She looked as surprised by it as I was.

“Did you see how scared those chickens were?” she cackled. “They won’t let us put them back, for sure!”

Then she laughed some more, uncontrollably. I felt the sun beat down on my nape and sweat gather in my thick hair. Her blond hair, splayed over the green grass, was the mellow colour of anise tea. Her biceps felt squishy like dough, and the sweat on my palms made her skin sticky. I loosened my grip.

“Hey, get off her!”

Malek came over and pulled my shoulders. He slapped me on my nape, and I yelped. I was going to tell him to lay off when we heard it:

“Saif, is that you out here again?”

“It’s Mounir!” Rami yelled from the gate. “Run!” Some lookout.

The twins bolted. I told Lulu to forget about putting the chickens back.

“Saif, you rascal! What’re you doing to that little lady?” Mounir asked. “I’m telling your father, you hear?”

I scurried to my feet. Malek pulled Lulu off the grass, and we ran. We climbed over the fence and crossed the road.

“Man, that was close.” Malek panted. “You okay, Lulu?”

After the excitement was gone, she paid more attention to her clothes. Her blue skirt was patched with mud, and her green shirt had grass plastered all over it.

Lulu frowned. “Mama will be very mad,"

Malek looked at her sadly. I knew what he was thinking: Auntie Mia’s gonna kill me!

Lulu sighed.

"My clothes are ruined, but we can still play some more.” A grin formed on her face, then she took Malek’s hand in hers.

The twins ran around a tree howling.

Watching Malek’s face turn red, with that girl looking happier than I thought she’d be, my face muscles twitched.

“Hey, Lulu,” I said, forcing each word through my teeth. “Let’s go get our prize, then.”

“Let’s do it!” She clapped. Malek looked nervous, but he, too, seemed to understand there was no stopping that girl.

I led the group wordlessly up the gardens. Malek and I had chased each other down there with my slingshot a week before. But Malek was just walking then, chatting with Lulu about things I couldn’t hear. Things I wouldn’t even understand if I did hear them.

We reached the garden of old man Hameed, my cranky neighbour, and everybody stood beneath his large jujube tree.

“Get our prisoner thief and send her to the top." I commanded. The boys grabbed the short ladder leaning against Hameed’s house and set it beneath the tree.

I motioned Lulu forward.

“Be careful,” Malek was quick to say. “It’s a safe ladder, but I’ll keep holding it to be extra sure.”

It took everything in me not to scoop up some fallen fruits and pummel him.

“Climb! Climb!” The twins chanted.

I watched the yard door for the old man. Last time he caught us, he beat us all up with his belt.

“I see them!” Lulu called down from the top of the ladder.

“Start pulling them out,” Malek said.

The tree shook with each yank, and it rained leaves. I expected to see a stricken look on Malek’s face, worried that she might yank too hard and fall off. Instead, I got flaming red cheeks. He was staring right up her skirt! My fists clenched. I noticed how every time Lulu moved, the ladder wobbled a bit. So, I walked over to the twins.

“Look what I’ve got,” I said. I pulled my slingshot out of my pocket.

Rami snatched it without a word, grinning devilishly.

“Toss some jujube fruits at Lulu,” I instructed. “She’s thief, and I said I had to test her.”

The twins walked up to the ladder. Dani picked up some fallen fruit, then Rami pulled one against his rubber band and let it fly.

“What are you doing?” Malek asked. “Hey… isn’t that Saif’s—?”

But a second fruit flew right by Lulu’s face. She squealed like it was a wasp, and swiped at her hair. She leaned back, grabbed onto a bunch of fruit, then fell the short distance to the ground. Malek shouted and hurried to her. I walked over, and silently took the fruits.

I admit I felt bad. I just wanted to annoy her. But she wasn’t seriously hurt. Malek helped her lean against the tree, and the twins shuffled around her, looking guilty. Then Malek stormed over to me. He looked seriously angry for the first time that day.

“First you lie to me,” he said. “You promised she wouldn’t be thief. Then you tackled her! And now you try to hurt her. I know it was you. It was your slingshot.”

I shrugged, pretending not to care.

“This is how we always play.”

“I’m telling Auntie Mia you tried to hurt her,” he threatened. “You know how important this is to me.”

“We’ve never fought before,” I snarled. “Now this girl’s making us fight,”

“It’s not her, it’s you! We can’t stay boys forever, Saif. Some of us wanna turn into men.”

I would’ve snorted if I wasn't furious.

“Marry a girl for all I care,” I said. “But why can’t it be a village girl? Or at least someone from the city? Why isn’t home good enough for you?”

“I told you I can’t stay here. My parents don’t want me living around the war,”

“You don’t see me finding a ticket out. I don’t have fancy European cousins. And I don’t wanna be saved anyway, because if being a man means abandoning your home, then I don’t wanna be a man at all!"

Malek’s expression softened. “Growing up won’t always be fun, Saif. We’ve had good times growing up here, but it’s time to accept that we’re changing, and home is changing for some of us too... Maybe it won’t be too bad. Maybe change is good.”

Even if I knew how to respond to that, I couldn’t. The yard door opened with a BANG! against the wall. Old man Hameed stepped out, and he didn’t look too happy.

“I knew I’d catch you out here again,” he seethed. He had an angry farmer’s tan and small beady eyes. He held the belt he beat us up with last time. “Now you’ll get it.”

He came straight for me since I held the fruits. I backed up until I hit a tree, but Malek bravely stood his ground before me.

Hameed advanced. An ugly whipping sound struck the air. Lulu gasped from the jujube tree, horrified as Malek caressed his face. I expected her to stay hidden or run back to the house, but she ran up to Malek and threw her arms around him.

Hameed paused. He wanted to swing at Malek to get to me, but Lulu was in his way to get either of us. He paced there looking dumb, frustrated that he couldn’t hit anyone, then he charged back into the house promising to tell my dad all about it. The twins threw some jujubes at him as he went.

The lovers pulled apart. Their faces were pale. But the cold pit of dread in our bellies softened into an excited buzz.

I held up the jujube branch and said: “Tonight, we dine like kings, and all thanks to the best thief we ever had!”

Everyone cheered.

After lunch, Lulu and her parents had to go back to their hotel. They were traveling back to France the next day. While everyone said their goodbyes, I went out to the balcony.

“It's nice here,"

I blinked. Lulu was at my side.

“It’s home.” I shrugged.

She sighed, crossing her arms over the railing.

“I wish I knew this place, too.”

“What do you mean?" I asked. "France is your home,”

“France is home,” Lulu said. Then she swept her arm across the landscape. “But this is Malek’s home, and my home, too. One I never knew.”

I didn’t know how she felt. I had one home, and I knew it. But she had two. I hoped Malek wouldn’t feel like that. I didn’t want him to move on and forget me, but I didn’t want him to feel sad all the time.

“Malek wants to write,” Lulu said. “Maybe he'll write about this place and you,” She smiled, and poked me in the rib.

“A story about me,” I said, needing to clear my throat first. “I’d like that.”

We fell silent for a moment.

“Can I be honest?” I started. “I was pretty upset when I found out about you and Malek. It felt like you were stealing my cousin away, and I can’t imagine home without him. He’s my best friend.” I rubbed my cheek awkwardly. “Turns out I was wrong. You’re cool. He’ll be happy in France and that’s what matters.”

Lulu grinned. Feeling shy, I looked back at the valley.

“Maybe one day, me and Malek can come back here,” she said.

“That would be great.” I said.

She looked out at the valley one last time, then she said goodbye and walked into the house. I turned back to the land I was watching that morning, thinking about how everything had changed. Then I spotted Mounir down in the farm. He was a tiny speck, but I saw his fist stick out in the air and start shaking. He called my name into the wind, and I laughed. Maybe not everything changed.