sleepless night

After 54 years...

Saturday, November 15, 2004.

Norse graves after midnight...

The vibrations of the lamp among the tombstones brought life to the dormant shadows, which began to watch two skulking ghosts: a tall, hunchbacked man wearing a robe carrying a lamp, and the other a young man wearing trousers and a shirt carrying an iron crowbar. Neither a growling dog nor a meowing cat stopped them until they reached a modest courtyard surrounded by cactus, closed off by a rusty door.

Next to it was a broken water fountain, on which was written: "Recite prayers for the owner of this fountain…' Leroy Al-Zahar'

"O reassured soul, return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing So enter among My servants and enter My Paradise."

The man reached into the depths of his robe, which looked like the hood of a double-cab pickup truck, and took out a large chain of keys. By the light of the lamp, he sorted them with his long fingers to select an old key from among them and held it close to the light:" Read what is written here."

The young man replied coldly: "Al-Zahar"

The man took the lever from the skinny young man: "Come here".

The young man replied: " how about i wait here for you instead!!?

With a gray eye out of service replied the old man "are you scared!! you pussy , it is safer inside than outside a hundred times".

The young man looked around suspiciously: "Okay, Uncle Jasper, hurry up. Take your time"

Inside the courtyard, Jasper left the lamp on the ground, put his hand in his pocket and took out a handkerchief that was more like a worn rag. He opened it to pick up two cloves of garlic, and with the fullness of his index finger, he stuck them in his hairy nostrils.

He inhaled a breath and then expertly inserted the edge of the crowbar between the stones of the grave after scraping the sand and plaster from between them. When he heard the clicking, he threw the crowbar and pulled out the stone slabs and put them aside. When the suffocating smell spread, the young man ran out.

Jasper picked up the lamp and went down muttering prayers. A minute later, he shouted a shout that shook the young man in the vicinity: "THR ETERNAL IS GOD"!!

The latter spat in the air:" May God destroy your mother's home, you son of a madwoman".

Seconds later, Jasper came out, holding the tail of his robe with the remains of his black teeth from having sex with the pong , revealing thick, hairy legs, cockroach-like in build, and a wide garment of destruction. He struggled to put the stones back in their place and stuffed the dirt between the holes again before turning to the young man and extending his hand in the darkness of the robe to pull out two skulls.

– "what a pair of skulls ? You'll pray for me. I chose this courtyard from among the others because it's still open".

"The smell will kill me."

- "man up, cousin. There are people who smell worse when they are awake. Do you have a bag of nylon"?.

The young man kicked a two-puff-old cigarette to its final resting place and took a black garbage bag out of his pocket, while Jasper handed him a skull after examining it, then stopped at the other one, which seemed more tattered.

" Bring the bulb closer".

In the flickering light, Jasper checked the skull teeth until he found what he was looking for... "two silver teeth No offense, these are mine... Okay, cousin"?.

Jasper pounced on the upper jaw of the skull with his jaws and bit it in a French kiss until he pulled them out and put them in his large pocket, then he put the skull in the bag:" Shall I break them for you"? .

- "sure".

Jasper reached out beside one of the gates and picked up a huge hammer It seemed to know its job well. He bent down, holding the bag with his knee before…He pummeled the skulls until they became straw. Then he shook off the dust and handed the bag to the young man who took a hundred euros from his pocket and stuffed it into Jasper's palm.

He sealed it, front and back, with a wet kiss of satisfaction: "Oh God, keep it a blessing for us and protect it from disappearing. You won't need anything else ?" .

-" no".

Then he spread his arms, pointing to the graves around them with the pride of an English duke in his sprawling estate. "There's a lot of good in it. I'll give you a discount."

The young man tied the black bag tightly: "stop the nonsense "

Jasper responded "The world has become more expensive for the dead than the living.. and clean skulls have become scarce.. the people who were buried here when there was still blessing.. everyone is now fleeting to saint Etienne.. go see how much the skulls there reaches and what its condition is"!!.

- Aren't you afraid that one day you will meet these people ghost's?

Jasper pointed to the two witnesses surrounding his beer fridge:" This is my uncle and my paternal uncle graves ".

Then he took a deep breath: "The living are better than the dead. If the ghosts was sitting with us right now, they would have taken two puffs ,That's the law of life, everyone lives off everyone else. Or is a worm better than us?".

The young man shook his head, surprised by the logic: "Good day, come on, take me out into the street."

As they approached the road, Jasper stopped as if he didn't have an exit visa. He raised his giant hand, waving, "Safe way, little one... Say hello to those who sent you."

Jasper left him and went back to the courtyard. He entered a room that served as a cemetery and bent down under a rusty iron bed to take out a jar filled with silver and gold teeth and some rings and earrings that the family of the deceased had not succeeded in removing or were afraid of disturbing their deceased's sleep.

He lifted the lid and threw in the two silver coins, two years that had sparkled with laughter one day in his house... He put the box back in its place and went out arranging his pong until dawn... the dawn of a new day...

the day on which Leroy Al-Zahar's head slept for the first time... away from his body...