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    Desert Flower
    Desert Flower
    Desert Flower
    Ebook48 pages41 minutes

    Desert Flower

    By Zohra Saeed

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    About this ebook

    A short story - Love blooms in 1930s Bahrain...

    “His deep voice was soft as the waters in the bay on a summer night and his words were the most magical I had ever heard. They sent a thrill racing through my body like a hundred tiny Arab horses galloping down my spine.

    I closed my eyes with an effort to shut out his face, then opened them again, the tension of his loving words made me want to touch his lips and trace the soft bow of his mouth...”

    * * *

    1930s Bahrain, oil has just been discovered in the Middle East and Andrew MacInnis from Canada has come to work there.

    Andrew visits a Bahraini carpet merchant, who does not speak English. The merchant calls for his daughter, Noor, to act as interpreter.

    Noor is a devout Muslim and as such must not expose her face to men outside of her immediate family.

    She acts as translator for her father and although he never leaves the two alone, under his very nose, Andrew and Noor get to know each other and fall desperately in love. The lovers secretly plot to run away but the risks are terrible. Noor’s father may send members of the family to hunt them down and kill them.

    Do they escape? Will Noor have the nerve to follow Andrew’s plan or will centuries of a formidable culture and Noor’s upbringing prevent these two young lovers from following their hearts?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZohra Saeed
    Release dateJun 20, 2015
    ISBN9781909133747
    Desert Flower
    Author

    Zohra Saeed

    Zohra Saeed/ Rohini SunderamZohra Saeed is the pen name for Rohini Sunderam, a semi-retired advertising copywriter. She has written two books as commissioned assignments, had articles published in The Statesman, Calcutta, India, The Globe & Mail, Canada, and The Halifax Chronicle Herald, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was a contributor to the anthology My Beautiful Bahrain published in 2011 by Miracle Publishing, Bahrain, More of My Beautiful Bahrain & Poetic Bahrain, (Robin Barratt Publishing UK), Corpoetry, (Ex-L-Ence Publishing). A poem was selected for publication in the international competition Poetry Rivals (Published by Remus House, UK) 2012. A story: Your rebirth, My death, placed 5th from 179 entries in the Atlantis Short Story contest 2013.Rohini chose the penname Zohra Saeed for her romantic novella, Desert Flower in order to give it a separate persona. The story is published by Ex-L-Ence Publishing UK also the publisher for Rohini’s collection of lighthearted poems about corporate life: Corpoetry.

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      Book preview

      Desert Flower - Zohra Saeed

      Desert Flower

      By

      Zohra Saeed

      © 2015

      Published by Ex-L-Ence Publishing at Smashwords.

      Desert Flower is a work of fiction and any resemblance between the characters and persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      The right of Zohra Saeed to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988

      Contents

      Dedication

      Glossary

      1 - A prickly environment

      2 - The cactus blooms

      3 - A risky plan

      4 - So many reasons to weep

      And Now

      Dedication

      To my mother, Joyce Pritilata Singha nee David

      My sister Vinita Shivdasani who suddenly passed away, April 9th, 2008

      But most of all to my husband Kalyan, my rock through all these years

      Glossary

      Abaya – A full-length, full-sleeved outer garment worn by some Muslim / Arab women

      Al Hijri – The Islamic Lunar calendar

      Baklawa - A rich, sweet dish made of layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts; sweetened and held together with syrup or honey

      Dallal – Matchmaker

      Djellaba – Long loose garment worn under the abaya

      Gahwa -Thick, rich Arabic coffee

      Haram - Forbidden / sinful

      Khanjar – Short ceremonial decorative dagger carried by some Gulf Arabs

      Machbous – A traditional Arabian Gulf dish of rice and meat (lamb or chicken) and spices, sometimes garnished with nuts and raisins

      Majlis – Meeting room where visitors are entertained in Arab homes

      Maktab / Muqtab – Elementary school

      Mashata – A hairdresser / woman who’d visit homes to oil, wash and dress the women’s hair

      Mumtaz – good quality, special

      Niqab – A veil or face cover worn in public by some Muslim / Arab women covering all but the eyes

      Shaikha – A princess

      Sharif – The chief of a tribe or group

      Shayla - The basic headscarf worn by Gulf Arab women, it is a long, rectangular scarf popular in the Gulf region. It is wrapped around the head and tucked or pinned in place at the shoulders.

      Sheesha – Traditional Arab hookah or waterpipe

      Shukran – Thank you in Arabic

      1 - A prickly environment

      How can I explain that sort of heat to you? Dry. The air so hot you can hardly breathe. The sun: a high, burning, intense fire in the heavens. You can’t look up to see it. It is shrouded in a heat haze, so that although one is aware of a single heat source, the entire dome above seems like a pulsating radiator reflecting that relentless heat back to the baking earth below.

      In such a land nothing lives, save a few daring palms that would cheat the heat, and not let it extract their moisture by thickening their trunks and shredding their leaves, or scrub trees, those tenacious acacias - gnarled and thorny, husbanding their water and sap, even their chlorophyll into the tiniest imaginable leaflets - extracting from

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