Part three:
As a ship was docking at the port and the hotel being so close to the sea I woke up by the sound of the ship's horn going off. I was confused and wondering why horn went off that early in the morning and as I approached the balcony could see it was midday and the hustle and bustle of the city had started. I went to the bathroom and took a shower and changed clothes and as I was going downstairs to the restaurant to have a late breakfast Ismail had wokened up. He asked if i could wait for him so we could go together and I said ok i wasnt that hungry after all the snacks we had last night. Farax and Elias were sleeping together, much more closer than I though considering the beds were huge and couldeasily sleep three.
As we sat in the restaurant and the waiter was taking our orders Ismail tried to converse and it didnt help. Both of us knew what we had in mind but no one dared to ask. Either one was waiting for the other one to talk about what i meant with the thing i said last night. It was the historic dilemma, who should take the first step and both of had the feeling that we knew both what was up but just needed the kick to start it off. Well as we were busy with our breafast Farax and Elias came to join us. Farax suggested we go to these hot water springs up in the mountains and they were like jacuuzi's, but as we were planning the trip Elias asked if i could come with him back to the room and so I did.
You know Haytham that we havent seen your mom for two days and we need to see her before we go there. It hit me that we werent here I had my mom with me and as i reached for my phone i could see all the missed calls she left. I called her and said I was sorry i couldnt call her but i was just having fun with Elias. Well havent you changed your mind about somalia and besides your dad thinks is good that you 'assimilated' so good looool. I said that i would come pass her after i came from the friday prayers and that I was planing to go to these springs and she was cool with it. We all went to the mosque and had completed our prayers I'd said to the guys I would meet them later on and would pop to my granny's house and I was walking away from the mosque I met a guy named Khalid who remeberd me when his school played a fotball match with my school back in london. I could remember him vaguely but he said he was the right midfielder. Well we talked a bit and he said he was from Islington back in london and was here for holidays too. He asked where i was going and accidently that was where iwas heading so we walked together. To my surprise Khalid lived very close to my granny's house and asked if we could hang out and as he had told he was here with his parents and his was they're only child so I invited him to back to my granny's house in an hour and he could come with us to the springs. He was happy to hear that as he hadnt done anything but staying with the family for a week.
I came through the door and said hi to everyone and gave a kiss to my mom and granny and went to my room to find my sandals and as I came back to the living room with everyone eyes fixed on Al-Jazeera i told my granny I was going out again and she was upset about me not spending more time with them and my cousin pitched in with saying the kid is young let him have fun. My granny came to her senses that she had hugged me for more than hundred times and I was kid and possibly couldnt take more loool but my mom was just happy by the fact that she didnt need to look for e constantly like in London. As I went out through the the 'ganjeel' or the compound doors I had rememberd that I had told Khalid to come by but hadnt asked about where he lived so I only could wait for him and I sat down. waited for another 20 minutes and no sign of him. I looked at the time and I was already late by ten minutes so as I got up to walk he came out of nowhere and apoligised for the latness.
As I didnt know the place we were going and the only person who knew were waiting for us at the beach we knew we had to hussy up. Khalid grew up in Saudi Arabia and could speak arabic and that made our conversations a bit easier. We talked about our lifes back home in london and everything we had seen here and he knew a place were they had nice burgers and he promised he would take me their when we came back from the springs. As we were walking towards the other guys I could see how all of them were thinking who's this new guy but I introduced them and the fact that he came from London just gave him the pass. This pass was for anyone who lived outside somalia and meant that at least the guy would understand what your talking about and could hang out wih other foreigners. It wasnt that we were racists against the locals but it's easier to hang out with people that could relate to you in some way. I introduced him to everyone but I could notice Ismail wasnt as happy as the others to welcome him in the 'group'. We took a cab to the mountains behind the city and what ride it was sometimes you would think the narrow roads up in mountains would cause the car to fall over. But this place so beatifull, it had like over 10 hot spring baths or jacuzzis and the place was full of palm-trees and date trees.
As we were just splashing the water around and enjoying the sliced mango and papaya weh had bough from a lady seeling it there we were just enjoying ourselves. Me and Khalid were just talking and everything was going so smooth besides the fact that I was very social and could easily get to know people but the conversation I was having with Khalid went to smoothe and Ismail could notice that. What I didnt notice was that Ismail was looking at us talking and laughin in arabic and he couldnt understand that much but Elias had noticed that he wasnt going along with they're sheeko or story. This was like the scene of too many people being to occupied with looking at people and it went like this. Farax was talking to Elias but he wasnt going along but was in fact lookin at Ismail and why he was loong at me all time, but when Khalid noticed that Ismail was looking at me all the time I noticed everything.
This moment was so weird because nobody was innocent as everybody wast waching someone and everyone just laughed. I mean was this normal, is it natural for humans to just laught when they've been in an ackward situation or felt embarrassed but all I know is that it helped to break that moment. There was the lives of of five somalis in Somalia and it was was very similar to the scene's of Sex And The City but excluding all the sex but if i knew what i know today a lot of things would have happened by now lool. As this place was frequented a lot by somalis from abroad there was a lot of them there, then therefore this place became where all the guy's selling drugs and contraband alcohol and beer from ethiopia best place to sell things.
We met other guys from Europe and everywhere else and told us that they usually stay after the 'older' people i.e. parents and basically everyone older then 24 would leave before the maghrib prayers or after 6pm and everyone stays and drink couple of beers and just chill and some actually stayed over cuz the place had a four bedroom house which was open for anyone who wanted to stay over, and a lot of married couple did so but there wasnt any couples there that day. While the others contempleted about the idea Ismail asked if we could go and talk private somewhere and we did.
He said why I acted strange today and i said i was just alright and wsnt different. Haytham I know whe were hig a bit last night and might have said some stupid things but that they dont mean nothing and we should be go back to the way it was. I was confused and asked if he wanted to act like the first day we met and why he felt we had changed. He said that obviously something had bothered me he thought and we should be just normal, but I said we were normal now and didnt realise that he was abit jealous of not having me for himself and that Khalid was spending a lot of time with me. What I wanted from him was clearity that was the only thing my heart and mind was yearning for not sex or physical contact as I was not even thinking about those things yet. He said but Haytham why dont you act on what you want and stop playing with your mind, and both of us know what we want and there it all happened, before i even could reply he already made a quick look around and pushed himself towards me and kissed me!.
I was just so taken aback and chocked that i neither fighted nor kissed him back. But when my brain started to work again I pushed him away from me. I just stood there and just looked in his eyes and the silence was killing me.
What should I do, what should I say and where should I go was the only things a was thinking about. I couldnt ran away from him but then was afraid because the surroundings was so open and anyone could just see us at anytime and i felt so nervous. This heat and rush was just flowing through my vains and I felt this great warmth around me and I sat down. Ismail was so nervous and sat down too but didnt even look at me and was quiet. We actually sat they're for five minuted without uttering single word nor looking at eachother. Then Elias came over and wonderd what we were up to and saw that we wernt up for the modd of talking and asked why we were acting weird. I gave im a sign which we both knew and he said well were waiting for you guys so hurry up and there he went. I took the courage and said Ismail listen we can talk about this later on alone and then he said that nobody should know about this and started to apoligise. While I was more confused but gathered some courage as he days had gone by but when faced with it just went craze and freaked out, but i didnt have much time think as we went back to rest of the group. We had some dinner which we bouht from these ladies cooking food to sell but nobody was talking, I was certainly not in the mood to talk to Ismail and Khalid noticed i didnt want to talk and my friend Elias wanted to know what had happened between me and Ismail and Farax's usual friend elias wasnt talkin. I told Elias that I didnt want to spend the night here at least not tonite and wanted to go home and he did so too. Then everybody just wanted to go home and we told the other guys we would come over another night. During the trip back home nobody talked besides small-talk and when we finally arrived it was a quick get-go from eachother and farax and Ismail went together as they lived close to each other and as Elias was staying with me and Khalid was a neighbour we all went with each other. I appreciated the fact that Khalid was with us as this bought me some time from what I knew was coming from Elias and all his questions.
As we arrived we said bye and promised to meet up tomorrow me and elias went through the gates. I went straight to my bedroom and threw myself on the bed. Elias quickly talked to evryone and came after me to the bedroom. Elias had been my friend for as long as I could remember and knew every little secret about me and he was the only one i could trust for real. He just said listen Haytham i know maybe the fact that were in Somalis changes everything but you havent been yourself for the whole trip and you know am a straight talker and both of know that when we met Ismail everything changed, and seeing the way you too were reacting toay just makes me wonder even more. Whats wrong Haytham tell me am your best friend. There I sat in the bed and had my eyed full of tears for the first time in front my friend and he couldnt believe it. I was quiet all the time but he just hugged me and promised that he would understand but to tell whats wrong. There istead of being afraid of telling it I was more afraid of the though of, if he couldnt understand nobody would.......EVER.
Part 4 coming soon.
