Sister: Welcome after a long absence. I long to meet you from one summer to the next, and I only find myself when your face shines upon me. The sun of our island is not a sun in your absence, and its beaches are not beaches if you do not feel your steps caressing its sand. Brother: Your eyes shine with love and eagerness, and take me back to a song dear to me that translates this moment: “Summer, oh summer, on my beloved’s forehead. Wave, oh sword, bring us back, my relative.”
Sister: Yes, an expressive song. But, would you please forget Fayrouz for a moment and come back to me?
the second day
A generous lunch filled with delicacies and overflowing cups to celebrate the dear guest.
Sister: The quorum at the table is complete, brother. Come to the head of the table, and let me choose for you a song worthy of our celebration of you and your beautiful family. Brother: My dear, you are doing everything possible to please me. Complete your favor, and reveal to me the ending of the play “Season of Pride,” when Assi Rahbani addresses the bride, Sabah, saying: “Before you go with him, my soul is with him.” Sister: How strange that you immerse yourself in the old, which is almost erased, and get lost in the masterpieces of the new? Why this section and not others? Brother: I will never forget him as long as I live. With it, I inaugurated my break from singleness on my wedding night, and it occurred to me to gift it to my wife and to you in a moment of family happiness. Sister: Whatever you want. I thought you had forgotten your beloved Fayrouz, but you do not deviate from her world and bring up Assi, her discoverer and husband. Brother: Her husband, sure. Its discoverer, I disagree with you. The first credit goes to Halim Al Roumi. He dusted off a priceless diamond and instructed Assi to polish and trim it.
the third day
The sister holds a glass of white wine to her brother who is lying by the pool. The sun shines with its blazing threads, whispering to the sister to invite her brother to plunge into the basin, to leave its mark on his body. Sister: Now all you have to do is answer the call of the water. It is as if she is calling out to you from her core to be bathed in her sweetness. Brother: You may be right. But, where is the sweetness of that blue between the four corners of the song “Zad al-Khair” in “The Keykeeper”? Search for me about “Winen”, and let me warm myself with “laughter forgotten on the walls” to escape the heat that besieges me. Sister: Won’t you repent, your sister’s lover? Why this song and no other? Brother: How many dear people have abandoned me after all the calamities that befell our country. I listen to that masterpiece to remember them, in the hope that they will reciprocate my remembrance and nostalgia.
the fourth day
The sister carried to her brother all the summer fruits she could hold, and crowned him with the bright red of peaches and the resonant green of grapes.
The brother grabbed a bunch that was darkened by the sun and rushed to his smartphone. He quickly delved into the play “The Flint Mountains,” and unleashed the scene of “The Feast of Grapes,” singing with the singers:
“Oh our grapes, oh the path of the wind and the air, the waves of our waves
Your clusters are gold and color, and the genie colors our feet.”
The sister did not intervene this time. She lowered her head and listened carefully. This is not the first time she hears her brother singing. You know very well that his voice is not devoid of beauty. But she discovered that his throat took on an added sweetness when she performed something from the masterpieces of Fayrouz and the Rahbanis.
Goodbye day
The sister insisted on driving her brother and his family to the airport herself. There was silence all the way. You may not forget to meet him again before next summer. I noticed him staring at nowhere as a pun on the pain of separation. She stepped on the magic button in front of her, and the poet said:
“I have to say goodbye to you and tell you about me
“I am the whole story. If I were one of you, I would not be singing.”
A tear trickled down his cheek, awakening his lips into a smile and his arm into a half-hug. He said: “We will stay.”
“Together, no matter how far apart we are, as long as Umm Ziad is our third.”
