Throwing Sparks by Abdo Khal Page B

against Osama on the grounds that he was too young, wayward and unruly. While his forehead bore the black mark from frequent prostration, they felt his conduct had not exhibited the requisite reverence for such a holy place.
    The first day Osama donned his father’s ihram clothing and performed the seven circumambulations of the Kaaba, he had not even bothered to tame his head of hair. He actually welcomed the pilgrims with words that were too abominable to repeat. His transgressions were reported to the head guide, who grabbed Osama and dragged him away from the Yemeni corner of the Kaaba, warning that he never wanted to lay eyes on him again. Osama had scuttled his mother’s plans for his future. He left Mecca and returned to the neighbourhood and to a life of vice. He did so surreptitiously, in order to maintain a reputation for piety that he had attempted to cultivate to appease his mother after being expelled from school over a porn magazine scandal. At the time his mother had promised that if he mended his ways, she would betroth him to her niece, the beautiful Tahani.
    Osama had a proclivity for fair-skinned boys. In pursuing them, he was imitating the neighbourhood’s old pederasts and also joining their ranks. The wizened old wolves still stalked him in the dark alleyways and he was so dashingly handsome that after his father’s death even the head fisherman, Sheikh Omar, made a pass at him. But Osama knew the old men and their tricks, and he refused their gifts.
    Sheikh Omar was undeterred and he persisted until one day, after the sunset prayers, Osama grabbed the microphone in the mosque and, in front of the entire congregation, warned the man to keep his hands off him. Sheikh Omar was stunned and, despite repeated attempts to clear his name, his reputation was for ever ruined.
    Later, Sheikh Omar approached Osama and tried to explain that his overtures had been misinterpreted – they were purely honourable, sanctioned even, given the heavenly reward promised to those who provided succour to orphans. But Osama’s allegation and public warning caused a lasting rift between the head fisherman and the rest of the community.
    Just as Sheikh Omar had pursued him furtively, so too did Osama resort to subterfuge in his pursuit of boys younger than he. He had taken to shaving long before the incident with the fisherman in order to appear older and fend off the pederasts. By the time he was twelve, his moustache and beard were already growing out.
    Osama was expelled from his first school for being what school officials called a ‘depraved member of society’. He was caught distributing porn magazines to his classmates by the school janitor, Gebreel Musa, who had been asked to keep an eye on the boy. Gebreel offered Osama the use of his quarters in the school as a safe hiding place for the magazines in case of a surprise search. Later that week, at the first signs a search was in progress, Osama dashed over to Gebreel and, extracting sixteen full-colour porn magazines from his schoolbag, he handed them over to the janitor for safekeeping. Gebreel proceeded to take them straight to the headmaster.
    Osama would probably have stayed in school were it not for the worst caning he received in his young life and for the fact that the disgrace was made public. The students were made to line up in the courtyard while the headmaster gave a scathing speech about him over the public address system, thereby broadcasting the scandal to every house in the neighbourhood. Before the froth on his lips had dried, the headmaster got Gebreel and a teacher to hold Osama in place, and reached for his cane.
    Three whipping canes were broken on the soles of Osama’s feet that day, and Osama vowed he would get back at Gebreel at the first opportunity.
    As a child, Osama was stuck to Tahani and she led him on, even though she was four years younger. However, when she was not around, he clung to her older brother instead. With his father