A Summer Cloud

"How beautiful this morning is!"
Zahra breathed the phrase to herself as she looked out of her bedroom window over the green pine grove, where colors and boughs rippled with the flicker of sunbeams and the play of the breeze, the rustling of the leaves answering the intoxicating scent of the pines.

"Summer in the mountains is a perpetual spring,"
said the girl, feeling spring steal through her body... See — she could glimpse a strange sparkle in her own eyes, and in her features a lift and an openness... as though there were in her voice a melody and a warmth that made its sound sweet to her hearing, so that she almost spoke to herself aloud.

Was it true that she had become beautiful, or had this mountain air lent her a new charm? She did not doubt it, for wherever she walked she saw eyes turned upon her, stirring a wave of admiration all around her. And she was made still more certain of it by what she had noticed in her neighbor at the hotel: a wish to talk with her and an inclination to pay her compliments.

She had known this young man for some years — from a scouting excursion the graduating class of her school had made, in the company of the leader, to the outskirts of the Cedars, where the girls stayed four days. It happened that a number of young boy scouts were camping nearby, and twice they came over to the girls' camp to help them pitch the tents and tie the ropes. Among them was this youth, whose name, she learned, was Issam, and who was one of the troop's leaders.

Beyond that she remembered nothing about him except two intensely black eyes; but for those, she would not have known him when she met him at the hotel six years later. Her companion Sana said to her:
— He showed great delight at coming upon you here. As though he had stumbled on a lost treasure.
— That is strange. I hardly know him.
— He is most charming, and his eyes are winning.
— But he is short.
— Is his companion an old scout too?
— No, but they are bosom friends. The other one is a teacher of geography and science, devoted to study and reading, and preparing for the law degree by private study. Issam is a sports instructor in a number of schools. For all the difference in their inclinations, they have been inseparable friends since boyhood, and they are so still.

Then the two girls sank into their own private thoughts. Zahra and Sana, too, had been inseparable companions since their early years, despite the difference in inclination and in age. She — that is, Zahra — was a specialist in teaching small children; her friend worked as secretary in the school where Zahra taught, for she could not endure teaching children or bear to be long in their company. Her hands were in perpetual motion: when she finished pounding the typewriter or adding up figures, she turned to plying her hands at knitting wool with surpassing skill, while Zahra would sit down to read a book or hum a tune.

The two companions were exchanging talk as they sat on the hotel terrace after breakfast. Said Sana, following with her gaze two elderly hotel guests who had withdrawn to a sunny corner of the terrace to sit:
— Don't you think these two young men's alighting upon the hotel is one of fortune's happy chances? Boredom had all but killed us in this dreary atmosphere.
— You are right. The hotelkeeper and his wife might be relics of the Stone Age. They are good at nothing but smiling and repeating phrases of politeness.
— But the food is clean, and the hotel is well situated.
— It is a magical air; it wakens energy and stirs up dreams.
— The two companions are still deep in their sleep. What sluggards! They promised to go with us this morning on a long walk.
— It is still early morning, and the weather is cold. No harm if we start out an hour from now.
— I see you are defending them.
— What do you mean?

An innocent smile of affection crossed Sana's face, and she said in the tone of an elder sister:
— Listen. He has talked to me about you most delightfully. He holds you in great admiration, and I don't doubt he is smitten with you.
— You mean Issam?
— Yes; the thing is plain. Don't you see him — he follows you more faithfully than your own shadow... And you... I can only think you are pleased with his conduct.
— And how did my pleasure show itself to you?
— I see you happy. Your face wears the marks of contentment and happiness.
— I don't know — it is the effect of the air, the rest, the beauty of nature, and the company. But I cannot discover my own feelings at such speed. And I do wonder at his haste.
— He has known you a long while.
— That means nothing.
— Here they come. Issam is wearing his most bewitching smile.
— He was not long about it. Come, let us change our shoes.

★

In the evening — while Sana lay sound asleep — Zahra tossed upon her bed in the hotel room, going over the day's events. She called back to mind what Sana had said in the morning... No doubt she was truthful in her observations and in what she reported; her friend had never once lied to her, and had no need to lie. Issam directed all his attention to her alone and watched over her every movement... And the walk had been truly splendid... They walked long, long, through the tracks and paths that glide like magic threads over the slopes and around the bends — now straight, now winding — opening out over the level ground, then narrowing until they all but vanish among rocks and thorns... How she loved these paths, worn smooth before them by thousands of feet, leaving behind faint traces that speak of man's love for the earth, or of his fear of it... So she spoke to Issam when he complimented her on her lightness of step; for he kept beside her most of the time, telling her of his free, progressive inclinations and his reformist opinions, describing to her his scouting activity, how he hoped to head the federation he had labored to bring into being, and how he had succeeded in getting the school principal to increase the hours of physical training from two a week to three. Then he told her of his passion for walking and excursions, and begged her to come with him, she and her companion, on many outings during this holiday. And if his friend declined to accompany them, he would go with the two of them alone.

She thought it only proper not to let him monopolize her company, so she seized the moment on the way back, when he was busy picking some wild flowers, to turn to the other companion — Nasri — and talk with him a little about the books he was reading and the examinations he had still to pass. It pleased her to listen to Nasri as he explained to her his method of teaching "things," while Issam walked beside Sana, glaring at the two of them. She fancied she heard him address her teasingly — "It seems the talk has many branches" — but she paid it no attention.

Did she love this young man? She did not know — but it gratified her to draw his notice and to be the object of his interest. He had been frank in what he said of her to her companion. There was no affectation in his manner, and no dissembling. Nor was he merely carried away by the magic of the place...

And she went back to talking to herself: Why not? Nature, no doubt, lends a hand. Everything around us tempts to love and breathes beautiful thoughts... Let matters take their course. I am bound to know the end soon.

And she closed her eyelids on rosy dreams. But the next day brought her news that stirred her doubts. Sana said she had risen early, as was her habit, and found that the two friends had risen before her and left the hotel after taking breakfast, bound for Beirut, hoping to return in the evening.

A sudden trip, and without a word of farewell... Perhaps some unexpected business had come up... They returned late in the evening — after nine — waved a greeting from afar, then shut themselves up in their room.

A day passed, and another day — and Zahra began to notice in Issam's bearing a plain coolness. His companion, as usual, was absorbed in his studies, and there was nothing new in his manner. But Issam... what could have happened to him? What sudden reversal was this? She tried to draw near to him, to speak to him, in the hope of learning the cause of his change. He would answer her with clipped words and a forced smile, as though he were deliberately avoiding her.

Not two days passed before the two friends packed their bags to leave the hotel, alleging that pressing business required their immediate departure. And the companions parted with a plain word of farewell.

Zahra remained perplexed after this, turning over the recent past without finding the reason that had driven Issam to turn away and take sudden flight, after having meant to make many excursions in her company.

She felt no pain at his parting, and satisfied herself that her interest in him had been a momentary, passing attraction. But she kept wondering at the secret of his reversal, until his name came up between her and her companion.

Sana said: I don't think he deserves your interest. Better not to think of him.

— I am not sorry to have lost him. But do you know the reason for his sudden departure?

— Do you remember that walk of ours? I saw him glare at you when you kept company with his friend... what is his name? Nasri... And he was talking to me with his lips pinched with vexation and fury.

— I noticed none of that; I was far off.

— But I was at his side, and I understood that he expected you to keep to him and to no one else — and that he nearly went mad at your walking with the other young man.

— That is, he means to capture me and have me to himself before he asks for my hand or declares his love to me? He wants me to anticipate his wishes and refrain from looking at anyone else... all this when there is no pledge and no word between us? What would it be if there were...

— Jealousy is eating him alive.

— And I who kept saying to myself: everything around us breathes none but beautiful thoughts...

— I was certain of it when I noticed how his countenance changed.

— There is no other explanation for his about-face.

— He is gone, and no one mourns him.

— Off to wherever...

And the two girls fell silent, as Sana set her knitting needles moving with her accustomed nimbleness, and Zahra sank into the reading of a new book.