The Story of Young Ahmad Shawqi Abi Zayd — 3 —

A psychological shock following the catastrophe of the Abu Ali flood robs him of his hearing and his speech

Psychological treatment restores them... and the boy loses his memory!!

Published serially by The Woman's Voice

— 3 —

The Problem in Brief

In the previous installment we left Ahmad at the Deir al-Salib hospital, after he had completed his psychological treatment, which ended in the recovery of his hearing and his speech — but he lost his memory. In vain did his physician, Dr. Edouard Azouri, and the Lebanese Red Cross delegation, headed by Miss Renée Arman — in vain did they all try to help him remember his past. Three times they took him to Tripoli — to the flood zone on the two banks of the Abu Ali river — but the sight of the river would soon reopen his wounds, and he would begin to weep, to call for his mother and father and brothers, and to fall into a faint... so they would carry him back once more to Deir al-Salib...

But Ahmad no longer needed treatment, and there were genuinely sick patients who needed his bed; the hospital had to be left... So where was he to go? What institution or home would take this adolescent boy to its bosom and shield him from the shocks of the street and from slipping in with bad company?

At Renée Arman's: Ahmad was still, materially, in the charge of the Red Cross — and it was the Red Cross that had settled Deir al-Salib's account for his treatment... They thought first of returning him to the Islamic Orphanage in Tripoli, but he refused to go, and persisted in his refusal, on the plea that he did not want to live among orphans and that this pained him... And Miss Renée Arman, who more than anyone else had accompanied and cared for him, could only be stirred by the feeling of mercy — generous as she is by nature — and she invited him to stay with her at home. That was in July 1956, and here Ahmad met with such pampering and comfort as he had never dreamed of. Every means of soft living was provided for him — food, clothing, the breathing of fresh air, with Miss Arman's automobile carrying him to the mountains for recreation. He lived twenty days in unbroken bliss, and the effect of the pampering showed on his outward appearance: his body filled out from the good food and grew firm, down began to line his cheeks, his voice began to roughen, and he began to be contented and at ease.

But this comfort did not last long. Miss Arman feared that, growing used to and fond of a life of ease and idleness, he would settle down and give up striving and effort for good. Nor was she mistaken in her reckoning, for the signs of laziness soon appeared on him, and he began to refuse every proposal that would take him away from the atmosphere of the happy home.

The Choueifat school: After much weariness and persuasion, Ahmad agreed to leave Miss Arman's house — but only for a boarding school. And in the depths of his total forgetfulness there was one thing he kept repeating and insisting upon: that he had been at a school in Choueifat. So Renée thought to take him to Choueifat, in the outskirts of Beirut, in the hope that someone might recognize him — that the riddle might be solved, the obscure secret uncovered, and the boy learn his final fate...

The president of the National College in Choueifat, Mr. Charles Saad, and his wife took an interest in Ahmad's story, and they resolved that the College would take him under its wing, materially and morally, until he finished his schooling and chose an independent life of his own... But in vain did teachers and students stare into his face, and in vain were the registers searched for his name... All their efforts went for nothing...

And President Saad's concern extended even further: he got in touch with the other boarding schools in Choueifat, all of which follow the Anglo-American system in their teaching — and on this ground Ahmad's claim was admissible and came near to being believed, for he knew English, not French, and he was plainly a schoolboy. Which school, then, could it be? So long as the registers showed no trace of his name, nor of any other name resembling it, and so long as not a single one of the teachers, the boy students, or the girl students recognized him??...

The detective says in his report that Ahmad is a fraud! Anxiety began once more to gnaw at the young boy's heart. The Islamic Orphanage in Tripoli never ceased to demand him, and he kept refusing to go. Miss Arman took him more than once to the home of the Red Cross member Mrs. Najla Saab, and his story would stir pity and tears!.. Everyone who heard the story burned with eagerness to help him. But what way was there to help him, when his identity was unknown, when there was no one in the world to claim him, no pair of arms opening before him to fold him in tenderness?? Then Mr. Rida al-Tamer, likewise a member of the Red Cross, rose to the occasion and instructed one of the detective force to accompany him for a whole month... And so it was done, and the detective drew up a detailed report, the gist of which was that Ahmad was nothing but a swindler and an impostor, fabricating lies and idle tales resting on no foundation!!..

At the Lazariyeh hospital: He could not but leave Miss Arman's home, so the Red Cross office arranged his transfer to the Lazariyeh hospital, where he stayed in the charge of Dr. Chedid. Here, in the warm, gentle atmosphere of the nuns, Ahmad recovered his calm of nerves and cooperated with everyone in carrying out various tasks at the hospital. But Dr. Chedid gave a report in which he praised Ahmad's excellent conduct, and the nuns endorsed his testimony — which led those concerned with him to say that the hospital must not be his permanent abode, and that a boarding school alone was the solution...

At the Dawudiyya College in Abey: The efforts of Mrs. Najla Saab with Sheikh Aref al-Nakadi bore fruit in an agreement to admit him to the Dawudiyya College in Abey at a reduced fee, to be paid by the Red Cross. Ahmad was fitted out with the necessary clothes and entered the College on September 29, 1956, receiving his weekly pocket money (his allowance) from the Red Cross as well, in the amount of half a Lebanese lira. But peace of mind did not come to Ahmad; at this period he was suffering an exhausting psychological state, revealed in a letter he wrote to his father from the Dawudiyya College, in which he complains of his straitened means and of his "khaki" clothes, which did not match the clothes of his fellow boarders — and demands of his father a respectable allowance so that he might go down to Beirut and buy the clothes he wanted from "Alfa," like his companions... He ends his letter with a threat to his father, saying word for word:

"I do not have an ironed shirt like everybody else, and that is why I am writing you this letter, Father, not by way of threat, in all seriousness and truth. And if you do not bring these things, or send me money to buy them, I will do what I want, and you will see how someone dies and disgraces his father after his death... You must send me at least a lira and a half a week — do you not fear Jesus? My greetings to Mama and to my brothers, and farewell from your obedient son — Ahmad."

It was as though Ahmad, at the Dawudiyya College, was burning to appear before his companions in a grand light — his way to that being an abundance of fine clothes and trips down to Beirut! So he took this violent tone in addressing his father — though by now he was supposed to have arrived at the understanding that his father was no longer alive... And perhaps in the depths of his heart he still hoped to find his family and return to his happy family life, for after writing this letter his crisis began to grow worse and to tighten its stranglehold upon him, until he bolted from the Dawudiyya and ran away, when not more than a month had passed since his entry... When his flight became known to the College administration, it telephoned the Red Cross office and passed the news along...

Miss Arman rushed anxiously to call the police stations, giving them Ahmad's description and appealing to them to search for him... At last they found Ahmad at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, and the Red Cross social worker hastened to his aid together with the nurse Nihad Ghantous... Did the two of them find him still at the hospital? And why is this fair-faced boy driven toward a life of vagrancy, despite the good care available to him?.. Could the cause of his anxiety be his need for fatherly affection and stability?? And will he at last find this material and psychological stability??