A psychological shock fol-lowing 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 treat-ment, 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