In the days of my childhood, my grandmother used to call me to her bed when the bitter cold grew fierce, and say: Stay beside me, warm me.
I do not know who warmed whom; for my grandmother's bed was hot and snug, and I would surrender blissfully to that warmth and lie down beside her, while she stayed sitting up, after putting out the lamp, finishing words I could not understand.
And one night I nestled into the blissful bed, while in my ears echoed the roar of the storm mingled with the wailing of the winds in the neighboring valley, and the tapping of raindrops on the wood of the window... My head lay on the pillow, my small body relaxed at its ease, and my child's heart trembling with fear... My grandmother thought I had dozed off, so she stayed sitting, finishing her obscure words; then, through half-closed eyelids, I saw her strike her breast, and in a
voice louder than usual I heard her repeat:
O Lord, keep Tawfiq safe, and return him to us unharmed...
And my grandmother was astonished the next day when I surprised her with the question:
— Who is this Tawfiq, grandmother? Where is he?
— He is my son... your uncle; far away, beyond "seven seas"! And she wiped her tears with her small handkerchief; and I thought my question had pained her, so I did not repeat it; but I kept the legend that lives beyond the seven seas — kept it in my heart, and never brought it out except at the moment my gaze met my grandmother's tearful eye...
— God bless you, my daughter, write to him, tell him your mother has grown old, has become helpless — come and refresh her heart before she departs this world.
And the letters travel back and forth; and her heart lives on faith,
and her tongue repeats: O Lord, send him, that I may see him and die.
And the dutiful son does not fail his mother's call: he leaves money and business and hurries to her on the magic carpet... And her eyes beheld him, after forty years. He had changed greatly, but he was still her son; her son whom she had suckled with her pure milk, embraced with faithful arms, and watched over with tender eyes.
And I saw her, when her arms enfolded him — I saw her leave the eighty years behind her; light shone from her face, and a strange gleam glowed in her eyes... And she did not forget, as she embraced him, feeling his face with her fingertips and kissing his eyes — she did not forget to wipe her tears and repeat: Thank you, my God... thank you...
