I decided to update an old series. This one will be a multi-chapter one. You probably want to review the previous chapters. As always, I write about Middle Eastern guys so if that isn't your thing then you won't like this. Thanks to all the messages asking me to update this!
-Emri
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"I have a ticket though! I'm all packed up! I need to come home!" I protested angrily and felt my hand shaking as it held the phone. I had come home for Christmas to see my family for two weeks. It was the first time I had been home since I left.
My family had just moved into the new house Samir had built for them. It was huge and had room for everyone to spread. My father was able to retire and get the medical help he needed. He looked ten years younger and the weight of the world wasn't on his shoulder. Being able to take care of them, provide for them, make them safe; it was everything to me. I felt like a man.
"I know, my love," Samir said from the other side of the world. "But it isn't safe here. The Arizen tribe has claimed our territory. Father has gone to meet with the tribal elders for their help. Our troops were overrun and outnumbered. It is fortunate no one was seriously hurt. Until this is fixed it isn't safe for white boys here. The Arizen troops are patrolling everywhere. They do not like the west. They are traditionalists. They haven't come to our compound yet, but we got the boys out just in time."
"I should be there to fight with you! It's my home too." I felt panic rising in my voice.
"You are safer there, Lincoln. It kills me to be away from you. However, My family isn't powerful because we are wealthy. We are powerful because we are tribal leaders. We have a responsibility to the people in the city. They look to us for protection, jobs, education, everything. The Arizen have been through a terrible drought. They are claiming we do not share our resources with them so they are trying to take it by force." Samir sighed.
"I don't care. Fuck them. Fuck them all! I'm not staying here while everything we love is in danger." I yelled and pushed through the kitchen door and out to the backyard.
Winter had settled in early on our mountain village. While it was sunny and warm just twenty minutes south in Los Angeles, the weather up here was biting cold with snow on the ground. I crunched across the frozen grass towards my brother's new SUV.
Samir had picked it out for him and had it delivered. It had warm leather seats, thick snow tires, and every safety feature known to man. My brother had been the one to take care of the family and push my dad to take better care of his health. In my absence he had stepped up and Samir rewarded him handsomely.
"Lincoln, you know I never want to be away from you, but I have a commitment to my people. I have to stay and fight, Ali does too. I promise I won't take any chances with my safety. You can't come here. I already canceled your ticket and travel visa. I knew you would act impulsively out of love. You will stay put as told." Samir used his fatherly tone that told me the time for arguing was over. His mind was settled.
"You canceled my visa," I sighed as I climbed into the SUV and turned it on to warm up the heater. My body shivered, but the seat quickly warmed. I laughed at that. I used to run around in the snow in shorts and a t-shirt when it was this warm.
"I had to. It is not safe for your here. Besides. I need you there. I am sending Emerson and the boys to you for protection. Ali is sending them to California until this is settled. I need you to collect them from the airport when they arrive and shelter them until the rental house is ready. You are the man now. I need you to protect them." Samir said.
Emerson, Emi as we called him, would of course be frightened and worried for his children. They would need me to step up and be the alpha here. They needed me.
"He needs me! Of course I'll protect them," I affirmed.
"Good... Emi doesn't know how to survive like you do, Lincoln. He has been sheltered in our compound. Ali is coming back here to help and we will join you there soon if it gets too dangerous. I promise we will, but if we leave too soon, the Arizen will see it as a forfeit of our territory. Our people would lose their freedoms." Samir swallowed hard at that thought.
"Rent a house? Will we be here that long? My classes!" I flared up again.
"Ali doesn't want his boys in a hotel. They are already upset at leaving the only home they have ever known. They need a quiet place to get back to their routine. The university is on a day-by-day schedule and students are being searched by the Arizen troops. Many classes have been canceled, all the ones that teach liberal subjects. The Arizen believe in only religious teachings and no females are allowed on campus. I'm pretty sure your semester is already over, my love," Samir informed.
I held out my phone in front of me and we switched over to the video chat. His face looked tired and our bedroom was dimly lit. It was late night over there and I ached to crawl into bed with him and lay against his bare chest.
"You look hot," I said and brought a smile to his face.
"It looks cold there. Why are you in the car?" he asked. From his vantage he could see the white snow behind me outside the car windows.
"I didn't want to disturb the house and I was ready to go to the airport to fly home," I laughed.
"I promise I'll be with you as soon as possible. Hopefully it's at the airport and I'm bringing you home. If not... Los Angeles isn't so bad," Samir tried to joke.
"I'm not staying here forever!" I said and sighed.
"You are my everything. We will be together again soon," he insisted.
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Two days later found me waiting for Emerson's flight at a juice bar near the airport. I kept refreshing my phone app to see the airplane icon make its way over Arizona. I texted Samir that their flight was coming soon.
"Please remember to be calm so the twins won't get anxious. They are smart little boys." Samir wrote. He hadn't given me any information on how things were going. He just said it would be ok and they were working on it. I tried not to text him too often, but we still did our video chat every night before I fell asleep.
When they got out of customs, the twin boys ran to hug me. Emerson looked sad and tired. He perked up when he realized he could pass off the boys to their Uncle Lincoln. They each hugged one side of me. They were growing up so fast. I could still lift them, just not both together.
"Jai didn't come with you?" I asked through sign language. Jai had been the male nanny who helped Emerson with the boys. He had been with them since the night they came home from the hospital.
"No, Ali couldn't get a visa for him. He went home to India until we can get things back together," Emerson signed back with an exhausted sigh. He came to my hug and it felt good to hold him again. He fit perfectly in my embrace. My arms always felt stronger when they wrapped around him.
"Are you hungry? It's a long drive home. We live far up in the mountains," I signed.
We drove all the way up to the valley where Emerson had grown up. He signed excitedly when he saw the exit for Sherman Way. He directed me through a series of foster homes that had cared for him until we arrived at a pizza place he loved. He hadn't been here in 8 years, but signed that the place looked the same.
We got the boys settled with their slices and Emerson shared a pepperoni pizza with me. We hadn't had it since it wasn't allowed in Satra. They had some weird beef pepperoni that just wasn't the same.
Emerson filled me in on more details from back home. The tribes were supposed to share resources and the Arizen were increasingly poor. A severe drought had laid waste to their crops and their people were hungry. Satra had ignored their cries for help and several tribal elders were accused of embezzling the financial aid meant for Arizen people. The Hamads were working to find out who took the money and prove that they had intended to share the wealth. Until then, the Arizen were roaming freely and taking what they wanted from Satran businesses, people.
"That sucks!" I signed. "What if they can't prove their innocence?"
"Then they will have to find a way to repay the Arizen, make things right plus pay penalties. I felt bad for them, they looked so hungry and angry. I felt guilty that we live so well when people just across the mountain have so little. I told Ali we have to help them. What if it were our children in need? It isn't right," Emerson signed away from his childrens' eyes.
We finished eating and then packed the boys back in the SUV and headed home to my father's house. There was awful traffic getting out of the valley and we had to stop for the boys to use a restroom. It was a tough and slow climb up the mountain. We had to stop at a police checkpoint to show that our tires could make it up the snowy roads. It was late when we got to the house.
I spent the previous day buying things they would need. I got ski suits and jackets for the boys and Emerson. They had spent vacations in Switzerland, but I knew they wouldn't think to bring those things with them. I went to an Arab specialty market in Encino to get food they would recognize from home. I wanted them to be comfortable there.
Emerson called Ali on video chat when they got settled in. He looked as tired as Samir had. He thanked me for taking care of them and then I left them to their privacy. Emerson snuggled in on the bed with one of his boys under each arm as they talked with their father. I closed the door and left them to it.
The sight of them, their little family trying to act as though things were ok, it made me miss Samir and my life back there intensely. I didn't belong here anymore.
As though sensing my thoughts, my phone rang with a videochat of my own. Samir was up, it was early morning there. He stroked his beard and peered at me with those big brown eyes.
