"Walt, I can't believe that you talked me into this," Catherine Hazem said, and the tall, curvaceous young Coptic Christian woman looked at the big Christmas Tree located the center of the Saint Laurent Shopping Center, and grinned. Catherine's lover Walter Duchene snapped up a pic of Catherine wearing the Santa Hat and Elf outfit, and winked at her. Catherine, who was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, practiced a different brand of Christianity than most Canadians, but this was no reason not to get into the holiday spirit as far as Walter was concerned.
"Merry Christmas, to my favorite Elf," Walter said, and he pulled his arm around Catherine, and whisked her away. Catherine rolled her eyes, pretending to be annoyed. They walked around the Saint Laurent Mall, among the throngs of shoppers. Due to Covid, a lot of places were in danger of closing, and Ottawa's busiest mall seemed to be one of them. Holiday shoppers were making the most of it while some of their favorite spots were still open. Welcome to the new normal.
When Catherine Hazem came to the City of Ottawa, Ontario, she felt like a fish out of water. Catherine was born in Egypt to a Coptic Christian family. She came to Ottawa to study civil engineering at Carleton University. Whenever Catherine met Canadians and told them she was from Egypt, they expected her to be a Muslim. In fact, some of them even queried about Catherine's lack of a Hijab. Apparently, folks in North America knew nothing about the sizable population of Arab Christians spread across the Middle East. It's a pity, really...
Catherine's parents, Michel and Nadine Hazem, were poor, but they wanted to see her go far. Catherine excelled at her classes at Saint Guillaume Academy back in Cairo, and learned to speak English and French as well as Arabic. Catherine originally intended to study at Cairo University, but upon learning of an international scholarship which would sponsor Arab students and send them to the Capital of Canada, she applied for it. Indeed, that's how Catherine ended up at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Catherine has always felt out of place, and she felt this way long before she came to Ottawa. As a tall, dark-haired and bronze-skinned young Arab Christian with model looks, and a sharp tongue, Catherine stood out in her hometown of Cairo, Egypt. A lot of young men were drawn to Catherine for her beauty, but most of these young men were Muslim, and Catherine was quite serious about her Christian faith. For Catherine, dating or marrying Muslim men was out of the question.
In Egyptian society, religion determines everything. For example, Egyptian Christian men cannot serve in the Egyptian military. Egyptian Christians are treated like second class citizens by the Egyptian Muslim majority. Catherine thought that this was the norm, until she visited the City of Beirut, Lebanon, with her parents a while ago. In Lebanon, Arab Christians have power and respect. In Egypt, since the Christians rarely fight back, the Muslims treat them like shit and it seems to be the norm.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Arab Muslims and Arab Christians clashed across Lebanon, and both groups have grown to respect each other's power. In Lebanon, the government is set up so that the Lebanese Christians and the Lebanese Muslims have their representatives, and that the needs of both communities are met. Catherine found this utterly fascinating. Catherine wished that Egyptian Christians would emulate their kindred in Lebanon, but that's wishful thinking...
Catherine Hazem missed her hometown of Cairo but slowly grew to like the City of Ottawa, especially after some friends from school showed her around. One of Catherine's classmates, a young Syrian woman named Amira who has a thing for Hip Hop, introduced her to the man destined to change her life. Thus, Catherine was introduced to Walter Duchene, a newcomer to Ottawa, Ontario, by way of Montreal, Quebec. The tall, dark and handsome, loquacious young Haitian-Canadian human rights student at first got on Catherine's nerves, but after a while, she and Walter really hit it off...
"Are we enjoying the holiday season?" Walter asked Catherine as they took the escalator to the food court. Upon arriving there, they saw that the mall staff had removed a lot of tables and chairs, supposedly to enforce the annoying social distancing restrictions. Fortunately, Walter and Catherine were able to find a chair near the center of the food court. Walter draped his leather jacket over the back of his chair, and gallantly pulled Catherine's chair for her. Catherine did a mock curtsy and sat down, and looked into Walter's eyes. The man just doesn't quit...
"I love Christmas, even though in Egypt we follow a different calendar, the Coptic Calendar," Catherine admitted, and Walter nodded. He stroked his goateed chin while looking around the mall, presumably checking out their dining options. The brother looked good in a black leather jacket over a red silk shirt, blue jeans and black Timberland boots. Like a lot of Haitians, Walter was fond of wearing his flag colors. He looked good, and smelled good, and was always fun company, and Catherine likes that in a man...
