"Today's the day," Jabir Osman said to himself as he leaned on his cane while walking to the Notre Dame Cemetery in Vanier, Ontario. After getting off the bus, he walked the few blocks to the cemetery at a slow pace, holding the flowers he'd purchased at a small floral shop in neighboring Beech Wood. It was a bright sunny day, and a bit cold. The seventh of April was a special time for Jabir, one marked by tragic remembrance. The anniversary of his beloved's death.
Walking through the ancient Catholic cemetery, Jabir let his mind wander, thinking about the past, and the tragic sequence of events which ultimately brought him here. He walked to the center of the cemetery, then veered to the left, to a small headstone located near a large tree. The old Ottawa Senators tuque he'd left on the headstone was still here. It was the hat Felicia gave him, ages ago...
Taking a moment of silence after laying the flowers at the foot of the headstone, Jabir Osman looked at the engravings. Felicia Zaghloul, born in Cairo, Egypt, on November 9, 1995. Deceased in Ottawa, Ontario, on April 7, 2016. Gone too soon my love, Jabir thought, and a wave of despair washed over him as he thought of his beloved. She should be by his side, happy and alive. Instead she was six feet under, all because of the iron-clad, downright racist traditions of her people...
"I'm not completely blameless in this, Felicia, I drove you here, after all," Jabir said, shaking his head as tears streamed down his dark, handsome face. For as long as Jabir could remember, he'd been fascinated by Arab women, which, as a Muslim man of Somali descent, put him at something of an awkward position. Arab male jealousy can be a formidable thing and could threaten the life of any black man who gets involved with an Arab woman, even in the Capital region of Canada.
Why is that, one may ask? Oh, simply the fact that age-old bad habits are indeed hard to break. In the Muslim world, it's considered perfectly okay for Arab males to avail themselves of women from any culture or religion, but Arab women were considered off-limits to non-Arabs. It's simply how things are done in this part of the world, never mind the claims of egalitarian brotherhood among all Muslims.
Given the fact that a certain die-hard hatred for Africans still exists in the Arab world, and has since time immemorial, it's considered rare to see Arab women with men of African descent even in the West. Jabir knew this intimately. He once went out with a Egyptian Christian beauty named Felicia Zaghloul, and they had a relationship which lasted about a year.
Felicia, a raven-haired, green-eyed, bronze-skinned cutie who'd been born in Ottawa to Egyptian immigrant parents, was thoroughly westernized. She met Jabir one fine day at Algonquin College and sparks flew between the two of them. They began seeing each other shortly after that. Jabir was in love with Felicia and thought they'd go the distance, until Felicia's father, Andre Zaghloul, with whom she was estranged since her parents divorce, came back into the picture.
Mr. Zaghloul, an avowed racist with a deep hatred for black males, nearly lost his mind when he found out that his beloved Felicia had been dating a black man. Jabir and Felicia moved in together, after she got kicked out of her folks home. Even though Felicia's parents, Andre and Mariam Zaghloul definitely didn't get along ( they were divorced after all ), they were of one mind when it came to their disapproval of her relationship with Jabir.
"Jabir, I love you and I want us to be together, but you can't pay for school and take care of me at the same time," Felicia lamented, one month after she and Jabir moved into a one-bedroom apartment located on Baycrest Avenue, in the east end of Ottawa, Ontario. They'd been living there for a bit, and Felicia, who'd been cut off by her parents, was tired of watching Jabir struggle. It was taking a toll on her, watching him suffer for her sake...
Felicia had taken a job as a cashier at the nearby Walmart to help pay for their rent, groceries and utilities. It wasn't easy juggling her schedule as a full-time student in the nursing program at Algonquin College with her part-time gig at Walmart. Even after combining her income with Jabir's, the two of them could barely make ends meet. It's like the whole world is against us, Felicia thought.
Felicia's parents owned several restaurants in the Ottawa area, and she grew up having money. Prior to getting kicked out by her parents over loving Jabir, she'd never even worked, beyond helping out from time to time at her parents restaurants. How I have fallen, Felicia thought darkly. She'd gone from living in a mansion in Barrhaven to renting an apartment in a seedy part of town. All because she'd fallen in love with Jabir, an amazing young man...who happened to black, and Muslim.
Jabir, who'd just come home after a long day at school, followed by a long shift at work, looked at his beloved Felicia, who had tears in her eyes. He was quietly astonished by her words. He'd been sensing a chance in Felicia for some time now, but told himself she'd adjusted to their new situation. I really must learn to read my woman better, Jabir thought, silently chastising himself for his miscalculations.
