[منى هلال]

5

All the events that I lived in the past came flooding into my head; all begging to be recorded in my little notebook. There are too many of them and I didn’t know where to start. They are all different; each one has a story behind it. I decided to write what comes to my mind first. I hope one day I can write them all and complete my diary. I will then give it to my teacher ‘Alia’ so she can keep it for me in her school cabinet.0

I love my teacher very much. She is very kind. She too loves me and calls me during the break to give me chocolate biscuits.0

She always tells the other children: “you should all try to be as good as Sahab is.”0

One day she told me that she knows my mother, that she is a friend of my aunt Sabah’s and that she always visits my maternal grandfather’s house. I was so happy when I heard this and became even fonder of her.0

Many a time she would forgive me for not handing in my homework, because she knew I help my stepmother with all the housework. I am the one who washes the dishes after dinner, and clean the house when my stepmother is busy making food. I was very young when she taught me how to do the washing up. She would put a small stool next to the sink so I can wash the dishes and glasses. My hands were still too small to wash the pots and pans, so she would do them instead. My back hurts when I stand for a long time to wash the dishes.0

One day I told my father that my back hurts from the washing up every day. He got very angry at his wife and said: “Sahab is still too young for this type of work. Fear God in what you do to her. Your children might go through the same agony if I divorce you or if I die”. My stepmother screamed at him: “No, darling, I’m not like Sahab’s mother. My dowry is very high and I have strong supporters”. He shut up straight away, and never opened his mouth again whenever he saw me at the sink. He didn’t want a repeat of what he went through when the court forced him to pay my mother's dowry after he divorced her.0