Kholoud’s citron Tree- short story- by: Nasser Aljasem

Kholoud’s citron Tree

By: Nasser Aljassem
Translated by: Ayman Mosully

The first morning in Al Ahsa area, the smell of bread fills the street till Dhahran St, for those coming from Dammam.  

The smell spreads as a Morning fragrance; especially for the hungry people; coming from the modern higher bakers which set upon the bridge. The smell goes inside the drivers and the riders while they are crossing the subway above their cars. Al Huwairat Water Spring evaporates water vapor to the sky like close clouds go up gently. The red watermelon sellers split mature red watermelons in half in a nice way. Also, they hanged the fruits which are saturated with water and sugar on their car docks to catch the sight of the drivers in their cars while they are crossing the temporary spiral road. So, they get off of their cars for buying.

Sellers of Yemen pomegranate put their pomegranate hierarchically in black bowls like lamps catching the sight. The sellers of palm pulp do not stop peeling the pulp in their tools while they are standing and looking down. Whereas, a Pakistani sapling seller with his wide Punjabi clothing stood at his old red truck and picked up milk, then, a father said to his children in his car while he was driving:  a Pakistani criminal, not cheering or exclaiming God sells citron in Al-Ahsa. The taste of date decreased after being touched by Hindus and Bengali hands and they want to waste the taste of citron too. Then, he looked at the heavily palm trees on his left and back side turning his neck with them hinted to the end of the palm season: ‘the palm is dour month wounded, four months maturing and four months rest’.

The awaiting contiguous green seedlings tempted the joy of the sunbeam while they are shown above the back door of the truck dock. They want to stay in same place to keep away from the strong light which spreads on the rest of the other seedlings like almond, lemon, Buckthorn, roses, cactus, Chinese cantaloupe, Hasawi figs.

The dark green leaves of citron seedlings attract the eyes of kholoud who is setting in the back seat wearing three pants fearing of the coming cold weather which announced it the local news. The seedlings caught her attention of the meditation of Indian jasmine trees which grow slowly in the industrial Island along the Dhahran road next to the green grass and palm trees. Then, she stopped her finger that moving in the space of the back seat drawing these seedlings before she leaves the painting for her own sketchbook saying: father…..father! Please daddy buy me the first one on the right. She pointed to it by her finger and she wanted to get off the car but she feared the having cold and getting sick for a long time.

The father criticized the price of thirty riyals for the greedy Pakistani and he handed the seedlings to his daughter Kholoud, who seated the plant with joy over her lap. Then, she started smelling their leaves and leaf one by one paper deeply. She gropes her trunk with her fingers with great love as if it were her child. The father said, warning the rest of his children, "No one hurts the citron of Kholoud."

One evening of Hofuf, kholoud sat and she was characterized by a beautiful skinny waist and luscious brunette skin that moves males’ lusts, makes them saying verse and teaches them how to play the lute. With a rounded chest draws the attention of men, she sat planting citron in their palm in eye Morjan. She disappeared first under the branches and leaves of the ancient Sidr tree. She washed with Zamzam water and when it was over, she held the seedling between her arms as she recited: ‘And have you seen that [seed] which you sow? Is it you who makes it grow, or are We the grower? (56:63-64)’. Then she said: ‘And said, 'Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Indeed, He is ever a Perpetual Forgiver. He will send [rain from] the sky upon you in [continuing] showers. And give you increase in wealth and children and provide for you gardens and provide for you rivers.’ (71:10-11). then, she turned towards the sun and chose the place and said: ‘In the name of God’ and started digging and planting the seedling. After that, she watered it with Zamzam water till it was full and said goodbye to it and left the land to her home as she feels she has left part of her in the land. By her way to her home, she missed the citron so much which made her steps slower and letting her turning back. But the darkness of Al-Hofuf started to cover the area; therefore, she couldn’t see it again till the next morning.

The night started and kholoud started feeling asleep and her doll which she made herself was so. Therefore, she surrendered to a deep sleeping forgetting reading the nightly prayer. She dreamt that she has a soft, strong and long penis in her vulva and it prolong to her neck and she was eating form it. She got up smiley reassuring and satisfaction filled herself as if she interpreted the dream and got relaxed.

While she was relaxed and enjoying, her father and the Egyptian farmer Hasanin; the contractor who is caring for the palm trees, were standing near her citron unbelieving the quick growing up of her plant and the visiting of birds in its first day in the earth.

Kholoud went to the Al-kaisaria market and bought from the perfume shop oud, white musk and sandalwood bottles which came from Al-Medina which the Hindu Indians were burning their dead to ashes, then they collect it and throw it in the river or over the mountains. Later on, she went to Ain-Marjan to see her father’s land and her citron not forgetting taking with her a soft brush. When she arrived there, she asked her father and the farmer Hasanin to go away and leave her alone with her citron.

Both of them left the land and at the same time Koloud went quickly to see her citron. When she was near somehow form it, she noticed the great growing up of it then she said: ‘and why was it not that you would have said when you entered your garden, whatever Allah wills’ (18:39).

Then she threw her cloak over the long legs of the Clover but she feared to break it, so, she took it off and put it gently over the Sidra tree. After she got close from her citron, she hugged it heartily and kissed it a lot everywhere in her body. She kissed it a lot on the leg, branches, and the heavily green leaves. She was not afraid of hurting her tiny lips nor wounded them. Then she took a brush and started painting the hard long leg of her citron with oud from top to down, after that she painted the brunches with white musk one another one and ending her painting with the leaves by putting oud sometimes and whit musk another times without getting bored. The smell of the two fragrances makes Kholoud on fire and let her work more and more.

When she was sure that her citron filled with the fragrance, she brought incense from the palm store and put the black coal and added some of luxurious sandalwood sticks and burned them all. The blue incense started to spread from the bottom of the citron till the top. Koloud was not satisfied by doing that rather she put the incense from the bottom of the leg turning it around the citron repeating:’ No God except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of God, No God except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of God’.

While she was praying and praising, she noticed that a brunch had stated to blossom before her eyes, so, she pitted him from the cold of the night. Therefore, she took off her third pants which she wore it because of cold and wrapped it around the softy brunch not to be hurt by the cold of Al-Hafof.

After she played with her doll in her bed, she gave her rounded brown breast like she was breastfeeding it before sleeping. She hugged her doll deeply to her chest while she reading the prayer till she felt asleep. She dreamt that white men coming from the sky to the earth and they were standing next her bed’s edges saying hi one after one. Then, they said altogether in one sound: ‘we are servants of your citron; do not be scared and sad for it’.

This dream was seen when Kholoud was asleep. The call of nature obliged Hasanin to get up from his bed in the farm but it is hard for him going to the remote bathroom in the growing cold of the night. He decided to pee next to Kholoud’s citron which was near his sleeping place. When he arrived to the citron and hardly controlling himself and keeping his underwear clean, he pulled his pants and sit, then, suddenly, a strong kick came from the back. He turned his head to see who kicked him thinking that was Kholoud’s father but he found no body there. He was pretty scared and went to the far bathroom. He was afraid of seeing his bottom and getting dirty in that cold night.

The white flowers began to appear on the branches of the citron. Her appearance was heavy and the wind seemed incapable of bringing it down, which heralds a heavy throw of fruits and many more. Heavy branches intertwined showed strength in refractive or dislocation resistance. The smell of good flowers is spreading in and around palm trees and extending far in Ain Morjan.  

Kholoud started smelling it in her home, and she felt her citron and know what is going on above and away from her. She knows that butterflies and bees love to fly over her and inhale her floral fragrances and do not leave it alone. Also, she knows that snakes, mice and lizards fear it. And that the nests of birds and nightingale full of waiting for hatching. And that the bird above it does not antagonize the other bird and the migrating birds at night rest over it until morning and continue their journey to warm areas. And that its branches are all the base of the feet of birds and nightingale and Hoopoe and that the singing of the bird is on in the morning evening. Hasanin does not dare to approach her again, nor to inhale its flowers once more. And that he was unable many times to count birds and nightingale with his finger or his eyes when the eruption in their souls desire to fly mass over it.

Slowly, the white flowers turn and create small green vegetables, proceeding of other citron trees in Ain Morjan or in Umm Khreisan, or in the land of Alhasa all. Its growth completed until the size of the breast of a breastfeeding woman, and then received a beautiful yellowing. Yellowing of color indicates the maturity that you decide to pick, so, Kholoud and her friends attend and pick the mature appetizers with large appetites. They filled the empty white flour bags and at night they celebrate eating the citron with and without salt, and eating the white pulp alone.

When they leave, Kholoud enters her room and remains naked alone, and let the candles light up whites, reds, greens and yellows at the corners and she stands in the middle of the room and rubs her dark skin with the core of soft, dewy watercress with juice of citron. Then she passes the core on the whole of her body and put it inside her black hair without touching the sensible areas of her body. Then, she squeezes the citron in a bottle and drop some drops from its smelling beautiful and refreshing purity juice on the navel, and behind her ears, behind the folded of her legs from behind and above her elbows from behind as well. And candles continue to light as small torches, then she goes to sleep, and before sleeping, she pray to God to forgive those who hurt her and rob her rights.

In the morning, she floats on the poor of Al-Hofuf and distribute the luxury citron atoning for the guilt of a friend who left her father die alone in his farm. At the same moment, in the central vegetable market, two boys bias Kholoud’s citron and embarrass her. Each of them has a full stage of delicious citron: "Kholoud’s citron.. Kholoud’s citron.. Do not miss it.. Do not miss it. The customers flocked to them as the birds and nightingale flocked to Kholoud’s citron. Then, out of sudden, a chaste man, the father of Kholoud, is breaking through the ranks and shouting through the crowd and every man there: ‘Go away from me’. When the people there were dispersed that obstructing his way, he realized the two boys, and a speaker in the crowd speak: "Do you know what the English doctor Smith, who examined my daughter's citron in his lab? He said: How do you get sick and you have this citron? And do you know what the French perfumer André did? He has already bought huge quantities of Kholoud’s citron and exported them to the perfume factory in Paris. The Pakistani vendor wore his Kashmiri garment and stood on the corner of the spiral street leading Dhahran Street, beside his red truck, calling the customers lying: ‘citron seedling of Kholoud’s citron… citron seedling of Kholoud’s citron.’ However, the seedling trees he offered there for sale came from other unknown mothers!