That Summer Night
By Nora Jaber
Copyright 2012 Nora Jaber
Smashwords Edition
The thought had never occurred to me before that stuffy summer night. I remember wearily sitting in the passenger seat of Sajid's, my son in law's, Jeep cruising down a deserted street in one of the city’s poorer areas, when my granddaughter suddenly yelled for him to stop the car. I turned my head towards the direction she was pointing her finger at. It took me a few moments to register what I was seeing. Sajid however, didn’t seem to have noticed anything particularly odd and dismissed Basma’s shriek.
"Baba! Stop driving, help him!" she urged.
On the side of the road, a middle-aged man was forcefully holding a squirming young boy against the back seat of his car, trying to fasten his seat belt. I didn’t understand why Basma was taking the matter so seriously, the scenario could have easily passed as that of an annoyed father trying to settle his son down, but Basma saw past the surface. It was as if she could see into the little boy’s eyes and discern his silent cries for help. After a second cry from Basma, Sajid reversed the Jeep towards the scene. As soon as he pulled over, the other man quickly let go of the boy who automatically jumped out of the car and drove away. Basma walked towards the little boy who was now sobbing relentlessly and began to speak to him softly in an attempt to pacify him.
"What's your name?" she asked him but he simply shook his head. When she tried to put her arm around his shoulders, the boy pushed her away and ran off into an alley. We didn’t follow him. After all we had no knowledge of this area that was probably home to the boy.
"She has a huge heart" Sajid mumbled as his eyes stayed fixed on his daughter. I simply nodded as my mind tried to make sense of the whole situation.
Basma's eyes glazed with tears as she made her way back to the car. I could tell she had conjured a horrible explanation for what had just occurred, and she explained it to us once she got seated, just as I suspected she would.
"What a disgusting bastard" she began," don't you both see what just happened?! He was taking that boy somewhere intending to molesting him." Her voice cracked as she spoke, and then her tears fell down freely. I couldn't help but believe that she was right; it made sense in a place like this. It was probable that if the boy had been kidnapped no one would look for him until a couple of days at least. Kids always wandered around alone in this area; they slept on the side walk and nobody worried when they didn't come home at night. If that man had had his way with the boy, nobody would have caught him. Boys here expected these things to happen to them, and when their resistance failed or they didn't get as lucky as this boy did, they never told anyone about what had happened to them because they knew that it wouldn’t get them anywhere. Instead, they trapped those memories somewhere in the back of their minds and tried their best to detach themselves from themselves while it all happened, until they felt numb. For some reason though, instead of feeling sorry for the young boy, I couldn't help but wonder about what it would feel like to touch a little kid in the way that man, according to Basma, wanted to.
*****
When we got home that night, my two youngest grandchildren came running downstairs to greet us. At the age of six, the twins had more energy than I'd ever seen in anyone; it was 10 PM and they were still as hyper as they were in the morning. Lisa jumped into my arms, and for the first time I noticed how smooth her skin was. Her soft brown eyes bore into mine before she broke into a fit of laughter and wrapped her fragile arms around my neck. The feel of her warm breath against my ear made me uncomfortable in a way I couldn’t understand, so I set her back onto the ground. Her sleeve had slid down her shoulder revealing a tiny pink nipple that I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away from, and then for the first time in a long time I felt something stir between my legs. I reached down to touch her innocent face when Samia's, her mother's voice broke the silence to call Lisa and Adam up for their bed time. Suddenly I felt my head spinning and needed to sit down. I made my way to nearest couch and closed my eyes hoping to block out the sick thoughts that were going through my head; an image of that little boy we had seen earlier crossed my mind and suddenly I understood exactly why that man could have wanted him. Thoughts of Lisa's porcelain skin and silky hair were impossible to ignore. Before I knew it, I was thinking about her little nipple again, then I began to picture her belly, her legs and –
"Baba, could you put the kids to sleep tonight? Sajid and I are meeting some friends for dinner." Samia's voice cut through my thoughts, startling me. The thoughts continued to play faintly in the back of my mind. I made my way up the stairs to the twins' room where they each lay quietly in their beds. They were both breathing deep and slow, clearly already asleep. Instead of doing the sensible thing and walking out of the room, something inside of pushed me to stay. I sat at the edge of Lisa's bed and stared at her. Her shirt was pulled half way up her stomach and she had one leg on top of her blanket. I put my hand to her forehead and felt little beads of sweat dripping down along her hairline. The room was quite warm; I looked at the air conditioner but decided against turning it on. Something about the way Lisa lay there revealed and sweating captivated me; I didn't want it to change. I lowered my touch down to her smooth cheeks to her lips that were full and a little wet from her drool which I then rubbed along her bottom lip. I looked around to see that Basma wasn't around before I lowered my own lips onto hers. She shifted a bit and I quickly pulled away thinking she had woken up. She moved again, her little hands wiping her forehead and pulling her shirt even further up, exposing her entire chest. Suddenly, the subtle feeling between my legs grew into an erection and I hated myself. 'I shouldn't want this' I thought, but I couldn't resist what my body was telling me to do. I pressed my hands down onto her chest then took her little nipple between two of my fingers, it automatically pebbled and my erection began to throb. I slid one finger down to the rim of her shorts and slowly traced it along them. When I saw that she was in a deep enough sleep, I traced my finger up from her ankle under her shorts until I could feel her underwear. After a few moments of trying to resist the temptation I felt of feeling what was underneath them I gave in and felt more aroused than I'd ever been. Her skin seemed smoother there than anywhere else in her body. I wished she'd stay that age forever and not grow into a girl who would one day grow hair there that would hinder the softness of her femininity. I traced, with deliberate caution as to not wake her up, the outside of her area and closed my other hand around my manhood, rubbing it as I imagined how it would feel to have her that way. Trying my hardest to suppress my groans, I breathed heavily through my nose and wondered if Lisa could feel my touch in her dreams. I pulled my shirt over my erection and quickened my pace then focused all my attention on Lisa as I ejaculated against my chest. I felt more relieved than I'd felt in years and thought to myself that I wanted Lisa to myself until she was old enough to understand what I was doing to her. Then just as I stood up to clean myself I saw Basma staring at me with cold, resentful eyes.
"Basma, this isn't what you think' I heard myself say, but I knew that no words could ever erase what she saw. Basma's phone began to ring, it was undoubtedly her parents calling to make sure the kids were sound asleep.
"Mama, you need to come home." She whispered into her phone.
I surged towards her to take her phone when-
*****
"Baba? Baba, wake up. Look who wants to say good morning to her granddad" I looked up to find Samia and Lisa staring at me with beautiful smiles on their faces. Lisa lowered herself down onto my bed beside me, and her curly hair didn't look silky at all.
"You okay baba? You're sweating a lot, seems like you had quite a dream." Samia said, concern in her voice.
"It was just a dream." I said, looking into Lisa's green eyes, "it was just a dream."