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A poor little girl, Friendship – Short Story

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An Afghan girl from the local Pashtun tribe peers from behind a mud perimeter wall to watch US Army soldiers from the 1st Platoon, Delta Coy

By Abdelmajid Yaqoubi

Morocco World News

Tinghir, Morocco, August 3, 2013

On a Friday I was invited to the birthday celebration of a friend of mine. He invited all of his friends, and I was also invited as one of his best friends.

While we were celebrating in the drawing room, through the window, I saw a little girl lying in front of the door of my friend’s house like a beggar. In fact, her dress was dirty and full of patches, her hair was black and needed a comb, and her feet were bare, chapped and bloody. But, her face was charming. She was really an outcast and a poor little girl.

Concerned about her, I called my friend. “Do you know that poor little girl?” I asked him. “No, I have never seen her” he said. He was really shocked by her appearance, and his eyes began to shed bitter tears like a heavy shower. Then, he asked me to bring her.

I brought her again to the drawing room. That moment everybody was impressed by her charming appearance. She was then the princess of that celebration. Everyone wanted her to sit and to talk to  them as that birthday celebration was for her. But, no one dared to do so because all of us were just guests. It was only the right of my friend, the host.

No face was shining there like the sun except her own one. All the faces were directed towards her like sunflowers facing towards the sun. “What a pretty little girl she is!” my friend exclaimed and he sat beside her. “What’s your name?” he asked her. But, she did not reply and she stared at the cake on the table as she had never seen it. “Bring that cake,” he ordered me. I brought it to him. “Child, here you are,” he offered to her. He looked at her and she smiled, then she took the cake. “Child, can you tell me your name?” he asked her again. “I’m Friendship” she replied. My friend and all his friends opened their mouth with astonishment and they looked at each other as if they had never seen each other until that moment. “Friendship!” my friend exclaimed and he stared at her without uttering some other words. There were really no words except silence that filled all the room.  All of us really drowned in silence.

“Are you sure that your name is “Friendship” I asked her too. “Yes, I’m sure,” she confirmed. I looked at her and she smiled a smile of an innocent child. “Where are you from? Why are you as an outcast here? Where are your parents? How old are you?” I asked like an investigator. She looked at me, and then her eyes were shedding tears like a drain dripping water. My questions might have burt her. I looked at my friend and I saw that he was weeping.

I really begged her several times to answer my questions and she did in the end. “I’m from the faculty of the letters. I’m here because my mother and my father have abandoned each other since they finished their studies. I’m now five years old. In my first four years, I lived in true happiness because they looked after me properly. But, in my fifth year in which I’m now, I’m suffering bitterly because there is no one to look after me. My father is now in the North and my mother is now in the South. Therefore, I’m as an outcast here,” she expressed sorrowfully. Then, she looked at her chapped feet and she began to cry. I turned my face towards my friend and I found him still weeping and shaking his head sorrowfully like an old lady who had lost her little girl. I looked at his friends too, and I saw all of them were weeping like children who had lost their younger sister.

After everybody stopped weeping, my friend stood like a preacher and he told us: “My friends, your attention please. You have to know that it’s very easy to form friendship with many people, but it’s very hard to look after it properly forever. Therefore, we have lost many friends and we are still losing them. Yes, it is very easy to lose friends; to lose them is a real crime. But, if you look after the friendship properly, it will grow up properly, and you will keep all your friends forever. I have invited you to my birthday celebration not only to celebrate, but also to save and to renew our friendship. Strong ties of friendship must be among us and we have to develop our friendship into a lasting one. Please don’t let your friendship be an outcast like this little girl, Friendship…” Then, he looked at Friendship and he started weeping again as if he had committed a crime against her.

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