Under the Olive Tree

2. Itnan

"And he's had a girl pining after him for seven years who he hasn't even looked at. Hopefully, I'll be entertaining myself with him for just seven months."

Reema blinked. "I thought you were trying to be a better person."

"Who said I'm not? Look, I'm helping you."

"You're holding the jar."

"Does it not need to be held?"

"Can you hand me the olive leaves, at least?"

Amani complied, reaching behind her for the box of leaves near the corner of the small room. She peeked at the thin leaves inside. "You can eat olive leaves?" She asked, holding the firm leaf in comparison with the soft, thin ones Reema held.

She shrugged. "You can eat anything technically, but those are mostly for medicine and tea. The portion they use for medicine goes straight to the pharmacies and they use it there. The rest comes from the Awad family, we dry them, and the Salehs cut them up."

"So which family actually gets it?"

Reema looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"The dried and cut up leaves. Who gets them?"

"The town."

Amani's eyes widened. "The entire town shares this?" She lifted the box that wasn't much bigger than her hands to show her cousin.

Reema nodded. "It used to be more but after ami Fayez passed and the soldiers ruined their crop, that's all that's come back."

"How much was it before?"

The question made her smile. "Boxes on boxes," Reema grinned. "It was the biggest olive garden in the entire country with the biggest trees you could ever find. Ami Fayez and his son, Muhsin, took care of it all on their own. It was like... a family thing."

Amani brought the leaf to her nose for a sniff and watched the way her cousin's smile shifted into something sadder. "What happened?" She asked.

"Nobody really knows except Muhsin. They say he fell because, when people found them, Muhsin was locked with the horse and ami was bleeding from his head on the floor. They tried to take him to the hospital because he was still responsive but he died. All the olive trees were ripped from the ground and destroyed."

"So his son works there all by himself now?"

Reema nodded. "He's managed to bring one back but he's careful. That's why we don't get many leaves, just the ones he can spare."

"People don't help him? From the town?"

"I'm not sure," she hummed. "I think, when they saw the damage, mostly everybody didn't think there was any hope. Not even his own family, but he didn't stop going back. To him, I'm pretty sure it's deeper than just the garden."

Amani glanced down at the box in her hands. "Well, this is pretty good then, especially for a man who brought a tree back to life."

Reema raised her eyebrow at Amani then laughed. "You can help me then. Go lay those out on the trays upstairs to dry."

"Of course," she bowed and hurried up the stairs.

The roof of their apartment was on the second floor, much closer to the ground than Amani's aunt's home. She heard all the conversation in the street as she laid out the trays and carefully placed the leaves alongside each other.

"Throw the ball! Hurry, hurr- yes! Goal!" Children screamed below her, their loud footsteps racing around the gravel. Amani placed the box down and peeked over the brick railing to watch them.