Coming Home (English Version)

13. Better

I roll my eyes.

"Because I can hold my breath for a really, really long time." He continues. "So I can do that. For you. I can pretend I'm under water, hold my breath and breathe in only when it's absolutely necessary."

I suppress my laugh and try to keep my lips from curling up. It has always been the same with us; I can get mad at him so quickly but then he makes me laugh somehow and I get over it just as fast.

"What do you say, Layla?" He pushes. "Can I breathe?"

He knows exactly what he's doing.

I give up and look at him one more time. "You can breathe." I tell him failing miserably to hide my smile. "And you can talk, but not about Farouk."

He puts his hands up for a brief moment. "Fine, the topic is banned. We're almost there anyways."

"Already?"

"I like to keep my falcons close by."

He drives through an opened gate and follows a paved road in front of a long line of cream colored warehouses. The car stops and a couple of men welcome him, he talks to them for a moment and then comes to open my door. I leave the bag and step outside.

One of the men opens the door to a warehouse and I step inside first. When I notice the floor is covered in sand, I take my sandals off and leave them by the door. Everything is white inside, except for the blue back wall that seems to be kilometers away. Two rows of lights on the ceiling and two rows of falcons on the ground. They are all standing on little pedestals with leather hoods over their heads covering their eyes.

"These are our champions." Hamdan announces.

"Wait a minute, all of the warehouses are filled with falcons?"

"Yes."

"How many do you own?"

He shrugs. "I don't know, hundreds?"

What can I say? When he commits to something he's always fully in and falconry plays an important role in the Emirati heritage. I remember the boys taking falconry trips with the adults to learn the craft.

I kneel down at a safe distance to admire the birds, the white ones are my favorites.

"You can touch them." Says Hamdan.

"No, thank you."

He smiles and asks for a glove. One of the men brings him a leather glove and Hamdan proceeds to take the hood off a brown peregrine, the only species I can name. At his signal, the bird jumps on the glove and he puts the hood back on.

"This is Ghaith." He introduces the bird to me and I stand up to take the one step back.

"Come on!" He chuckles again.

"Remember that time a chicken chased after me?" I recall. "Birds and I don't get along."

He tilts his head back with laughter. "Oh, yes! I remember that! But Ghaith is not a chicken. Give me your hand."

I cautiously and slowly extend my arm, he takes my hand and directs it to the falcon's chest.

"Gently." He advises.

The bird stiffens up when my fingers touch his feathers and I try to take my hand back but Hamdan holds it in place, shushing the falcon or me, I'm not sure.

I breathe out and try again, my fingers move up and down on Ghaith's chest and he remains calm. Hamdan let's go of my hand and I move in a little bit closer.