It all takes place on the streets.

Everything started in 1946 when the municipality of Hadath (a key city in Beirut, Lebanon) began installing those lovely sodium street lights on the sides of City Boulevard. Eelectricity was a rather luxurious conquest back then! The boulevard had been admirably decorated by what the locals call "kina" trees. These trees stand high nowadays, 40 meters long. They also have a wonderful smell when you're walking around... and are good for the flu too! But that was not all. The kina trees represented a monumental example that parents used to talk their kids about. These trees grew up so fast and symbolized a utopian majestic pride. And so were the kids of that city.

As much as the boulevard had a colossal significance, as much as it’s political position amongst all other boulevards became stronger. In 1975, citizens on both sides of the boulevard continued decorating it; but this time they used piles of mud, dirt, and barracks! Civil war had started. They had this weird urge for seclusion! Well, every one of us has its own ups and downs; but what happened that year was too much, but not beyond expectations. The wall had started here, in my beloved city, where I was raised. Every now and then, new kids were born on both sides of the boulevard, notwithstanding the regular fighting. They grew up and at the age of four they would go and play alongside City Boulevard, of course, on either side. They even learned how to throw bombs across the mud and had competitions of who makes a longer shot! At the age of fifteen (which was the official age of combat maturity) they would join some fighting militia, set off to the boulevard, and if they are lucky, survive to the age of 43 (statistical average) to die of some sort of an ambiguous psychological warfare effect (which put the psychiatric industry back in business!).

 It was not until 15 years of blood shed have passed, ensuing thousands of orphans and widows, that the wall ceased to exist (remarkably coinciding with the famous 1990 Roger Waters convert in Berlin, “The Wall”). But in reality, the wall was always there, not made up of mud but of a rather more civilized form: mentality. And I guess you know what I mean…

 One day, in September 1994, a family had (intentionally) crossed the boulevard from the eastern side to the western side. They did not do it to assess their ability to cross roads without being hit by a truck, but they did it to live there, in a four story building, 20 meters due west from city boulevard. This was (and still is) a naturally weird thing to do amidst the rather enslaved mentalities of the people on both sides. The eastern side, referred to as East Beirut was largely Christian, while the western side was Muslim.

I shall not indulge in explicitly describing each member of the family that had crossed the boulevard as this would induce unnecessary information although I would have loved to peacefully accommodate such a description. Nonetheless, it is the youngest child of this family, played by Yohanna (Arabic for John), whom I intend to fully exploit in this story, because it is his... (To be continued)