|
The
Day My Husband Ran the Four Minute Mile
There I was in a foreign country alone aboard a crowded bus with no idea where I was going. I had no money and did not speak the language.
We had been married two years and had a son approaching his first birthday when my husband decided he wanted his family in Lebanon to meet his Australian wife and child. After an uneventful flight we arrived at 6 am on a balmy Beirut April morning to be met by a crowd of relatives all eager to welcome me with the customary hugs and kisses. Being a Westerner I was quite overwhelmed by this unfamiliar show of affection from people I didn’t know. I could only try to replicate their affection.
I would soon learn this display of affection was not reserved only for homecomings from overseas but would be repeated even after only short absences of a few hours. The reverse was the same with goodbyes, necessitating planning a time to begin the formalities, depending on the amount of people present, of giving each person a hug and three kisses on the cheeks before leaving. To do otherwise was seen as quite rude.
Having already become accustomed to the Middle Eastern fare, Lebanese food presented no gastronomic problem to me at all. Only the quantity did. Every meal was a banquet of the finest culinary dishes and I was encouraged to try them all. I have always claimed one reason for returning home after two months was that if I hadn’t I would have needed a whole new wardrobe.
Then there was the bidet, which I was not accustomed too, but that’s another story in itself.
Anyway, the day came when we left our son in the care of his paternal grandmother and aunts and set off to visit my husband’s eldest brother. We travelled to Beirut where we had to catch a bus to the outskirts of Beirut. Beirut is a very busy congested city, and certainly noisier than our Australian cities, partly due to the fact that the Lebanese love their car horns. To become lost there at that time would have presented a multitude of difficulties as very few people, unlike today, spoke English. When the bus finally arrived the crowd pushed forward to board the already crowded bus. My husband, not wanting to risk me being left behind, dutifully made sure I boarded before him. But the reverse happened. The automatic doors suddenly closed in front of him and he was the one left behind.
The look of horror which spread across my husband’s face as the full realization of the predicament he had placed me in was priceless. I had no idea where we were going. I didn’t speak the language; I had no money or even an address of where I was staying. If ever a husband ran the four minute mile that’s when mine did. I could only watch through the bus window as he ran puffing and panting alongside the moving vehicle. I was aware of my situation but couldn’t help seeing the funny side of it, although I’m sure had he not caught up with me I would have been in total panic. Luckily the conductor did not approach me before the bus arrived at the next bus stop. The bus stayed long enough for my exhausted husband to catch up and jump on board. Never was a husband more relieved to be with his wife.
On relaying the story to his big brother, my husband was promptly "told off". From then on I carried money and an address with me at all times.
View Over the City from Crown Hotel, Beirut, Lebanon, Middle East
Photographic Print
Wright, Alison
Buy at AllPosters.com
Reviews
(applause received) 
Alison Pearce
Australia
"I really enjoyed this
story. Well written and humorous."
Be
the next to review this story - click here.
|
