Fadi, The boy with the soft brown hair

Fadi, The boy with the soft brown hair

Mr. Mahmood, our English teacher was the main character in my youth. Tall, brown eyes, brown hair, always dressed well, with a big strong moustache under his nose that represented the men at his time. He was a respectful man who always talked of believe, not religious belief, but he always talked about struggle, politics, civil issues and all the stuff that I honestly didn’t understand or even care about at this age. I was his favorite student, and he was my mentor, I always looked up at him.
I remember that one day the school was collecting donations for the kids of Bosnia; a couple of teachers was passing to the classrooms & collected money from the students. We were so young but it was nice that they were trying to teach us to give. Mr. Mahmood was one of the teachers that came to our class. So, I asked him one thing: are those donations going to be delivered to the kids for sure? Yes I was a smart ass since I was a kid. Mr. Mahmood looked at me with shock that I am doubting him & gave me a lecture which I can’t remember about what it was but I remember he was so emotional he had tears in his brown eyes.
One day, our religion teacher didn’t show up, so Mr. Mahmoud replaced him. The religion class was simply a place to read Quran, so the teacher selects a student to start reading a certain part & then we continue this part one after another. The students were all competing to imitate the readers they hear their parents listen too. I did not read at class because I used to be shamed with my reading since I couldn’t pronounce the R in a right way. Mr. Mahmood didn’t know that. So the students were reading one after the other & there was one student left before my turn. But suddenly I heard Mr. Mahmood calling me to read. I turned around at the boy sitting next to me and told Mr. Mahmood: Its fadi’s turn. Mr. Mahmood said: fadi can’t read. I asked: why? His answer came to me: Because he is Christian & not allowed to touch the Quraan.
I used to play with Fadi & his brother a lot, he came to my birthday & I went to his & his mom used to like me & kiss me when she see me.
I replied to him: what is the difference between us & them
Fadi became THEM, I became US, the dominant US
Mr. Mahmood tried to explain in different ways the difference, but being the little smart ass I knew what I wanted him to say, so I asked directly, do they go to heaven too?
Mr. Mahmood never lied,
Fadi was embaressed & crying
I was amazed
Mr. Mahmood was never the mentor I thought he is
Fadi, The boy with the soft brown hair didn’t come to school the 2nd year
I never met him again