Parisian Café

Parisian Café

Characters

Basim: a youth in his twenties, he is of Iraqi origin and birth from a Baghdadi Christian family.

Frank: a youth in his twenties from Paris, Basim’s colleague.

Jack: a man in the thirties from Paris, friend of Frank.

Bashar: a youth in his twenties, he is of Iraqi origin and birth from a Baghdadi Christian family.

Carmen: a young girl in her twenties from a Beirutian family who works as a secretary in a Beiruti publishing house.

Antoine: a man in his fifties, an owner of a publishing house in Beirut.

Rita: a Lebanese woman in her thirties, Carmen’s sister.

Bilal: a youth in his twenties, he is of Iraqi origin and birth from a Baghdadi Christian family.

Katia: a young girl in her twenties from a Beiruti family.

Foreteller: a Parisian beggar, an old woman in her sixties.

A doctor and a nurse.

The events of the story take place in Baghdad, Paris, Beirut, and the South of Lebanon between the years 2015 and 2020; the events are imaginary and not related to real world.

Synopsis

          Basim dreams of becoming a notorious novelist that is why he travels to Paris aiming at finishing his academic studies in a step to fulfil his dream. Four years after joining the Parisian Sorbonne, the young man finishes writing the first draft of his novel, that is why he meets his Parisian friend, Frank, in one Paris’s Cafés. Basim begins reciting the events of his novel in order to know his friend’s opinion in the novel while drinking a cup of coffee.

          Bashar travels to Beirut hoping to publish his first novel in one of Beirut’s publishing houses. He visits one of the well-known publishing houses where he meets Carmen and likes her ever after. A crush that will soon turns into an almost perfect love story that only misses a girl who loves him back, despite that Carmen does not push him away simply because she sees him as a real friend and a support especially that she lives away from her family.

          The events turns dramatically when Bashar’s health begins to deteriorate few days before handing the draft to Mr. Antoine El Alya, one of the most notable publishers in Lebanon. Bashar wastes his chance when he misses the appointment. In the Parisian alley, an old beggar approaches Basim and grabs his almost-empty cup of coffee, shakes it in circle-like movement then looks in it for a while. The gammer breaks the silence of the weird situation to say few words with her Parisian accent on the ears of Basim. Basim is astonished with a foretelling relatively similar to the events of his novel.

          In Beirut, Carmen decides to look for Bashar after he misses his appointment and disappearing for more than a month.  She finds him in a hospital in Beirut, she feels surprised knowing that Bashir is living his last days as he suffers final stages of diabetes that are impossible to be cured.

          Carmen determines to spend most of her time with the dying young man. She begins to stay with him in his hospital room most of the day. Frank’s phone rings and Jack tells him to return to his hotel room urgently. The two young men go together to finish the story on their way back to the hotel room. Carmen goes to one of Beirut’s neighborhoods to attend Bashar’s funeral. Few days later, she receives a package through mail, astonished the girl reads the name of the sender “Bashar Kamil” the same Bashar she attended his funeral few days ago. She did not dare to open the package and she left it lying on her pillow for several days.

          Carmen’s phone rings and her sister’s voice comes out of the receiver telling her that the latter is going to marry in couple of days and Carmen is to come. Carmen goes to the family house in the South of Lebanon and decides to stay during her summer vacation to clear up her mind. In South of Lebanon, Carmen receives a job offer that she accepts quickly. The young girl returns to Beirut to finish her business and take her possessions to return home. In her small room, she sees on her pillow the package she tried hard to forget. She picked up her courage to see what the yellow package hides.

          Carmen finds a set of papers inscribed with Bashar’s handwritings, written on the first page in a clear big font “A Beiruti Girl.” A draft of a novel, that is what the papers really are. Carmen leans on her bed and begins reading the first page. The page talks about a girl called Katia. The two girls share many characteristics; in fact, Katia’s character is almost based on the character of Carmen. The first page ends with the appearance of Bilal, Carmen takes a long time thinking then she turns the page to continue reading the novel. Basim points with his finger, alerting Frank to the phrase “to be continued…” ending his novel, then he translates it to Frank.

Baghdad 2014