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