Princess Sultana's Circle

to my own daughter. Never had I seen
Amani so tormented!
    Kareem lovingly held his
child in her arms. “All right, Amani. You can keep these birds. I
will buy Faddel some more.”
    This idea did not meet with
Amani’s approval, either. She screamed, “No! Would you provide the
murderer with new victims?”
    Kareem held tight to his
child. He and I exchanged a look of despair. He took her small face
in his large hands as he pleaded, “Amani, if you will only stop
crying, I promise you, I will think of something we can
do.”
    Amani’s wild cries slowly
turned into pitiful whimpers. Kareem gathered his child in his arms
and carried her into the palace and to her room. While Kareem
comforted Amani, I searched her room and removed every item that
could possibly be used to inflict self-injury. I also removed every
sharp or pointed object from her bathroom. Amani did not seem to
notice.
    On the way back to Amani’s
room, I ordered Maha to assist our female servants in making a
sweep of our palace. Until this crisis passed, I wanted anything
that could be used as a harmful weapon to be locked
away.
    Maha began to grumble that
we were willing to save Faddel’s stupid birds but did not care that
young girls were being held there against their will. It was true
that I had forgotten all about Maha’s claim to have discovered a
harem of distressed girls. I now assured my daughter, “Maha, give
your father and me time to calm this situation. After that, I
promise, I will check to see what is happening with those young
women.”
    When Maha made an ugly face
and began to make fun of her sister, my patience snapped. “Hush,
now! You know how Amani feels when it comes to animals. How would
you feel if your sister slashed her throat or hanged
herself?”
    “ I would prepare a feast
and hold a great party,” Maha snarled.
    I slapped Maha twice. Maha
became contrite and hurried to do my bidding.
    When I returned to Amani’s
room, my wonderful husband was patiently making a list of Amani
immediate demands for the care of the rescued birds. He obviously
sensed, as did I, that Amani was dangerously close to a nervous
collapse.
    Kareem turned to me and
held out the list. “Sultana, send one of the drivers to purchase
twenty large birdcages, a variety of bird seed, and any bird treats
and toys that the store might stock.”
    “ Yes, of course,” I
murmured. As my eyes scanned the list, I did Kareem’s bidding.
Within the hour, two of our drivers had returned from two pet shops
in the city; both had cleaned out the stock in those stores of
everything intended for the care of birds.
    Kareem instructed all six
of our gardeners to lay aside their normal tasks, and help move the
birds from their small cages into the new, larger ones. Only after
Amani inspected the birds and saw for herself that these creatures
were properly fed, watered, and housed in large cages, did she
agree to sleep.
    I was still apprehensive,
so I arranged for six servants to take turns watching over my child
while she slept.
    Maha, still angry over the
events of the day, refused to join us for the evening meal. Kareem
and I were too emotionally exhausted to care, and we sat silent as
we ate our light meal of chicken kabobs over rice.
    Faddel called Kareem on the
telephone three times while we were eating, but Kareem refused to
take his calls. Only after our meal did he telephone him back to
assure him that he would visit Faddel the following day.
    Kareem then informed the
cook that we would take our coffee in the women’s gardens and
together we walked outside, where we sat at a table under one of
the trees. Although it was nearly dark, the lively sounds of
fluttering birds chirping and splashing in bird baths created a
noisy commotion that was difficult to ignore. But I listened with
pleasure to the birds enjoying their new lives.
    A look from Kareem led to
my moving from my chair into his lap. I knew that Kareem’s thoughts
were as mine: if we returned those birds, Amani was fully capable
of doing harm to herself. Yet, if we purchased new birds to replace
the ones she had stolen, Amani would certainly discover our
deception. On the other hand, Faddel was not the type to yield.
What on earth were we going to do?
    I whispered, “Do you have a
plan, Kareem?”
    Kareem sighed, but did not
speak for a long moment. Finally, he said, “That Faddel is a greedy
bastard. I have decided to deed him a piece of my prime property in
Riyadh, if he will agree to