A Whole Host of Friends

First class cocktails on the plane always seemed to be the best. Floating on a throne with a potent potable appealed to the senses. For Mohammad Azal, he had the luxury of enjoying a Caesar cocktail. The vodka and the Clamato juice mixed with the spiciness of the tabasco sauce and black pepper eased Azal's mind and allowed him to focus on the obituary. He nibbled on some tortilla chips.

His mother had died four days ago and had been cremated. He lived in Lowell, Massachusetts as a mid level manager at a bank. He was six feet six inches tall and everyone wondered whether he played basketball. Organized? Never. His skin looked like cedar and he had a goatee. He was thirty-eight years old with no wife or kids. His position provided him with the financial freedom to afford a first class seat.

He looked over with his tablet what his aunt had emailed him. The words seemed to resonate with him but he didn’t cry. Couldn’t cry. He just ran through the lines over and over again as he prepared to memorize and recite them. During her memorial service, he planned to be one of the people along with his brothers to send his mother off into a changed form of atoms. In this case, cremains.

He came to a point. He looked over the text again and again and stopped at a certain point every time. It was the very end of the piece of writing. “A host of friends,” he said aloud.

The woman sitting next to him heard what he said.

“Were you talking to me?” She asked. She must have been in her mid sixties but she kept good care of herself. Her skin looked like pearls and her gray hair flowed to her shoulders. She had few wrinkles and no sign of a botched plastic surgery job. Although, she could afford one. She smiled sweetly.

“I could help you memorize those lines.”

“Would you? I get tongue-tied sometimes.”

“That’s no worry for me, I’ve been tongue-tying for forty-two years. I’m an actress for the stage. Regional theaters. Off-off-off-off Broadway. I nearly fell off the stage, I was so off Broadway. I’m Alice. Alice Furtherton. Just call me Alice.”

“Mohammad.”

“Oh,” she nearly jumped and clutched her skin.

“Don’t worry. It’s just a name. I’m not planning to go all jihad on this flight.”

She breathed. “Of course. How silly of me. Please forgive me.”

“It’s a constant thing with me.”

“Why don’t you change your name?”

“I like the meaning of Mohammad. ‘Praiseworthy.’”

“That’s absolutely right. I had a show back in the nineties that featured an image of Mohammad. The show didn’t even last a week. We got so many threats. Oh, I said I could help you with that, didn’t I? Is this an Islamic burial?”

“No. Christian. My mom believed in Jesus and my dad was a follower of Allah.”

“That must have been an interesting upbringing.”

“I was with my dad more often than my mother so there weren't many conflicts of faith.”

“But you’re doing this on behalf of your siblings?”

“Yes. I have two brothers and two sisters. We’re all adults now.”

Alice switched gears. “If you want to, I can hold your tablet and you can read it back to me. That’s simple stuff for the stage people and the layman,” she mentioned.

He recited the whole thing and then stopped at the end. “A whole host of friends.”

“What of it, darling?”

“It just seems weird that the Christian Bible has multiple passages where it clearly says that you must love your enemy. Not just your neighbor but someone you mutually despise.”

“Well, you have to love them, it doesn’t say you have to like them. I’m not defending in any way the Bible. I’m a non-believer in the theory of God.”

“I’m an atheist, too.”

“Don’t you think it’s the irony of all ironies that billions of people believe in something that doesn’t exist? There’s no physical evidence for you to point to in any place or time period for a God, yet the masses still cling to their faith. That’s because that’s all they have. The faith of some mystical being, some floating consciousness is suspended throughout the universe. It’s quite sad,” Alice commented.

“It is. It just trips me up. Why don’t they ever say a whole host of enemies? There are blood family members that you love but don’t like and you’re allegedly supposed to love your foes more than your friends. What’s the point of having a friend if you love your enemy?”

“I guess it goes back to the whole liking business.”

“But loving is––” he stopped himself. “Let’s just keep memorizing.”

Alice held the tablet. “You know, I come from a Christian upbringing and I never saw my family members imply that you should love your enemies. They drew the line at the neighbor which is still a bit wishy-washy. The scriptures call for you to love your neighbor as yourself. But that’s impossible. You love yourself way more than any neighbor. You go out into the world, hell you fly on this plane and I think we’re good neighbors, maybe one day become friends. But I wouldn’t love you more than I love myself. That flies in the face of reason and nature.”

“Understood.”

“Oh let me continue before the ice melts in your Caesar.”

Alice whipped out her reading glasses and held up the tablet. Azal closed his eyes.

“Open those hazel eyes, young man. This is going to be your major debut. You’re going to have to hit your marks up there for your mother. I know the relationship was strained but you’ve got to show your family that you’re alright. You’re still fighting.”

Azal exhaled. He reached the end of the paragraph that concluded the piece. He wanted to burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all but kept it together.

“That was great but a few more times without hesitation at the end.”

“‘And a whole host of friends,’ he said. Then, the plane encountered a severe patch of turbulence and it shook the whole aircraft. If Azal’s drink wasn’t in a cup holder, it would have splashed all over him. A few people screamed and someone shouted “oh my God!” Alice and Azal looked at each other.

“I’m still an atheist. Are you? ”

“You’re goddamn right.”

The plane flew out of the patch and a few bits of applause rose up from the section behind first class. Azal retrieved the tablet from Alice and sipped his cocktail as she tried to rest up for an upcoming show.