Children

Al-Ayyal—A Collection of Short Stories Salem Askar Al-Yami Samir is a peaceful boy who interacts with the neighborhood kids using his charming, affectionate words. Everyone understands what Samir says, and Samir understands the dialects of the south, the Hijaz, and the east. Samir is known for using the phrase, “Look, I don’t want to fight with you,” which he says to boys his age and perhaps slightly older: Look, I don’t want to fight with you. Samir, with his small eyes and thick lips, would watch with a string of saliva dripping from his mouth, sometimes from one side, sometimes from both sides. This problem was one of the reasons why the elementary school principal hesitated to accept Samir for the year.