Byblos
other off, and anyone operating any kind of vehicle
moron in the oncoming lane, her blond highlights
needs to be instantly decisive and aggressive and
and gold hoop earrings catching the last rays of
defensive, all at the same time. There’s no time to
sunlight.
think and wonder when or if to turn. You have to
We’re approaching my old neighborhood now,
make a quick decision and run with it, or end up
and minutes later we pull into Hamra Street, one of
waiting at the same intersection for six hours,
the main arteries of west Beirut, with all its retail
maybe six weeks. On the way to the apartment, my
and pedestrian hustle-bustle. As we line up in the
dear cousin Josette plows through traffic alertly and
bumper-to-bumper traffic, I look out at the strings
carefully but with a fierce determination and flips
of shops, the brand-new H&M alongside a few
the facial equivalent of the finger to any driver who
faded clothing boutiques displaying merchandise
assumes she’ll play doormat. Along the way she
surely hanging there since the early 1980s, and the
tells me about the ever-rising number of people
two-story Starbucks, and near it a couple of juice
killed in traffic accidents so far this summer, as she
stands I remember from my childhood, and then a
slams the brake and shakes her head at a swerving
few feet away the wonderfully well-stocked