“You’re going to drive me crazy! I’ve sworn to this a hundred, a thousand times. He was here because of you, not because of me. He came to see you, not me. Don’t youremember? Really? He wanted to ask you to help him cultivate his land. God! My God! How long do I have to put upwith this, the pain, these accusations, always these sameaccusations? All my life? No, no, no ... I’ve had enough,enough, enough ... There are limits to what you can take. Ican’t put up with everything, take everything in. I’m not asstrong as you think. How many more years is it going to takebefore you believe me? Why do I always have to justifymyself? Why must I always go over the same things, the samestory? You know that I’ve never been unfaithful to you, notwith him, not with anybody. Do you want me to swear tothat? Is that it? Anyway, I’ve already done that. It wouldn’tphase me to do it again ... Is that what you want? Don’tcome near me ... No ... Leave me alone. I’ve already givenyou what you wanted. My body belongs to you but that’s noreason to mistreat it so. Why are you so hard on me all thetime, what have I ever done to you? After all, I am themother of your children, or have you forgotten that? ... Besensible! Think about God, think about the Prophet! All ofthat happened a long time ago, a very long time ago, almostin another lifetime ... I don’t even remember when, exactly,and what does it matter anyway ... Don’t come near me ...Leave me alone ... No, not the belt, you know you can’t beatme, you’re not that kind of man. Let me out of here ... Let me leave ... Help, help me!”

They had just gotten married. My father wasn’t always home. He would look for work in the other villages. M’Barkawould be alone for days at a time in the house at the OuladBrahim settlement, not far from her brother-in-laws “farm.”It wasn’t a first marriage for either of them. Mohamed hadbeen married to three other women before he met my mother.None of them seemed suitable to his sister Massouda, whomade all his decisions for him. M’Barka was already a widowand the mother of a year old daughter when Mohamedshowed up at her fathers house to ask for her hand. Both ofthem had a good understanding of life and its pitfalls. Theyhad already experienced love and its problems. Apparently,they couldn’t be fooled by anything. Now they wanted afamily, for real and for ever.