Yaqub revealed almost nothing about his life in southern Lebanon. Rânia, impatient with her brother’s silence and this piece of buried past, needled him with questions. He covered his tracks. He would say, laconically: “I looked after the flock. I was the one responsible for the flock. That’s all.” When Rania pushed him, he became sharp, almost intractable; he was no longer his usual open, proud self—perhaps he took on something of the roughness he had cultivated in the village. However, something had happened when he was a shepherd. Maybe Halim knew, but no one, not even Zana, ever got that secret out of him. Nothing: Yaqub let nothing out. He pulled back, withdrawing into his cocoon at the strategic moment. Sometimes, when he emerged, he could be surprising.

One morning in August 1949, the twins’ birthday, Omar asked for money and a new bicycle. Halim gave him the bicycle, knowing that his wife secretly filled her son’s pockets with coins.

Yaqub refused the money and the bicycle. He asked for a gala uniform for Independence Day. It was his last year at the college, and now he was going to parade with the others, with a sword by his side. He was already smart in mufti, so you can just imagine how he looked in his white uniform with gold buttons, his epaulettes decorated with stars, his leather belt with a silver buckle, his spats and white gloves, and the shining sword he gripped in front of the mirror in the drawing room. His mother, dazzled, didn’t know whether she was looking at her son or his image. Perhaps she had eyes for both of them, or rather all three, because from the veranda Omar was looking at the spectacle from his bicycle, a slightly dopey look on his face, and a strange smile, whether of resentment or mockery there was no way of knowing. He took no notice of the parade, or of Independence. Halim preferred to take advantage of the holiday to stay at home in peace. He urged Zana to stay with him and let their son march and parade as much as he liked, but she wanted the thrill of seeing Yaqub in uniform in the middle of the Avenida Eduardo Ribeiro.