Businesss-men's life

A row of luxuriant cars from Mercedes, Hummer, Peugeot 308 and the latest Megane stopped outside the fancy mansion for the wealthy business-man Mr. Belcem Meckaleb, the middle aged man whose origins were obscure. None knew who was he or from which family he came, all what they knew about him was the fact that he was a well off man who claimed that he was originally from Blida but when that bloody wave swamped the region in the bloody decades, his family drifted away looking for a safer place to live in harmony far from the nightmares of the black days. He assumed that he was in his teens when they moved from there, and when the winds of peace wafted again in the mountains of Cheria and the oak trees drunk the water of peace and the buds blossomed welcoming the new spring, the trees spread their flexible branches to the sky as if to thank God for the new life He gave to those trees after the devastation of myriad innocent trees for nothing just for they tossed their heads toward the sky seeking for the air of peace to breathe, but they were recompensed by cutting their heads for they dreamed about serenity, Belcem came back to where he belonged.

Belcem came back to his region with the first blooms of spring. He bought a large piece of land where he started building his house. After few months, a beautiful mansion was standing on a gigantic hill in front of a beautiful vista, and beneath its feet laid small houses scattered here and there. His mansion was like a castle standing in proud on a lofty hill as if trying to touch the moon by its high roofs, or like an eye keeping its sight on the wretched houses day and night.
No one knew from where Belcem brought all those money to build that mansion in a short period. Nobody dared to ask him that question, all what they could do was looking at the house from aloft; some with pangs of jealousy, others with eye of admiring, and the rest with eye of astonishment.

_“You are very welcome gentle men. I am very glad to see all these faces here in my humble house celebrating with me the establishment of my new company. Thanks for coming and feel free like you are at your homes.” Said Belcem to the men sitting in the large hall of his villa as they were celebrating the establishing of Belcem’s company for importing cars.
A cloud of smoke was swimming aloft on the heads from the expensive Cuban cigar the business-men were smoking. The hall was crowded by them; they were from different regions and different ages but there was merely a sole thing that gathered them there; money. It was a chance for each one to make a business affair with someone who was wealthier than him and exploit his experience to add some millions to his account. Each four or five men clustered together; some talked about new future affairs and others counted the benefits they gained during the year and how they would enhance their business and pile more money to cram their pockets. Others, and mainly the young newly rich men who were drugged by blinded desires to accumulate much more money, were satisfied by listening to the older rich men trying to learn from them the magical recipes for richness. While the rest were talking about their adventures with their mistresses and how their wives were pleased by their life without poking their noses in their affairs, busy by bringing up their children, and since the husband provided for them and their children all what they needed, he was free to do whatever he wanted outside since he came back home loaded at the end of the day.

Belcem was looking at the faces scrutinizing them like a detective who tried to decipher the expressions of a criminal’s face; each face wore a mask and each two eyes concealed a story. He was moving from a group to another and from each mouth he heard a different story, until he felt that his ears were stuffed from hearing all those stories. He stepped to a corner holding a glass of something icy to drink where he glimpsed a young man with folded hands standing far from the others, gazing upon vacancy as if procuring in an a matter of life. Belcem approached from him and said: “Hello Mr.___”. “Amine, you can call me Amine”. Retorted the young man with a dimpled smile.
_“And why are you standing here alone, Mr. Amine?”
_“In fact I am not used to these things; it is the first time I attend such parties. Besides I don’t know any one in here.”
Belcem felt relieved while talking with Amine; his countenance revealed a decent man not like most of the other faces.
_“So what do you work, Amine?” Asked Belcem.
_“In fact I am the boss of a small company. We import all kinds of Peugeot.”
_“Good!” Said Belcem with a _nod_.
While the two men were talking, a man approached from them and asked about Amine: _“It is the first time I see you here, young man.”
_“Yes.” Said Belcem. “He is Amine, the boss of the company of Peugeot which is located in front of the old bridge at the ‘Industrial Zone’.”
_”Ah, yes. I know it. It is a new one but it is doing a good job.” Then added the man with an audible laughter: “So your name is Amine? Do people named like that still existing?! I thought that is an extinct name. Huh, Amine!”
Amine looked at the strange man without knowing what to say or how to answer him. He just half smiled and exchanged a glance devoid of meaning with Mr. Belcem and made a sudden intimate that he was not at ease.
_“What do you think if we ramble out to breathe some fresh air, Amine?” Said Belcem to break the sudden intense silence.
_”Yeah. I will be glad to see the fabulous vista around your villa.”

Outside, darkness started creeping on the landscape little by little. The black birds were preparing themselves for a long warm night in their nest sending their sharp calls for their likes as if asking them to join their nests before the fall of the night. The wind gusted coldly from time to time making the yellow dry leaves rustling mournfully in the branches for they were going to forsake their mothers; the trees, and fall down letting deciduous trees preparing themselves for the coming of the new season; winter, when a new life was blown in every creature.
Amine looked around him and said: “You have a paradise-like in here! How is beautiful this place! I envy you for you can forget everything under this tree or on that hill.”
Belcem smiled and asked: “Where do you live, Amine? Tell me about you; I want to know about your life. I do not know why I feel at ease with you, I think future is hiding for us other meetings.”
Amine took a deep breath and started telling his story; in fact he, too, shared Belcem that feeling: “Well, I am not from this region. My family moved to Blida seven years ago after the great loss we had witnessed. We were one of the well-known families in Oran who lived life of opulence; we had a company there for importing cars. But one day my father, peace be upon his soul, made a business affair with a foreign company and since he had not the ample money for that great affair, he mortgaged our house, company and all what we had to lend money from the bank. But the affair was abortive, and my father forfeited everything in a blink of an eye; we became homeless, jobless, unwanted after all the doors were closed in our faces, and you can imagine when a person witnesses such crisis in his life what can people do; they deny that they knew you one day and let you alone facing the fate of life.”
Amine stopped talking for a while, looked at the horizon as if he was expecting something coming then he added: “The future looked bleak for us; we did not know what to do or where to go. But there is always a flash of light that flicks in the darkest night, there is always a shred of hope in the hopeless day. There was a friend for us who was a real friend; he was always saying that I have a strong tenacity and I am determined to restore our situation, for that he accepted me to work with him. The thing that enabled us from regaining a small portion of what we had lost; our house that we sold and came to here to start a new life. I worked hard days and nights to procure some money and continue in the same path as my father, I mean establishing that company. But now, thanks God, things are much better than before.”
There was a flame of earnest desire for success flickered in Amine’s eyes, a flash of determination which revealed a tenacious soul. He was a man in the spring of his life but the things he did showed that he was older than his real age. His youngish energy yearned for reaching and achieving success; the thing that can foster any business and which made Belcem thinking to ask him to work together.
_” I have an idea, Amine. What do you think if we work together? I need someone like you to run my business.”

Amine, like the others, heard a lot of rumours and libels about Mr. Belcem, he knew that they were just mouthed rumours, but as he had the chance to meet Belcem in person, a huge temptation burst in him to know the truth and the reality about that obscure man. He looked at Belcem and said: “You don’t know how much I long for making business with such business-man like you, Mr. Belcem, and I will be glad if some business affairs will gather us in future.”
_” You can call me Belcem, Amine, no need for titles between friends, if you deem me as a friend as I do!”
_”It is my pleasure, Belcem, and I am your friend from now, and your partner from tomorrow if you want.”
_”Nice then, you assented to be partners. Be sure that, with me, you will restore all what you have lost.”
_” But there is a tiny thing I want to make it clear before starting anything. I just want to know about you; about your life if it doesn’t bother you to talk about it.”
Belcem stepped some steps forward, he sat on a small rock underneath an olive tree, put his elbow on his thigh and his chin with his hand. He looked for the faint clouds which were scattered in the sky hiding the stars from time to time. The air was pregnant with the scent of the wet dust which meant that rain was falling somewhere not far from there and soon it would drizzle there. His mind was, too, clouded by thick clouds of the doleful past.
_ “So you want to hear my story. Here it is, listen to it.” Said Belcem with grim voice.

First, welcome back to your second home Chinda, we missed your posts. Second, I haven't read the whole story yet(I'm not home and I'll do so as soon as I get back) but I read the two first paragraphs and truth be told, I was stunned. I love your way of writing and how you describe nature! it's outstanding!They reminded me of a novel I read "The Great Gatsby". Keep it up and you'll soon write your first novel that will be internationally read.