BOGUS. Jill Ganger
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had indeed become men, and Amad was the best of them. He had exceeded everyone’s expectations except his own. He had his own goals in mind even before he had come to the camp and perhaps that was why he had done so well. It was time for the trip home to his family, but this trip would be a lot easier than the trip to the camp. The boys that remained were put in a bus and driven directly to the airport in Mashhad. Some of the boys took flights from Mashhad to some smaller airports in Iran or to Iraq. Others flew with Amad to Tehran. Some of them were met by their parents in Tehran and others, like Amad, flew on to other locations. He was met by Hassan in Tripoli and they drove to his father’s house from there.
CHAPTER 5
It was a final goodbye. He'd said so many goodbyes to his family - not by choice.
At twelve it was so difficult for him to leave his mom to go to the military training camp that his father had arranged for him. He had so longed for his mother that he never forgot that goodbye. He never forgave his father, because it was a goodbye to everything from his childhood. As his father put it, "he was leaving home to become a man." To his father it was a new beginning, not a goodbye. In that year of training camp, he was only allowed to go home once. And when he did, it didn't feel the same. His mother wasn't the same, and he wasn't either. He felt sorrow for the childhood lost, but his father hadn't changed. His father had always been proud of him and told him that Allah would be very proud of him someday. He had studied hard to please his father and Allah, but during his time at the camp, he had also learned that perhaps neither of them would be happy with his private choices for his life.
He said goodbye again when he went off to school - the finest of private schools that Libya had to offer. The tutoring in his youth had served him well. He had always been a star student. He learned the languages that he would later need to comprehend and speak. He was fluent in Arabic of course, but through years of study he became fluent in English and Spanish. He had been tutored in English and Spanish from an early age, and by the time he went to the military camp he was relatively fluent. Everything was reinforced in the camp, and continued to be reinforced in his private school years. He was gifted in the sciences. In the private school he studied Biology and Chemistry, compounding his knowledge from the military camp. He learned something besides academics in his private school years. His father had arranged for an older woman to meet with him on a regular basis. Amad was a handsome boy with the fine delicate features from his mother mixed with the rugged handsome looks from his father. He grew a beard and mustache as soon as they would grow, and he carefully maintained them to his satisfaction. His hair was combed and neat at all times. Even at this young age the girls would fawn over him and he definitely enjoyed that. He didn’t know that this older woman was being paid by his father, but he did understand that these lessons would have extreme value for him in his later years. He learned wonderful skills at the hands of this beautiful Arabic woman. She taught him to pleasure her and to be pleasured by her. She was kind, gentle, and patient with him. He dreamt about her often and wondered if this was what love was all about. When he finished at the private school, what he missed most, was the time that he spent with her. He used what he learned from this woman many times while he was away at school, but none of the girls from his school years were any comparison to his teacher. His good looks attracted the girls to him, and he used that to his personal advantage. He learned to suppress his true feelings and enjoy only the physical sensations that he experienced with them. They, on the other hand, had no idea that he really didn’t care. His skills had been well practiced, but through his entire life he could only enjoy a sexual experience if he envisioned his beautiful teacher.
At nineteen years old he came home again, perhaps for the final time. His father proclaimed him ready for his Jihadist mission. He might be leaving the Middle East forever.
His father called him into his study one evening shortly after he returned. “You will be traveling to Mexico City, my son. My associate will meet you at the airport with a new identity and a Mexican passport. Your appearance will easily blend in with the Mexicans and your Spanish is fluent. Eventually you will leave Mexico and be accepted into a fine university in the United States. I will stay here, but you will be under surveillance. You do understand – son?”
“Does Mama know?” Amad asked in his native language.
CHAPTER 6
Hassan took him to the airport in Tripoli, where his father had purchased a first class airplane ticket on Tunisair for him. He flew, using his Libyan passport, to Mexico City. He would arrive in Mexico City and be met by an associate of his father, who went by the name of Roberto. He too had entered Mexico on a Libyan passport, but a counterfeit passport had been made for him that turned him into a Mexican citizen named Roberto Gutierrez. In turn, Roberto had a passport made for nineteen year old Amad. He became a Mexican citizen named Miguel Elian. Roberto told Amad that school records at an elite private school in Mexico City had been created for him by a corrupt schoolmaster who had been paid by Amad’s father. Roberto had found an apartment for Amad in a location that would be safe and convenient to the private school. Amad would need to apply to colleges in the United States using these school records and a glowing recommendation from this schoolmaster, and stay at the apartment until he was informed of his acceptance to the school of his choice.
His apartment was small but had a nice bedroom with a small but functional kitchen and was in what seemed like a nice area of the city. He was alone in Mexico City. The only person he knew was Roberto, but he was close to his father’s age. Now here he was, basically alone and in a strange city with a new language and a new name. He would be here for a while - until his forms were submitted and he was approved for a university in America. He knew his father would give him any amount of money that he asked for to enjoy this adventure in Mexico City. He needed to practice speaking and understanding Spanish anyway, so he might as well have a good time in the process.
Roberto had just left him in the apartment to fend for himself. His only tasks for the next few months were to present himself at the school to ensure that his forged records were attainable by the universities in the United States. He and his father would select the school that he would attend. The rest of his time was for him to play. After all that time in the caves, with his father, and in school, he needed some time for fun. To him, at nineteen years old, that meant women and drinking.
He decided to go out for a walk to explore the neighborhood. He closed up the apartment and went down the two flights of stairs and out to the street. He briefly looked in all directions and saw that he was indeed in an area that he might enjoy. People walking in the street were young and relatively well dressed. About a block down on his right was a cafe with outdoor seating and across the street from the cafe was what appeared to be a restaurant. There were many restored older buildings that had been turned into apartments such as the one in which he would be living. Down two blocks on his left he noticed flashing building lights, even in the daylight, and his first use of Spanish was to recognize them as identifying a nightclub.
He was tired from his journey, but in spite of that he walked to his right and down to the cafe. He sat down at an outside table and ordered a cup of black coffee. He sipped it slowly while watching the people walk by, and started to plan how he would spend his time here. To Amad, now Miguel, nothing happened by chance, because he liked to plan everything to the smallest detail. He felt that was the best way to avoid mistakes. His keen observations were one way he was able to achieve this. He took mental notes and remembered everything! As he took the last sips from the coffee mug, he decided he would go back to the apartment, take a hot shower, and go to sleep. Then tomorrow he would visit the school to begin the next step in his journey.
He must have been exhausted, because he didn't awaken until the cacophony of noise from the city street and the sunlight came in through the window. He stretched and smiled - he felt great and he was hungry. He opened the refrigerator and saw that it had not been stocked for him. Damn that Roberto! He was so incompetent! He would have to go back to that cafe for breakfast and then find the closest grocery store so that he could purchase the essentials for his new