Road to Nowhere; John Milne

English Summary:
Road to Nowhere (John Milne)
The story starts when the main character, a boy called Faisal, was going to the market in a town called Nabur
on a Friday morning. During his journey, he introduced the reader about the people in his village, Um Khalid,
and about the richest man in the village, called Abdel Rahman, and whose daughter, Hanim, Faisal was in
love to. He also speaks about his fight with Abdel Rahman and that he was poor.
Faisal told that the changes didn`t rise people in his village and everything was like before (Independence). He
also said that he was a young man who liked changes and that Abdel Rahman was a person who didn`t like
changes. Faisal tolds that the river flooded every summer in the rainy season. After all this things he cross
Abdel Rahman, who was also going to the market.
When Faisal arrived to the market, he met a friend of him, called Abbas. He told Faisal that in the evening
there would be a meeting in Abdel Rahman`s house and it would be to talk about a letter, which arrives from
the goverment. The letter talked about building of a secondary school and a road next to Um Khalid. When
Faisal finished the sale of his things, he went back to Um Khalid.
In the meeting, the letter from the goverment was read and it said that they wanted to build a secondary school
and so they needed to build a road from Nabur to the school and that was going to bring advantages to Um
Khalid. Also villagers were going to have money. This letter was discussed by the people of the village
because someone agree with the goverment project and someone disagree with the project, like Abdel
Rahman. The letter also said there would be a passage in the enbarkment to get to the river.
When Faisal arrived home, he talked to his mother about the meeting. He told her that Abdel Rahman was
against of building the road. He also told her that he loved Hanim and that he wanted to marry her. This
mother answered him that she wasn`t for him and that the only hope for him was that he supported Abdel
Rahman against the road.
The following Thurday two officials from the goverment arrived to Um Khalid. There were many questions
and all of them were answered by the officials. They talked about a hospital and a cinema that were going to
be in the school. After this meeting, Abdel Rahman told the officials that they were going to answer if they
wanted the road, ten days from that day.
Lately, Faisal became to have strange dreams, where Hanim was always in danger and where Abdel Rahman
didn`t let him save Hanim. Also, lately, Abdel Rahman visited Faisal to asked what he thought about the road
and so Faisal has to make a decision: if the wanted the road or if he wanted the money.
After that Faisal had a dream, in which Abdel Rahman told him that he could only save Hanim if he stop the
road. On Friday evening, in the meetin, Faisal made a decision and he decided to sell tha land and to wait for
Hanim.
In the meeting, the villagers decided to sell the land. When the workmen started to build the road, the
problems began. The first problem was that the workmen sang and shouted at night. They also drank a lot and
so they were often drunk. They bothered the villagers because they wanted alcohol.
Two years later, the school and the road were finished. The village had a police post, electricity and telephone.
Faisal bought a van; he went to Nabur every day and so he worked harder than before. Villagers weren´t
happier. Also Abdel Rahman wanted to leave the village and there wasn`t any rain for two years.
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Faisal wanted to Abdel Rahman but he couldn`t because he had to work. That year rainy season started before
and so Abdel Rahman didn`t leave Um Khalid. There was a meeting in Abdel`s house to talk about the reason
why Abdel wanted to leave. He said that the passage was block and if it continued raining there would be a
flood and the village would be drown.
They went to clean the passage and they had a lot of work to do. During this, Faisal could finally talked to
Abdel. Faisal told him that he was wrong and that he wanted to leave the village. And he also told him that he
wanted to sell the van and that he wanted to marry Hanim. Abdel answer him that he could get marry with
Hanim on another time. After that, Faisal and Abdel Rahman went to Nabur for sale their lands. They
entrusted Abbas for work in the enbarkment, but he didn´t go.
When they got back to Um Khalid, it was raining heavily. A tree was crossing tha passage and the water
couldn`t pass throw the passage. The enbarkment was going to break and Abdel Rahman wanted to save his
family and Faisal went with him. Before they could reach Abdel`s family, the enbarkment broke up and
destroyed Abdel`s house and Um Khalid. Hanim and her mother were died.
After that Abdel Rahman went to live with Faisal until he died. Faisal got marry with his cousin Fatima, they
had five children and they were happy.
THE END.
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