Chapter Seven
Aysha: The Chef
Aysha’s long journey to the Peninsula began in the prominent but impoverished house of her widowed Uumi (Arabic for Mother) in the back country of Morocco. Their family had been locally prominent for generations, but had fallen on hard times that sadly highlighted her Alab’s (Arabic for Father) weaknesses of character. When his youngest (and by all accounts favorite) daughter Aysha was turning seven years old, the bright and beautiful youngster’s enormous brown eyes witnessed with horror his descent into addiction and eventual death. Her lovely but severe Uumi lost whatever kindness remained in her hardened heart after this catastrophe, and their house became a place of hard work and scant rations. As well, Uumi’s fear that her spirited youngest was harborin
