Children of Gebelaawi (36 page)

from you could change the Alley completely? Or are you

pleased at what goes on? How lovely the trees are round your

house ! I Jove them because you Jove them; look at them so that

I can find your glances on them.'

Whenever he confided his thoughts to his father, he rebuked him and said: 'What about your work, lazy-bones?

Young men like you are toiling about the streets after a living,

or making the Alley tremble with their cudgels.'

One day the family was sitting round after lunch and Abda

said with a big smile:

- Tell him, Shaafiy.

Rifaa looked at his father for explanation, bu t Shaafiy spoke

to his wife:

- You tell him what you want to say first.

Abda looked admiringly at her son and said:

- Good news, Rifaa: Zakia, wife of Du ngbeetle our

strongman, has been to see me. I returned the visit, naturally,

and she gave me a warm welcome and presented her daughter

Aysha to me, a girl as beautiful as the moon. Then she came to

see me agai n, bringing Aysha.

Shaafiy looked sidelong at his son as he lifted his cup of

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Children of Gebelaawi

coffee to his lips, to see the effect of the story on him, then

shook his head over the difficult task that awaited him and said

pompously:

- This is an honor that no other family in Gebel's sector has

enjoyed. Imagine i t; the wife and daughter of Dungbeetle

visiting this home of ours!

Rifaa looked up at his mother in confusion. She said eagerly:

- Their home is so wonderful - comfortable chairs; a

marvelous carpet, even curtains hanging at the windows and

doors ...

Rifaa said angrily:

- All this finery out of the stolen wealth of Gebel's people!

Shaafiy suppressed a smile.

- We agreed to keep off that subject.

Abda said anxiously:

- Let's just remember that Dungbeetle is the ruler of

Gebel's people and that his family's friendship is an answer to

prayer.

Rifaa said in exasperation:

- Congratulations on this friendship!

Father and mother exchanged meani ngful looks, and she

said:

- Aysha's coming with her mother meant something.

Rifaa felt apprehensive.

- What did it mean, Mother?

Shaafiy laughed, throwing up his hands helplessly. He said

to Abda:

- We ought to have told him how our marriage came about.

Rifaa shou ted:

- No! No! Oh no, Father!

-What do you mean? What' s wrong with you, behaving like

a girl?

Abda tempted him hopefully.

- It's in your power to bring us into the management of

Gebel's Trust. They'll welcome you if you go ahead. Even

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Rifaa

Dungbeetle will welcome you, for his wife wouldn't have gone

this far ifshe wasn 't sure of him. You 'll be so i mportant that the

whole Alley from end to end will envy you.

His father said laughing:

- Who knows; we may see you the Trustee of Gebel's Trust

one day, or you may see one of your sons there.

- Can you say that Father? Have you forgotten why you left

the Alley twenty years ago?

Shaafiy bli nked i n confusion.

- Today we live like other people. We can't miss a chance

like this.

Rifaa murmured, as if talking to himself:

- How can I be son-in-law to a devil when all that matters

to me now is casti ng out devils?

Shaafiy exclaimed:

- I never hoped to make more than a carpenter out of you,

but now good fortu ne offers you a high place in our Alley, and

all you wan t is to be an exorcist! What a scandal ! What evil eye

has fallen on you? Stop joki ng and say you 'II marry her.

- I shan 't marry her, Father.

Shaafiy took no notice.

- I'll visit Dungbeetle to ask for her hand.

Rifaa shouted furiously:

- Don 't do that, father.

- Tell me what's wrong, boy.

Abda pleaded with her husband:

- Don 't be harsh with him; you know very well how he is.

- Damn what I know! The whole Alley will blame us for his

softness.

- Be gentle with him so that he'll think again.

- People his age are fathers, and the ground trembles

under their feet. (l-Ie looked at him angrily and went on:) Why

do you go pale at the idea? You come from the loins of men.

Rifaa sighed, almost on the point of tears, and thought:

'Anger destroys the bonds of fatherhood, and home some-

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Children of Gebelaawi

times becomes a prison. What you seek is not i n this place or

among these people. ' He said hoarsely:

- Don 't torment me, Father.

- It's you who are tormenting me, as you have done since

you were born.

Rifaa bowed his head so that his face was hidden from his

parents. Shaafiy lowered his voice, controlli ng his temper as

best he could, and asked:

- Are you frightened of marriage? Don't you want to

marry? Exp lain to me what's in your mind. Or should I go to

Mother-at-Heart? Perhaps she knows things about you that we

don 't.

Shouting 'No, never! ' , Rifaajumped up and left the room.

4 9 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Shaafiy went down to open the shop and did not find Rifaa

as expected. Still, he did not call him but said to himself: 'I'd

better seem not to mind about his absence! ' The day passed

slowly by, sunlight disappeared inch by inch from the surface

of the Alley, and sawdust piled up round Shaafiy's feet, but still

Rifaa did not appear. Evening came and Shaafiy shut up shop,

u pset and angry. Hewent as usual to Biubberlips' cafe and took

his seat. When he saw Jawaad the bard coming alone he was

overcome with amazement and asked:

- Where's Rifaa then?

Jawaad answered, as he felt his way towards his bench:

- I haven't seen him since yesterday.

Shaafiy said anxiously:

- I haven't seen him since he left us after lunch.

Jawaad raised his white eyebrows. He sat down cross-legged

on the bench, putting the rebec down beside him, and asked:

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Rifaa

- Has there been any trouble between you?

Shaafiy did not answer. He stood up suddenly and left the

cafe. Blubberlips was astonished at Shaafiy's anxiety and said

scornfully:

- The Alley hasn ' t seen such silliness since ldrees set up his

hut i n the wilderness. When I was young I used to be away from

the Alley for days at a time and nobody asked about me. When

I got back, my father - God rest his soul-would shout: 'What

brings you back you son of a bitch ! ' .

Dungbeetle spoke from the place of honor:

- Because he wasn 't sure you were his son.

The cafe was rocked by laughter and everyone congratulated Dungbeetle on his joke.

Shaafiy went home and asked Abda if Rifaa had come back.

She was fi lled wi th anxiety and said she had thought he was i n

the shop as usual. She grew still more worried when h e told her

that Rifaa had not been to Jawaad's home either. She kept

asking: 'Where can he have gone, then? '

They heard Jasmine calling a fig seller. Abda looked inquiringly at Shaafiy, and he shook his head wearily and let out a little laugh of scorn, bu t she said:

- A girl like her knows how to u ntie knots.

Shaafiy went to jasmine's home, driven by despair alone. He

knocked at the door and jasmi ne herself opened i t. When she

saw who it was she jerked her head back in a mixture of surprise

and triumph. She said:

- You? ! Under the dreamer lurks a schemer!

He looked away from her flimsy blouse and said curtly:

- Is Rifaa with you?

She was sti ll more surprised:

- Rifaa! Why?

He became embarrassed, and she poi nted inside and said:

- Come and see for yourself.

.

But he turned to go, and she asked scornfully:

- Has he grown up today?

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As he left he heard her speaking to someone inside:

- These days they worry more about a boy than about a girl !

Shaafiy found Abda waiting i n the passage. She said to him:

- We'll go together to Muqattam Bazaar.

He shouted angrily:

- Damn it! Is this my reward for a hard day's work?

They took a donkey-cart to Muqattam Bazaar and asked

their former neighbors and acquaintances about Rifaa but

found no trace of him. Of course, he sometimes went off for

a few hours in the afternoon or early evening to lonely places

or to the jebel, but no one cou ld imagine him staying in the

desert ti ll this hour of the night. His parents returned to the

Alley as they had left it, but still more worried.

Tongues wagged more and more over his disappearance as

the days passed. He became a joke i n the cafe and i n jasmine's

place and all over Gebel's sector. Everyone made fun of his

parents' fears. Mother-at-Heart andjawaad were perhaps the

only ones who shared their grief.Jawaad said: 'Where's the boy

gone? He's not that kind of youth; if he was, we wouldn't

worry. '

Melonhead shouted one time when he was drunk: 'Oyez,

oyez! A child is lost; oyez ! ' Everyone laughed over this and all

the urchi ns wen t about repeating it. Abda grieved so much

that she fell ill, and Shaafiy worked in his shop with his mind

elsewhere and with eyes red from loss of sleep. Dungbeetle's

wife Zakia broke off her visits to Abda and cut her dead in the

street.

One day Shaafiy was bending over, sawing a piece of wood,

when jasmi ne, on her way back from an outing, shouted: 'Mr

Shaafiy .. . look! ' He found she was pointing to the end of the

Alley by the desert. He left the shop, the saw still in his hand,

to see what she was pointi ng at, and there was his son Rifaa,

approaching shame-faced. Shaafiy dropped his saw in front of

the shop and hurried towards his son, staring at him in

astonishment. Then he gripped his arms and said:

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Rifaa

- Rifaa! Where have you been? Don't you know what your

absence has meant for us - for your poor mother who is

almost dying of grief?

The young man said nothi ng. His father saw how thin he was

and asked:

- Have you been ill?

- No, no! Let me see my mother.

Jasmine came up to them and asked suspiciously:

- But where have you been?

He did not look at her. Some urchins collected round him,

and his father took him home. They were soon joined by

Jawaad and Mother-at-Heart. When his mother saw him she

jumped up from her bed and hugged him, saying in a weak

voice:

- God forgive you ! How could you think so little of your

mother?

He took her hand in his and sat her down on the bed, then

sat beside her saying:

- I'm sorry.

A scowl clouded his father's face, hiding the relief that

shone within. He said:

- We only wanted to make you happy.

Abda's eyes brimmed with tears.

- Did you imagine we'd force you to marry?

He said sadly:

- I'm tired.

Several voices asked:

- Where have you been?

He sighed and said:

- I cou ldn't bear life, and I went to the desert. I felt the

need to be alone. I only left the desert to buy food.

His father slapped himself on the forehead and exclaimed:

- Sensible people don ' t do that sort of thing.

Mother-at-Heart said anxiously:

- Leave him alone. I know all about these states. With a

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person like him it's wrong to force him to do anything he

doesn't want.

Abda clasped his hand, saying:

- We hoped for his happi ness, but what must be must be.

How thi n you've got, my son !

Shaafiy asked angrily:

- When did anything like this ever happen i n the Alley?

Mother-at-Heart scolded him:

- For me there's nothing strange about his condition.

Believe me, my dear Shaafiy, he's a unique young man.

- We've become the talk of the Alley.

Mother-at-Heart said indignantly:

- There's no young man like him in the Alley.

Shaafiy said:

- This is a time for sorrow.

Mother-at-Heart shouted:

- For God 's sake ! You don't know what you 're saying, and

you don't understand what's said to you.

5 0 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The shop was beginning to look busy and flourishing.

Shaafiy stood at one end of the bench sawing, while at the

other Rifaa ham mered. Under the bench the glue-pot was half

buried i n a heap of sawdust. Window frames and doors leaned

agai nst the walls, wi th a pile of new boxes in the middle, the

pale, planed surface needing only to be varnished. The air was

full of the smell of wood and the noise of sawing, hammering

and planing. The hookahs gurgled for four customers who

smoked as they chatted, sitting in the doorway of the shop.

Hijaazi said to Shaafiy: