But she did not budge and replied, "I'm comfortable like this, Papa."
The recent past had taught him not to try to make her change her mind about anything. "What were you doing?"
A blank expression on her face, she answered, "Nothing, Papa."
"Why don't you go out with your mother and visit the blessed shrines? Wouldn't that be better than staying at home alone?"
"Why should I visit shrines?"
He seemed astonished by her response but said calmly, "You could entreat God for solace."
"God is with ushere in our house."
"Of course. I mean you shouldn't spend so much time alone, Aisha. Visit your sister. Visit the neighbors. Find some amusements for yourself."
"I can't bear to see Sugar Street. I have no friends. I don't know anyone anymore. I can't stand to visit people."
Turning his face away, the man said, "I want you to be brave and to take care of your health."
"My health!" she exclaimed almost incredulously.
He persisted: "Yes. What's the point of sorrow?"
In spite of her agitated condition, she did not abandon the decorum she observed with him and replied, "What's the point of life, Papa?"
"Don't say that. God's reward for you will be great."
Bowing her head to hide the tears in her eyes, she replied, "I want to go to Him to receive my reward. It won't come in this world, Papa". She started to withdraw quietly but before leaving the balcony stopped a moment as if she had remembered something and asked, "How's your health today?"
He smiled and answered, "Fine, praise God, but what's important is your health, Aisha". Then she was gone.
How could he relax in this house? He glanced down at the street again, and finally his eyes came to rest on Amina, who was returning from her daily circuit. Modestly attired in a coat and a white veil, she proceeded at a slow pace. How she had aged! Since he remembered that her mother had lived to a ripe old age, he was not especially concerned about his wife'shealth. But here she was at sixty-two looking at least ten years older than that.
It was quite a while before she arrived and asked him, "How are you, master?"
Raising his voice loud enough to allow the desired sharpness to reverberate in it, he said, "How are you yourself? God's will be done! You've been out since early this morning, lady."
She smiled and replied, "I visited the shrines of al-Sayyida Zaynab and of al-Husayn. I prayed for you and for everyone else."
Now that she was home, his composure and peace of mind returned, for he sensed he could request anything he wanted without hesitation. "Is it right for you to leave me alone all this time?"
"You gave me permission, master. I haven't been gone long. It's necessary, master. We're badly in need of prayer. I entreated my master al-Husayn to give you back your health so you can go and come as you wish. And I also prayed for Aisha and the others."
She got a chair and sat down. Then she asked, "Have you taken your medicine, master? I told Umm Hanafi…"
"I wish you had told her to do something nicer for me than that."
"It's for your good health, master. At the mosque I heard a beautiful talk by Shaykh Abd al-Rahman. Master, he spoke about atonement for sin and how misdeeds can be wiped away. His words were very beautiful, master. I wish I could remember as well as I once did."
"Your face is pale from your walk. It's just a matter of time before you become one of the doctor's regular patients."
"Lord protect us! I only go out to visit the tombs of members of the Prophet's family. So how could any harm befall me?" Then she added, "Oh, master, I almost forgot. They're talking about the war everywhere. They say that Hitler has attacked."
The man asked with interest, "Are you certain?"
"I heard it not once but a hundred times. 'Hitler attacked,… Hitler attacked.'"
To make her think she was not telling him anything he did not already know, the man observed, "People have been expecting this from one moment to the next."
"God willing, it won't affect us, will it, master?"
"Did they say only Hitler and not Mussolini? Didn't you hear that other name too?"
"Just Hitler's name."
"Will it affect us?" he asked himself. "Who knows?"
"May our Lord be gracious to us," he said. "If you hear someone selling a special edition of al-Balagh or al-Muqattam newspapers, buy one."
"It's like the days of Kaiser Wilhelm and the zeppelin. Do you remember, master? Glory to God the everlasting."
143
As Khadija later observed, it was a "momentous" family reunion. When the door of her apartment opened, Yasin, wearing a white linen suit with a red rose in the lapel and brandishing an ivory handled fly whisk, filled the aperture. His huge body almost created a draft of air as he advanced, followed by his son, Ridwan, who had on a silk suit of exemplary elegance and beauty. Then came Zanuba in a gray dress, radiating the modest decorum that had become an inseparable part of her. Finally there was Karima in an exquisite short-sleeved blue dress that revealed the uppermost part of her chest. Although she was only thirteen, her virginal femininity had blossomed and she seemed outrageously attractive. In the parlor they were received by Khadija, Ibrahim, Abd al-Muni'm, and Ahmad.
Yasin wasted no time in asking, "Have you ever heard anything like this? My son is secretary to the chief of the ministry where I'm employed as a section head in the records office. The very earth rises to greet him when he passes, while people are barely aware of my existence."
Although his words were couched in the language of protest, his proud satisfaction with his son was obvious to everyone. After receiving his degree in May, Ridwan had been appointed a secretary to the cabinet minister in June, starting out in the civil service at the sixth level, when most college graduates joined at the eighth as clerks. Abd al-Muni'm, who had received his degree at the same time, still did not know what the future held in store for him.
Feeling a bit jealous, Khadija smiled and said, "Ridwan is a friend of the men in power, but children are only as good as their parents."
With a delight he did not succeed in concealing, Yasin asked, "Didn't you see the photograph of him and the minister in al-Ahram yesterday? It's gotten so we don't know how to address him."
Pointing to Abd al-Muni'm and Ahmad, Ibrahim Shawkat said, "These boys are a disappointment. They waste their lives in bitter but meaningless debates, and their best contacts are Shaykh Ali al-Manufi, who runs the al-Husayn Primary School, and that scum of the earth Adli Karim, publis her of a journal called Light or Smut or who knows what."
Even though he tried to appear calm, Ahmad was infuriated. His uncle Yasin's conceit upset him as much as his father's sUghting remarks. Abd al-Muni'm's anger, which under different circumstances might easily have flared up, was dampened by the expectations this family visit had aroused. Glancing surreptitiously at Ridwan's face, he wondered what his cousin was thinking. His heart felt that this visit was an auspicious one, for his relatives would probably not have come unless they were bearing good news.
Responding to Ibrahim's comments, Yasin remarked, "If you ask my opinion, I think you have fine sons. Isn't there a proverb that says, 'The sultan is the one person you don't find waiting by the sultan's door.'"
Yasin's attempt to hide his delight was a complete failure, and he convinced no one that he actually believed what he was saying. All the same, pointing to Ridwan, Khadija remarked, "May our Lord grant hitn any good that comes to them and spare him whatever misfortunes they experience."
At last, Ridwan turned to Abd al-Muni'm and said, "I hope to be able to offer you my congratulations soon…."
Blushing, Abd al-Muni'm looked inquisitively at his cousin. Ridwan added, "The minister promised to give you an appointment in the Bureau of Investigations."
The members of Khadija's family were impatient to hear all the details and fixed their eyes on Ridwan in hopes of discovering further substantiating signs. The young man continued: "Most probably
at the beginning of next month."
Expanding on his son's words, Yasin said, "It's a judicial position. In our records office two young men with university degrees have been appointed to clerical jobs at the eighth level with salaries of only eight pounds a month."
It was Khadija who had asked Yasin to talk to his son about Abd al-Muni'm. So she said gratefully, "Our thanks to God and to you, brother". Turning to Ridwan, she added, "And it goes without saying that we are very appreciative of the favor Ridwan has done us."
Ibrahim added his own thanks to hers, saying, "Absolutely! Ridwan is Abd al-Muni'm's brother and a fine one too."
To remind them of her presence, the smiling Zanuba remarked, "Ridwan and Abd al-Muni'm truly are brothers. There's no question about that."
Abd al-Muni'm, who for the first time felt bashful in Ridwan's presence, asked, "Washe serious about it?"
Yasin answered importantly, "The minister's word! I'm following up on it."
Ridwan said, "I'll take care of any problems that might arise in the personnel office. I have many friends there, even though it's said that employees of the personnel office don't have a friend in the world."
Ibrahim Shawkat sighed and observed, "Praise God who spared us from embarking on a career and from dealing with personnel officers."
Yasin said, "You live like a king, as is only right for a person named after God's friend, the prophet Abraham."
But Khadija retorted scornfully, "May our Lord never decree that a man should stay home."
Zanuba, as usual, intervened with a pleasant word: "To be forced to stay home is a curse, but a man with a private income has a sultan's life."
A mischievous gleam in his eyes, Ahmad said, "Uncle Yasin has a private income and a civil service position too."
Yasin laughed out loud and replied, "I have a civil service post and that's all, if you please. My private income! That's over and done with. How can anyone with a family like mine hold on to his fortune?"
Khadija cried out in dismay, "Your family!"
To end this conversation, which was beginning to get on his nerves, Ridwan turned to Ahmad and said, "God willing, you'll find us ready to serve you next year when you get your degree."
Ahmad answered, "Thank you very much, but I'm not entering government service."
"How so?"
"A civil service job would kill a person like me. My future lies outside the government."
Khadija wanted to remonstrate with her son but chose to postpone the argument to another time. Smiling, Ridwan said, "If you change your mind, you'll find me at your service."
To show his gratitude, Ahmad raised his hand to his head. Then the maid brought in glasses of cold lemonade. During the moment of silence as they began to sip their drinks, Khadija happened to glance at Karima. She seemed to be noticing the girl for the first time since reassuring herself about Abd al-Muni'm. She asked her niece tenderly, "How are you, Karima?"
In a melodious voice the girl replied, "Fine, thanks, Auntie."
Khadija was about to extol her niece's beauty, but caution restrained her. This was not the first time Zanuba had brought her daughter to visit them since the girl had been staying home after finishing her elementary certificate. Khadija told herself that there was something suspicious about it. Karima was Zanuba's daughter, but Yasin was her father. That fact made the matter a delicate one.
Abd al-Muni'm was too engrossed with his future position to give Karima the attention she deserved, although he was well acquainted with her. Moreover, he had not yet recovered from the death of his wife. And there was no space left in Ahmad'sheart.
Yasin said, "Karima's still sorry she didn't go to secondary school."
Frowning, Zanuba said, "I'm even sorrier than she is."
Ibrarrjm Shawkat commented, "The effect the exertion of studying has on girls concerns me. Besides, a girl is going to end up at home. It's only a year or two before Karima will be married off to some lucky fellow."
"You should have your tongue cut out," Khadija observed silently. "He brings up dangerous topics without paying any attention to the consequences. What a situation! Karima is Yasin's daughter and sister to Ridwan, who has done us this important favor. Perhaps there are no grounds for this anxiety, and I'm just imagining things. But why does Zanuba visit us so often, bringing Karima along with her? Yasin's too busy to think up plots, but that woman was raised in a troupe of performers…."
Zanuba responded, "That's what people used to say. But now all girls go to school."
Khadija said, "In our district there are two girls who are studying for advanced degrees, but God knows they are no beauties."
Yasin asked Ahmad, "Aren't some of the girls in your department beautiful?"
Ahmad'sheart pounded as the image nestling in his heart appeared before his mind's eye. He answered, "The love of learning is not restricted to ugly girls."
Looking toward her father with a smile, Karima said, "It's all a question of who a girl's father is."
Yasin laughed and said, "Bravo, daughter! That's how a good girl talks about her father. That's how your aunt used to speak to your grandfather."
Khadija said sarcastically, "It really does make a difference who your father is."
Zanuba quickly replied, "Don't blame the girl. Oh, if you could hear the way he talks to his children…."
Khadija said, "I know."
Yasin commented, "I'm a man with his own ideas about child rearing. I'm their father and their friend. I wouldn't want any of my children to tremble from fear when they're with me. Even now I'm ill at ease in my father's presence."
Ibrahim Shawkat said, "May God strengthen him and console him for having to stay home. Al-Sayyid Ahmad is a generation all by himself. There's not another man like him."
Khadija said critically, "Tell him!"
As if to apologize for not being like his father, Yasin agreed, "My father is an entire generation all by himself. Alas, he and his friends are now confined to their homes men for whom the whole world wasn't big enough."
Ridwan said in an aside to Ahmad, "With the entry of Italy into the war, Egypt's situation has become extremely grave."
"Perhaps these mock air raids will turn into real ones."
"But are the English strong enough to turn back the expected Italian advance? No doubt Hitler will leave the task of taking the Suez Canal to Mussolini."
Abd al-Muni'm asked, "Will America just stand by and watch?"
"Russia holds the true key to the situation."
"But she's allied with Hitler."
"Communism is the enemy of the Nazis, and the evil threatening the world from a German victory is greater than that from a victory by the democracies."
"They have darkened the world," Khadija complained. "May God darken their lives. What are all these things we never knew before? Air-raid sirens! Anti-aircraft guns! Searchlights! These calamities could turn a man's hair white before his time."
With mild sarcasm, Ibrahim retorted, "At any rate, in our family nobody goes gray prematurely."
"That's only true of you."
Ibrahim was sixty-five now, but compared to al-Sayyid Ahmad, who was only three years his senior, he seemed decades younger.
When the visit was ending, Ridwan instructed Abd al-Muni'm: "Come see me at the ministry."
Once the door was closed behind the departing guests, Ahmad told Abd al-Muni'm, "Be careful not to barge in on him unannounced. Find out how to behave when visiting a minister's secretary."
His brother did not reply or even look his way.
144
Ahmad had little trouble finding the villa of his sociology professor, Mr. Forster, in the Cairo suburb of al-Ma'adi. On entering, he realized that he was a bit late and that many of the other students had already arrived for this party, which the professor was giving before he returned to England. Ahmad was welcomed by the host and his wife, and the professor introduced Ahmad to her as one of the best students in the department. Then the young man joine
d the others, who were sitting on the veranda. All levels of the sociology program were represented. As one of the small group promoted to the final year, Ahmad shared with those peers a sense of excellence and of achievement. None of the women students had appeared yet, but he was confident that they would come or at least that his "friend" would, since she also lived in al-Ma'adi. Glancing at the garden, he saw a long table set on a grassy lawn, which was bordered on two sides by willow and palm trees. Lined up on the table were teapots, containers of milk, and platters of sweet confections and pastries.
He heard a student ask, "Shall we observe British manners or swoop down on the table like vultures?"
Another replied rather sadly, "Oh, if only 'Lady' Forster weren't present."
It was late afternoon, but the weather was pleasant, June's reputation for sultriness notwithstanding. In no time at all the eagerly awaited flock was at the door. As if by design, the only four women students in the department all came together. Wearing a fitted pure-white dress that seemed one with the rest of her charming person except for her coal-black hair Alawiya Sabri came into view, striding jauntily forward. At that moment Ahmad, whose secret had long since gotten out, felt a teasing foot rub against his to alert him to her presence, as if there were any need for that. He kept his eyes on the women until they found seats on the veranda in a corner that had been vacated for them.
Mr. Forster and his wife appeared, and, pointing to the girls, Mrs. Forster asked, "Would you like to be introduced?"
Thei r response was resounding laughter. Extraordinarily lively although nearly fifty, the professor said, "It would be far better if you'd introduce them to me."
The guests laughed noisily once more, and Mr. Forster continued: "At about this time each year we leave Egypt for a holiday in England, but this year we don't know whether we'll see Egypt again or not___"
His wife interrupted: "We don't even know if we'll manage to see England!"
They realized that she was referring to the danger posed to shipping by submarines, and more than one voice called out, "Crood luck, ma'am."
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