I put the brazier out on the balcony and have my own fire festival? Its blaze is immortal, unlike that of false stars. But women are like the dust, known not only by their rich scent but by the way they seep and settle into you. Cleopatra, for all her amours, never divulged the secret of her heart. The love of a woman is like political theater: there is no doubt about the loftiness of its goal, but you wonder about the integrity of it. No one benefits from this houseboat like the rats and the cockroaches and the geckos. And nothing bursts in unannounced through your door like grief. And yesterday the dawn said to me when it broke that really it had no name.
He listened to them discussing domestically produced meat and Russian fish and hard currency and the balance of payments. Then they all roared with laughter; and the boat shook, announcing a newcomer. Silence reigned. 'Here comes the bride!' Saniya murmured.
Samara sauntered gaily in, and shook hands with them warmly as a festival greeting. She was eagerly asked about the trip, and replied that it was splendid, and that they should all go on one like it in order to be created anew. Khalid let his eyes wander over those present and then wondered aloud: 'Do you think we could be created anew?'
They exchanged looks, and then were convulsed with laughter. 'It's your fault!' Mustafa said. 'You have failed to reveal the secret of your seriousness and zeal!'
'I will not fall into that trap!'
'It is clear that you are of the old faith like us, and — also like us — of the class that is sliding toward the abyss. So how, in the light of that, have you come upon the meaning of life? Won't you tell us at least what it is?'
She hesitated for a moment, and then said: 'It's life itself that is important, not the meaning.'
'But we feel life propelling us along instinctively, and within those bounds, we lead it perfectly well.'
'No!'
'We've already told you — '
She interrupted him. 'Some of us have an instinctive death wish, as you well know!'
'And the way out?'
'Is to come out of your shell.'
'Pretty talk, but it makes no difference one way or the other.'
'Life is above logic.'
And at that point Ragab said to her: 'Careful — you're falling into the trap again!'
Amm Abduh came to change the water in the water pipe. Ali congratulated him on the good quality of the kif.
'Yesterday the dealer advised me to buy enough for a month. He says the police are watching him,' Amm Abduh said.
'That's just a ploy to fleece us. Take no notice.'
'Amm Abduh,' Samara asked him, 'aren't you afraid of the police?'
Mustafa replied for him. 'He's so long in the tooth,' he said, 'that he is above the law.'
A star twinkled on the horizon like a serene smile. Anis asked it about the police; were they really watching the dealer? It replied that they watched the wakeful, not the drugged; and that stars twinkled as they approached the earth, and dimmed as they plunged further into space; and that some of the lights which adorned the dome of the heavens came from stars now shrouded in Nothingness; and that the power which subjects you to Nothingness is stronger than that which subjects you to Being. A comet suddenly plummeted down, so close that he imagined that it had landed on the violets on the bank, just beyond the houseboat.
'The whole department received a bonus for the festival except me,' he said.
Ahmad Nasr cursed the Director General.
'I leaped up to protest, but burst out laughing instead,' Anis finished.
They all laughed, but he shrugged his shoulders. Ali recalled how they used to celebrate this festival out at the Nile Barrages. Ragab said: 'The best way to celebrate the Prophet's journey is to make one of our own.' His face lit up. 'What do you say to a trip to the country in my car?'
'But we haven't smoked enough yet!'
Samara thought it was a good idea. Ahmad said that there was blessing to be had from a journey. Nobody objected — except Anis, who muttered: 'No!'
But would the expedition proceed in two cars? No, in one; otherwise there would be no point. How, if the car only has room for seven and we are nine? Well, Layla can sit on Khalid's lap, and Saniya on Ali's. Enthusiasm for this spontaneous expedition grew. And Anis still said, languidly: 'No…'
But they were bent on him coming. How could an adventure like this take place without the master of ceremonies? He refused to move, or to change his clothes, so they insisted on taking him in the long tunic he always wore at home. At about midnight, they rose to leave. Anis yielded under duress.
They went out toward the car. It was earlier than their usual time for leaving. Amm Abduh, who was standing in front of his hut like a palm tree, asked if he should go and tidy the room now. Anis told him to leave everything as it was until they returned.
15
The car set off, Ragab, Samara, and Ahmad sat in front, and the rest were squashed together in the back like one flattened body with six heads. They made for Pyramids Road, crossing the almost deserted city. Ragab suggested that the road to Saqqara would make a nice trip and everybody concurred, whether they knew the road or not. Anis sat hunched and silent in his white robe, pressed against the right-hand side of the car.
They covered Pyramids Road in minutes, and then turned left toward Saqqara. They began to travel at speed down the dark and deserted road, the headlights picking out the landmarks ahead. The road stretched infinitely out into the darkness, bordered on either side by great evergreens whose branches met overhead. On both sides lay the open spaces, the landscape and the air of the country. To their left the scenery was cut across by a canal running alongside the road. The water's surface stood out here and there under the faint starlight, iron gray against the black. The car went faster; the air rushed in, dry and refreshing and smelling of greenery. 'Slow down,' said Saniya to Ragab.
'Don't break the smokers' speed limit,' said Khalid.
'Are you a speed freak?' Samara asked him.
We are on the way to the site of an ancient Pharaonic tomb. A good moment to recite the opening verse of the Qur'an…
Ragab soon slowed down again. Khalid suggested that they stop for a while and go for a stroll in the dark. Everybody agreed, so Ragab turned off onto a dusty patch of ground between two trees, and stopped the car. Doors were opened. Ahmad, Khalid, Saniya, Layla, Mustafa, and Ali got out. Anis shifted himself away from the car door and sat comfortably for the first time. He shook out his tunic and stretched his legs. He searched with one foot for the slipper he had lost in the crush. When they called him to go with them, he replied tersely: 'No.'
Ragab caught hold of Samara's hand as she was about to get out. 'We can't leave the master of ceremonies alone,' he said.
The expedition moved off. They were going toward the canal, laughing and talking. They turned into phantoms in the starlight, and then disappeared altogether, leaving only disembodied voices.
'What is the meaning of this journey?' asked Anis thickly.
'It's the journey that is important,' Ragab teased, 'not the meaning.'
Samara said: 'Hmm!' — in protest at his allusion to her; but Anis was complaining now. 'The darkness makes me sleepy,' he grumbled.
'Enjoy it, master of ceremonies,' said Ragab eagerly. Then he turned to Samara. 'We must talk about us,' he said. 'Honestly. Like the honesty of the nature surrounding us.'
It is difficult to sleep when you are witnessing a romantic comedy. Very fitting, honesty, in the middle of the night on the road to Saqqara! Now his arm is creeping along the back of her seat. Anything can happen on the road to Saqqara.
'Yes,' he continued. 'Let us talk about our love.'
