fifties? And Jalila's several years older. She violently disputes that fact but will never be able to disprove it no matter how often she denies it.'
There was a change in his heart too. He felt aversion and repulsion. It had not been that way when he arrived, for he had come in breathless pursuit of a phantom, which no longer existed. So be it. God forbid that he should willingly submit to defeat…. 'Drink, let yourself be transported by the music, and laugh. No one will ever force you to do something you don't want.'
Jalila said, 'I didn't believe my eyes would ever see you again in this world.'
He yielded to an overwhelming temptation to ask: 'How do you find me?'
Zubayda intervened: 'The same as ever. As big and strong as a camel. One white hair shows under your fez. Nothing more than that.'
Jalila protested, 'Let me answer, because he asked me'. Then she told al-Sayyid Ahmad, 'You look the way you always did.
But there's nothing strange about that. We're all still youngsters.'
Al-Sayyid Ahmad discerned her goal. Trying to seem serious and sincere, he replied, 'You two have only increased in beauty and good looks. I wasn't expecting this much.'
Examining him with interest, Zubayda inquired, 'What has kept you away from us all this time?' She laughingly advised him, 'If your intentions were at all good, you could have had an innocent rendezvous with us. Can't we ever meet unless there's a bed beneath us?'
Waving his arm in the air to toss back the sleeve of his caftan, Mr. Ibrahim al-Far retorted, 'Neither he nor we know how to have an innocent rendezvous with you.'
Zubayda grumbled, 'I seek refuge with God from you men. All you want a woman for is sex.'
Jalila laughed out loud and commented, 'Mother's pet, you should thank your Lord for that. Could you have grown so splendidly fat if you had not been content to profit from sex?'
Zubayda told her critically, 'Don't interfere with my interrogation of the accused.'
With a smile al-Sayyid Ahmad said, 'I was sentenced to five years of innocence without labor.'
Zubayda pounced on him again and said mockingly, 'Alas, poor boy! You deprived yourself of every pleasure, all of them, poor baby, so that the only ones to enjoy were food, drink, music, humor, and staying out till daybreak, night after night.'
He answered apologetically, 'These things are necessary for a grieving heart, but the other ones …'
Zubayda gestured toward him as though to say, 'You're hopeless!' Then she remarked, 'So, I've learned now that you consider us worse than all the other sins and transgressions put together….'
As though remembering an important matter he had almost forgotten, Muhammad Iffat interrupted her by crying out, 'Have we assembled from the ends of the earth just to talk? The glasses are staring down at us, but no one's paying any attention to them. Fill the glasses, Ali. Tune your instrument, Zanuba. And you, the accused gentleman, make yourself more comfortable. Do you think you're at school and can't remove any clothing? Take off your fez and cloak. Don't assume that your interrogation is over, but first all the court officials must get drunk. Then we can resume the interrogation. Jalila insisted that we shouldn't get intoxicated until 'the sultan of good times' arrived. At least that's what she said. This woman esteems you as highly as Satan does a chronic sinner. God's blessing on your relationship with her and hers with you.'
Al-Sayyid Ahmad rose to slip out of his cloak, and Ali Abd al-Rahim went to serve as bartender, as usual. A few discordant whispers were emitted by the lute strings as they were being tested. Zubayda crooned gently. With her fingertips Jalila smoothed the strands of her hair and the neck of her dress where it fell between her breasts. Eyes watched Ali Abd al-Rahim's hands with longing as he filled the glasses. Al-Sayyid Ahmad sat down again with his legs tucked beneath him. His eyes wandered over the room and the people in it until they chanced to meet Zanuba's. A smiling look of recognition lit up their eyes. Ali Abd al-Rahim presented the first round of drinks. Then Muhammad Iffat said, 'To good health and good love.'
Jalila said, 'To your return, Mr. Ahmad.'
Zubayda said, 'To right guidance when it follows error.'
Al-Sayyid Ahmad said, 'To those I love from whom I've been separated by grief.'
They all drank. Al-Sayyid Ahmad raised his drink to his lips. Over the base of the glasshe could see Zanuba's face. He was touched by its freshness.
Muhammad Iffat told Ali Abd al-Rahim, 'Time for the second round.'
Ibrahim al-Far added, 'And the third should follow immediately so we can lay the groundwork properly.'
As he set to work Ali Abd al-Rahim observed, 'A group's servant is their master.'
Ahmad Abd al-Jawad found himself watching Zanuba's fingers as she tuned the lute strings. He wondered how old she was, estimating that she was between twenty-five and thirty. He also asked himself why she was present. Had she only come to play the lute or was her Aunt Zubayda preparing to launch her in this profitable career?
Mr. Ibrahim al-Far said that just looking at the water of the Nile made him seasick, and Jalila shouted at him that he had made his mother sick in his day.
Ali Abd al-Rahim asked, 'If a woman as big as Jalila or Zubayda were thrown into the water, would she sink or float?'
Al-Sayyid Ahmad answered that she would float, unless there was a hole in her. He wondered what would happen if he felt tempted by Zanuba and told himself that at present it would be a scandal, after five glasses it would be awkward, but after a whole bottle it would become a duty.
Muhammad Iffat proposed they drink to the health of the nationalist leaders Sa'd Zaghlul and Mustafa al- Nahhas, who would be traveling at the end of the month from Paris to London for negotiations. Ibrahim al-Far suggested that they drink a toast to the Labour Party leader Ramsay MacDonald, a friend of the Egyptians.
Ali Abd al-Rahim asked what MacDonald had meant by saying he could solve the Egyptian problem before he finished drinking the cup of coffee he had in front of him.
Ahmad Abd al-Jawad answered that he meant it took an Englishman, on average, half a century to drink a cup of coffee.
Al-Sayyid Ahmad remembered how alienated he had felt by the revolution after Fahmy had been slain and how he had gradually returned to his original pro-nationalist feelings because of the respect and esteem people showered on him as the father of a martyr. In time, he had found that Fahmy's tragedy had even become a source of pride.
Jalila raised her glass in the direction of al-Sayyid Ahmad as she said, 'To your health, my camel. I've often asked myself whether you had really forgotten us. But God knows I understood and prayed God would grant you endurance and consolation. Don't be surprised, for I'm your sister and you've been a brother to me.'
Muhammad Iffat asked mischievously, 'If you're his sister and he's your brother, as you claim, then should you two have done what you used to?'
She emitted a laugh that reminded them of the old days, 1918 or before. She retorted, 'Ask your maternal uncles about that, love child.'
Glancing at Ahmad Abd al-Jawad slyly, Zubayda said, 'I've thought of another reason for his long absence….'
More than one person inquired what it was, while al-Sayyid Ahmad murmured pleadingly, 'O God who veils our shortcomings, protect me.'
'I suspect he's impotent like other men his age and has used his grief as a convenient excuse.'
Shaking her head with all the affectation of a performer, Jalila protested, 'He'll be the last to grow old.'
Mr. Muhammad Iffat asked al-Sayyid Ahmad, 'Which of these two opinions is right?'
Al-Sayyid Ahmad replied suggestively, 'The first expresses fear and the second hope.'
Jalila said with victorious relief, 'You're not a man who disappoints a lady's hopes.'
He thought about saying, 'It's only when he's tested that a man is honored or despised,' but was afraid he would be put to the test or that his statement would be understood as an invitation. Yet whenever he looked closely at them, he was overcome by a wish to hold back and to skip this opportunity. Before coming he would never have thought it possible. Yes, it was undeniable that a change had taken place. Yesterday was gone. Today was different. Zubayda was no longer the same, nor Jalila. There was nothing to justify the risk. He would be satisfied with the brotherly relationship Jalila had acclaimed and expand it to include Zubayda too. He said delicately, 'How could a man grow senile when surrounded by such beautiful women?'
