ignoring and avoiding that issue and an even more important one. If only Maryam would kneel before you and whisper, 'All I need is one room where I can busy myself obeying your every command. Fill the rest of the apartment with all the women you want.' If the headmaster at school would only pat you on the shoulder and say, 'How's your father, my son?' If only the government would carve out a new street in front of the store in al- Hamzawi and the residence in al-Ghuriya. If only Zanuba would tell you, 'Tomorrow I'm leaving my lover's house and then I'll be at your service.' If all this would happen, people would gather after the Friday prayer service and kiss each other with sincere affection. Tonight the best thing you can do is to sit on the sofa while Zanuba dances naked in front of you. Then you'll have a chance to monitor the beauty spot over her navel.'
'How's the beloved beauty spot?' he asked as he smilingly gestured toward his own belly.
She laughed and replied, 'It kisses your hand'.
Glancing casually around the place, he said, 'Do you see these men? Each is the debauched son of a fallen woman. All drunks are like this.'
'We're honored. But my brain is flying off in every direction'. '
I hope the part inhabited by your boyfriend soars away.
'Oh, if he knew what's become of us! He'll stab you one day with the tip of his mustache.'
'Is he a Syrian with a colossal one?'
'Syrian?' Then she started singing in a loud voice the Syrian dialect word for salve: 'Barhum, oh barhum …'
'Hush. Don't attract attention.'
'Whose attention, blind man? Only a few people are left.'
After rubbing his stomach and sighing, he observed, 'Drink's a crazy thing.'
'The crazy thing was your mother.'
'You're talking louder than you should. Let's go.'
'Where?'
'You know more than I do. Our feet will decide.'
'Is a person successful when he lets his feet guide him?'
'That's safer at any rate than relying on a disordered brain.'
'Think a little about…'
He interrupted her by rising tipsily and saying, 'We need to act without any thought. Until tomorrow morning there's no point trying to think. Let's go.'
97
'The houses have closed their eyes. The streets are vacant except for an occasional roving breeze or the light from a sleepy lamp. Free from any competition, silence has wandered everywhere, spreading its wings. What good are hotels? The desk clerks look askance at you, as if you've got a dizzying disease they don't want to catch. Yes, you can scoff at their hostility, but you still don't have a place to stay. Other lovers are tucked in bed. How long are you going to wander around? Here's a driver raising his head heavy with sleep. He's looking at you in a welcoming way. God's mercy on anyone who drags a woman around in the wee hours of the night looking for a place to stay.'
'Where to?' Yasin asked.
The driver replied with a smile, 'Anywhere you want.'
Yasin told him, 'I wasn't asking you.'
The man replied, 'At your service, in any case.'
'Don't ask me,' Zanuba said. 'Ask yourself. Why didn't you think about that before you got drunk?'
Encouraged by seeing them stand beside his carriage, the coachman suggested, 'The Nile! That's the best place. Shall I take you to the banks of the Nile?'
Yasin asked contentiously, 'Are you a coachman or a sailor? What would we do by the Nile at this hour of the night?'
The driver said suggestively, 'The light's dim, and no one's around.'
'Ideal conditions for thieves.'
Zanuba said fearfully, 'Terrible! My ears, neck, and arms are weighted down with gold.'
Shrugging his shoulders, the driver said, 'There's nothing to fear. Every night I go there with fine people like you and we return in top condition.'
Zanuba said sharply, 'Don't mention the Nile. Talking about it makes my body shudder.'
'May evil stay far from your body.'
On taking his place in the carriage next to Zanuba, Yasin said, 'Talk to me. What's her body to you?'
'Bey, I'm your servant.'
'Eveiything's a mess tonight.'
'May our Lord straighten it out. If you'd like a hotel, we'll go to one.'
'We've quarreled with the clerks in three hotels. Three or four, Zanuba? Think of something else.'
'There's always the Nile.'
Zanuba said angrily, 'The gold, fellow.'
Putting his feet on the other seat, Yasin added, 'Besides, there's no place to …'
The driver answered, 'There's always the carriage.'
Zanuba shouted, 'Are you trying to humiliate me?'
Twisting his mustache, Yasin said, 'You're right. Absolutely. The carriage isn't the place. I'm not going to act like a foolish kid at this stage in my life. Listen...'
The man turned his ear, and Yasin yelled imperiously, 'To Palace of Desire Alley.'
'Clip-clop, clip-clop… you're plunging into the darkness with no friend save the stars,' Yasin reflected.
Anxiety loomed on the horizon only to sink back into a sea of forgetfuJness, like an elusive memory. His willpower had dissolved in a glass ofwine. Then his companion in merrymaking asked him with a drunken stammer where he was heading in Palace of Desire Alley.
He replied, 'My house, which I inherited from my mother.'
'The fates decreed that she lived for love there and left it in trust to love at her death,' he thought. 'It has greeted with yearning Umm Maryam and her daughter Maryam. Tonight it will open its arms to a lady from my past.'
'What about your wife, drunkard?'
'She's sound asleep.'
'Isn't there a reckoning for everything?'
'You' re with a man whose heart doesn't know the meaning of fear. Pluck some pearls from the heavens and drape your forehead with them. Sing softly into my ear, 'Bring me my love tonight, Mother.''
'Where am I going to spend the rest of it?'
'I'll take you anywhere you want.'
'You couldn't carry a straw home.'
'How about Paris on the Mediterranean?'
'If only I weren't afraid of him.'
'Who is he?'
Throwing her head back, she answered despondently, 'Who knows? I've forgotten.'
Al-Gamaliya was scarcely visible in the darkness. Even the coffeehouse had closed its doors. The carriage stopped at the entrance to Palace of Desire Alley. As Yasin stepped down, he belched. Supporting herself on his arm, Zanuba followed. They walked off together with a caution that did not keep them from swaying tipsily. Behind them they heard the cough of the driver and the squeaking shoes of the night watchman, who passed inquisitively by the carriage as it turned around.
She told him, 'The ground's uneven. It's rough walking here.'
He replied, 'It'll be easy going in the house'. Then he added, 'Don't worry.'
Although sporting a silly smile that was lost in the shadows, Zanuba tried in vain to remind him that his wife
