Alexandra Singer
Authors: Tea at the Grand Tazi
Originally from Manchester,
Alexandra Singer
travelled the world before settling in the UK to study law, working for an international corporate law firm.
In 2008 aged just twenty-five, Alexandra was diagnosed with a near fatal neurological illness, and spent three months in a coma.
Remarkably, Alexandra is on the road to recovery and when not writing, teaches languages and literature.
Tea at the Grand Tazi
is Alexandra’s debut novel.
Visit Alexandra’s website: www.alexandrasinger.co.uk
Legend Press Ltd, 2 London Wall Buildings,
London EC2M 5UU
[email protected]
www.legendpress.co.uk
Contents © Alexandra Singer 2012
The right of the above author to be indentified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available.
ISBN 978-1-9082482-3-7
eISBN 978-1-9087755-5-9
All characters, other than those clearly in the public domain, and place names, other than those well-established such as towns and cities, are ficticious and any
resemblance is purely coincidental.
Set in Times
Printed by CPI Books, United Kingdom
Cover design by Anna Marrow |
www.annamarrow.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
For my wonderful family; Theo, Diane, Michaela, Joshua and Poupée, and for all those who have helped me along the way.
Following completion of the act of love, many men had disappointed Maia by conducting their own battle in the war against Venus. Rigidly controlling their inner selves, she
sensed that these men felt compelled to prove to her that they had stolen from her the very thing she had given so freely. They had taken from her something so precious, and spat it back at her,
twisted and used. She resolved to free herself from their chains, from the fixed image they had created of her, and made her arrival in an ancient and eastern city. Here, Maia hoped to find a new
light in which she might renew herself, after the desert had bleached her clean.
The driver was already busy creating his own image of her, locked in his own private battle against femininity. His eyes expertly grazed her body and succeeded in penetrating the long sleeves
she wore in an attempt to shield herself from the prying eyes of men. Every so often, the driver managed to adjust the mirror so that he could catch her eye. He watched her and grinned widely, the
yellowing teeth hanging askew from the corners of his mouth like the rotten keys of an old piano. Each time he succeeded in meeting her eyes, Maia smiled disdainfully and looked away, while he
shifted in his seat and appeared to swell with pride. Maia watched the skin bulging at the back of his neck, and shuddered.
From the old, partly disused station at the desert’s edge, they passed through long stretches of flat and barren land. This was a city at the crossroads, and that was the desert from which
the slave caravans had once emerged. Towards the city walls, unfinished buildings decked in rags might have revealed signs of new development, if Maia had not been certain that such squalor had
always existed there. In the early hours of the morning, red mountains rose up behind them.
“
Maktoub, maktoub!
” The driver shouted, pointing violently at a minaret hovering in the dawn. The mosque, thought Maia, yet her basic Arabic made her realise that he may not
have been referring to the mosque. She nodded her head in agreement at whatever he might be telling her, but he simply laughed, bemused. It was a chuckle that came from deep within his throat, and
she knew that he was mocking her.
Maktoub... maktoub?
She was sure she knew the meaning of the word, but for the moment it eluded her. Perhaps as a tourist he imagined she might be
interested in the architecture of the mosque. But that was not her reason for being here. Something sparked in her mind and she grasped the meaning of the words: ‘It is written’.
Whatever could he mean? Maia glanced at the driver again only to find that he was still staring at her. She flicked her eyes down and gazed at the city ahead, wondering at the prospects where a
thousand new lives might be offered up before her.
She opened her mouth to the night air and gulped down the taste of lost memory. The heat possessed the dry flavour of the desert and it rose upon her tongue. She savoured the sensation of
unfolding into the early morning air; it’s deep, oppressive breath upon her face. The presence of the encroaching city, even the eyes of the driver roaming her body; she felt unshakable.
“For how long you stay here? You married? You alone?”
Here it seemed that a woman might have to account for every movement, flirtation, or flicker of the eye. A beautiful face, the shape of a leg; everything about a woman was deemed relevant for
judgment. Only art permitted movement. Only in art did Maia feel that the vision of femininity might be subjective.
As the car approached the walls she saw that they would soon have to stop, and she recalled the Historian’s instructions. “Turn right here, please.”
The driver ignored her, but stared in the mirror almost as if he was challenging her to disagree.
“
A droit!
”
This time he obliged. The taxi now faced a labyrinth, far too narrow for cars to pass through. With immense relief, Maia felt here was a good place to stop. As she counted out her money he
grinned at her, and the man’s unbearable smugness forced Maia to swallow the urge to reach out and smack the teeth out of his grotesquely gaping mouth.
The taxi drove away and as the lights retreated, Maia was left standing alone trying to remember the rest of the Historian’s directions. The tall buildings of the alley obstructed nearly
every shred of faint light and Maia shuffled along in the gloom. For a moment she wondered which way to turn and realised she stood on the edge of the medina. As she edged along the side of another
anonymous building with only dim light to show her the way, Maia saw that the Historian’s house was approached by an alley leading off the main street. As she drew closer Maia was able to see
that the house stood at the entrance to a second alleyway, even narrower than the first. Piles of rubbish lined the walls of the house and the foul stench was overpowering. Maia was taken aback;
she had heard that the Historian was a particularly fastidious man, more accustomed to luxury than squalor. He was revered for his meticulous research, for which he had achieved numerous accolades,
although he rarely bothered to collect them. It was said that a personal appearance or sighting of the Historian was a rare and much revered event in academic circles. Maia wasn’t sure what
she had imagined his home to be like; but certainly not this. Then there came the sound of scurrying, something moving away. Turning, Maia saw a woman watching her from the doorway. She had not
even heard the door open.
“How long have you been standing there?” she asked the woman, who was looking at her with a steady gaze from eyes which stared out disconcertingly from a crumpled face.
“Only long enough to watch you find your way.”
“Thank you for helping me.” Maia said. But the woman didn’t seem to pick up on the sarcasm. Or maybe she did, and chose to ignore it.
“You are welcome.”
“Then I might ask why you didn’t call out, if you were expecting me?” said Maia, hoping that her words would emit a tone of defiance.
The woman shrugged. “The Historian has given you his instructions. Who am I to intervene?”
Maia looked at the woman, wondering at her odd character. Her skin was strangely mottled, with patches of dark, grey skin. The woman saw Maia looking at her and she turned away, her dark hair
swaying with the sudden movement.
“So, you are Maia, the Historian’s new assistant.”
“Of course.”
“My name is Ina.” The woman stepped towards Maia. “You will come this way.” Her face was inscrutable, a perfect portrait of blankness, like the buildings surrounding
them. As Maia stepped into the house, the door shut heavily behind her.
If the outside of the house had been all waste and refuse, peeling paint and shuttered buildings, inside the house was very different. Marble lined the interior as Maia was led through the outer
hall, trailing her hand along the pleasant coolness of the wall. Ina looked at her silently, with a reproachful glance, and continued to lead Maia through the house into the courtyard. Maia took in
the orange tree growing around the courtyard and the shallow pool lying in its centre, open to the sky.
Ina took her up two flights of stairs, and on touching the walls Maia found that everything was cold. Inside the house the air was fresh and sweet, no longer rotten and heavy from the stench of
human waste, but gentle from the sweet smell of oranges. As Ina pushed open the door to Maia’s new room, she smiled for the first time. Noiselessly she handed over the keys and shuffled away
into the darkness. Maia turned to thank her, but Ina was already gone. As the door of the room closed behind her, Maia suddenly felt lonely, a sense of panic starting to prick.
The high ceilings of the room ought to have allowed for spaciousness and air, but it was strangely different from the rest of the house. Instead, the room felt stifling and oppressive, despite
the exhausted fan, silently stirring the warm air. The room was filled with dark wood and smelling as though it hadn’t been used for many months. In the corner stood a small kitchen, the dust
settling upon every available surface. Maia went to the windows, on which huge iron grills were fastened. She expected to see down into the alley below, but instead the room looked onto the
courtyard and the tops of orange trees. It ought to have been pleasant, but the knowledge that she was unable to see outside the house only increased her sense of restlessness. Maia lay down on the
bare bed in the centre of the room and slept.