from you could change the Alley completely? Or are you
pleased at what goes on? How lovely the trees are round your
house ! I Jove them because you Jove them; look at them so that
I can find your glances on them.'
Whenever he confided his thoughts to his father, he rebuked him and said: 'What about your work, lazy-bones?
Young men like you are toiling about the streets after a living,
or making the Alley tremble with their cudgels.'
One day the family was sitting round after lunch and Abda
said with a big smile:
- Tell him, Shaafiy.
Rifaa looked at his father for explanation, bu t Shaafiy spoke
to his wife:
- You tell him what you want to say first.
Abda looked admiringly at her son and said:
- Good news, Rifaa: Zakia, wife of Du ngbeetle our
strongman, has been to see me. I returned the visit, naturally,
and she gave me a warm welcome and presented her daughter
Aysha to me, a girl as beautiful as the moon. Then she came to
see me agai n, bringing Aysha.
Shaafiy looked sidelong at his son as he lifted his cup of
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coffee to his lips, to see the effect of the story on him, then
shook his head over the difficult task that awaited him and said
pompously:
- This is an honor that no other family in Gebel's sector has
enjoyed. Imagine i t; the wife and daughter of Dungbeetle
visiting this home of ours!
Rifaa looked up at his mother in confusion. She said eagerly:
- Their home is so wonderful - comfortable chairs; a
marvelous carpet, even curtains hanging at the windows and
doors ...
Rifaa said angrily:
- All this finery out of the stolen wealth of Gebel's people!
Shaafiy suppressed a smile.
- We agreed to keep off that subject.
Abda said anxiously:
- Let's just remember that Dungbeetle is the ruler of
Gebel's people and that his family's friendship is an answer to
prayer.
Rifaa said in exasperation:
- Congratulations on this friendship!
Father and mother exchanged meani ngful looks, and she
said:
- Aysha's coming with her mother meant something.
Rifaa felt apprehensive.
- What did it mean, Mother?
Shaafiy laughed, throwing up his hands helplessly. He said
to Abda:
- We ought to have told him how our marriage came about.
Rifaa shou ted:
- No! No! Oh no, Father!
-What do you mean? What' s wrong with you, behaving like
a girl?
Abda tempted him hopefully.
- It's in your power to bring us into the management of
Gebel's Trust. They'll welcome you if you go ahead. Even
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Rifaa
Dungbeetle will welcome you, for his wife wouldn't have gone
this far ifshe wasn 't sure of him. You 'll be so i mportant that the
whole Alley from end to end will envy you.
His father said laughing:
- Who knows; we may see you the Trustee of Gebel's Trust
one day, or you may see one of your sons there.
- Can you say that Father? Have you forgotten why you left
the Alley twenty years ago?
Shaafiy bli nked i n confusion.
- Today we live like other people. We can't miss a chance
like this.
Rifaa murmured, as if talking to himself:
- How can I be son-in-law to a devil when all that matters
to me now is casti ng out devils?
Shaafiy exclaimed:
- I never hoped to make more than a carpenter out of you,
but now good fortu ne offers you a high place in our Alley, and
all you wan t is to be an exorcist! What a scandal ! What evil eye
has fallen on you? Stop joki ng and say you 'II marry her.
- I shan 't marry her, Father.
Shaafiy took no notice.
- I'll visit Dungbeetle to ask for her hand.
Rifaa shouted furiously:
- Don 't do that, father.
- Tell me what's wrong, boy.
Abda pleaded with her husband:
- Don 't be harsh with him; you know very well how he is.
- Damn what I know! The whole Alley will blame us for his
softness.
- Be gentle with him so that he'll think again.
- People his age are fathers, and the ground trembles
under their feet. (l-Ie looked at him angrily and went on:) Why
do you go pale at the idea? You come from the loins of men.
Rifaa sighed, almost on the point of tears, and thought:
'Anger destroys the bonds of fatherhood, and home some-
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Children of Gebelaawi
times becomes a prison. What you seek is not i n this place or
among these people. ' He said hoarsely:
- Don 't torment me, Father.
- It's you who are tormenting me, as you have done since
you were born.
Rifaa bowed his head so that his face was hidden from his
parents. Shaafiy lowered his voice, controlli ng his temper as
best he could, and asked:
- Are you frightened of marriage? Don't you want to
marry? Exp lain to me what's in your mind. Or should I go to
Mother-at-Heart? Perhaps she knows things about you that we
don 't.
Shouting 'No, never! ' , Rifaajumped up and left the room.
4 9 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Shaafiy went down to open the shop and did not find Rifaa
as expected. Still, he did not call him but said to himself: 'I'd
better seem not to mind about his absence! ' The day passed
slowly by, sunlight disappeared inch by inch from the surface
of the Alley, and sawdust piled up round Shaafiy's feet, but still
Rifaa did not appear. Evening came and Shaafiy shut up shop,
u pset and angry. Hewent as usual to Biubberlips' cafe and took
his seat. When he saw Jawaad the bard coming alone he was
overcome with amazement and asked:
- Where's Rifaa then?
Jawaad answered, as he felt his way towards his bench:
- I haven't seen him since yesterday.
Shaafiy said anxiously:
- I haven't seen him since he left us after lunch.
Jawaad raised his white eyebrows. He sat down cross-legged
on the bench, putting the rebec down beside him, and asked:
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Rifaa
- Has there been any trouble between you?
Shaafiy did not answer. He stood up suddenly and left the
cafe. Blubberlips was astonished at Shaafiy's anxiety and said
scornfully:
- The Alley hasn ' t seen such silliness since ldrees set up his
hut i n the wilderness. When I was young I used to be away from
the Alley for days at a time and nobody asked about me. When
I got back, my father - God rest his soul-would shout: 'What
brings you back you son of a bitch ! ' .
Dungbeetle spoke from the place of honor:
- Because he wasn 't sure you were his son.
The cafe was rocked by laughter and everyone congratulated Dungbeetle on his joke.
Shaafiy went home and asked Abda if Rifaa had come back.
She was fi lled wi th anxiety and said she had thought he was i n
the shop as usual. She grew still more worried when h e told her
that Rifaa had not been to Jawaad's home either. She kept
asking: 'Where can he have gone, then? '
They heard Jasmine calling a fig seller. Abda looked inquiringly at Shaafiy, and he shook his head wearily and let out a little laugh of scorn, bu t she said:
- A girl like her knows how to u ntie knots.
Shaafiy went to jasmine's home, driven by despair alone. He
knocked at the door and jasmi ne herself opened i t. When she
saw who it was she jerked her head back in a mixture of surprise
and triumph. She said:
- You? ! Under the dreamer lurks a schemer!
He looked away from her flimsy blouse and said curtly:
- Is Rifaa with you?
She was sti ll more surprised:
- Rifaa! Why?
He became embarrassed, and she poi nted inside and said:
- Come and see for yourself.
.
But he turned to go, and she asked scornfully:
- Has he grown up today?
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As he left he heard her speaking to someone inside:
- These days they worry more about a boy than about a girl !
Shaafiy found Abda waiting i n the passage. She said to him:
- We'll go together to Muqattam Bazaar.
He shouted angrily:
- Damn it! Is this my reward for a hard day's work?
They took a donkey-cart to Muqattam Bazaar and asked
their former neighbors and acquaintances about Rifaa but
found no trace of him. Of course, he sometimes went off for
a few hours in the afternoon or early evening to lonely places
or to the jebel, but no one cou ld imagine him staying in the
desert ti ll this hour of the night. His parents returned to the
Alley as they had left it, but still more worried.
Tongues wagged more and more over his disappearance as
the days passed. He became a joke i n the cafe and i n jasmine's
place and all over Gebel's sector. Everyone made fun of his
parents' fears. Mother-at-Heart andjawaad were perhaps the
only ones who shared their grief.Jawaad said: 'Where's the boy
gone? He's not that kind of youth; if he was, we wouldn't
worry. '
Melonhead shouted one time when he was drunk: 'Oyez,
oyez! A child is lost; oyez ! ' Everyone laughed over this and all
the urchi ns wen t about repeating it. Abda grieved so much
that she fell ill, and Shaafiy worked in his shop with his mind
elsewhere and with eyes red from loss of sleep. Dungbeetle's
wife Zakia broke off her visits to Abda and cut her dead in the
street.
One day Shaafiy was bending over, sawing a piece of wood,
when jasmi ne, on her way back from an outing, shouted: 'Mr
Shaafiy .. . look! ' He found she was pointing to the end of the
Alley by the desert. He left the shop, the saw still in his hand,
to see what she was pointi ng at, and there was his son Rifaa,
approaching shame-faced. Shaafiy dropped his saw in front of
the shop and hurried towards his son, staring at him in
astonishment. Then he gripped his arms and said:
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Rifaa
- Rifaa! Where have you been? Don't you know what your
absence has meant for us - for your poor mother who is
almost dying of grief?
The young man said nothi ng. His father saw how thin he was
and asked:
- Have you been ill?
- No, no! Let me see my mother.
Jasmine came up to them and asked suspiciously:
- But where have you been?
He did not look at her. Some urchins collected round him,
and his father took him home. They were soon joined by
Jawaad and Mother-at-Heart. When his mother saw him she
jumped up from her bed and hugged him, saying in a weak
voice:
- God forgive you ! How could you think so little of your
mother?
He took her hand in his and sat her down on the bed, then
sat beside her saying:
- I'm sorry.
A scowl clouded his father's face, hiding the relief that
shone within. He said:
- We only wanted to make you happy.
Abda's eyes brimmed with tears.
- Did you imagine we'd force you to marry?
He said sadly:
- I'm tired.
Several voices asked:
- Where have you been?
He sighed and said:
- I cou ldn't bear life, and I went to the desert. I felt the
need to be alone. I only left the desert to buy food.
His father slapped himself on the forehead and exclaimed:
- Sensible people don ' t do that sort of thing.
Mother-at-Heart said anxiously:
- Leave him alone. I know all about these states. With a
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Children of Gebelaawi
person like him it's wrong to force him to do anything he
doesn't want.
Abda clasped his hand, saying:
- We hoped for his happi ness, but what must be must be.
How thi n you've got, my son !
Shaafiy asked angrily:
- When did anything like this ever happen i n the Alley?
Mother-at-Heart scolded him:
- For me there's nothing strange about his condition.
Believe me, my dear Shaafiy, he's a unique young man.
- We've become the talk of the Alley.
Mother-at-Heart said indignantly:
- There's no young man like him in the Alley.
Shaafiy said:
- This is a time for sorrow.
Mother-at-Heart shouted:
- For God 's sake ! You don't know what you 're saying, and
you don't understand what's said to you.
5 0 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The shop was beginning to look busy and flourishing.
Shaafiy stood at one end of the bench sawing, while at the
other Rifaa ham mered. Under the bench the glue-pot was half
buried i n a heap of sawdust. Window frames and doors leaned
agai nst the walls, wi th a pile of new boxes in the middle, the
pale, planed surface needing only to be varnished. The air was
full of the smell of wood and the noise of sawing, hammering
and planing. The hookahs gurgled for four customers who
smoked as they chatted, sitting in the doorway of the shop.
Hijaazi said to Shaafiy: