eaten you . (Then, after clearing his throat: ) That's enough
about Gebelaawi and Saadallah. Tell me about your weapon;
what is it?
He replied cunningly:
- A magic bottle.
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The Trustee looked at him suspiciously.
- Explai n !
Feeling for the first time a li ttle easier, Arafa said:
- Only magicians understand the language of magic.
- Won't you explain, even if I promise you safety?
Arafa laughed inwardly, but remained outwardly serious.
- I have only spoken the truth.
The man stared at the floor for a while, then looked up and
asked:
- Do you have many of them?
- I have none at the momen t.
The, Trustee ground his teeth and shouted:
- Child of vipers!
- Search my house and see for yourself.
- Coulci you make some more?
- Certainly.
The Trustee hugged himself with excitemen t.
- I want lots of them.
- You shall have as many as you want.
For the first time they exchanged understanding looks.
Arafa said boldly:
- Your Honor wishes to dispense with those damnable
strongmen?
With a strange glint in his eye, Qadri asked:
- Tell me what made you break into the Great House.
- Only curiosity. I didn 't mean to kill that faithful servant.
The Trustee stared at him suspiciously.
- You caused the death of the great man.
- I was heartbroken over that.
The Trustee shrugged his shoulders and said:
- If only we could live like him.
Arafa thcbught: 'You dreadful hypocrite ! You're only interested in the Trust. ' But he said:
- May God grant you a long life!
The Trustee still sou nded suspicious:
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- You really wen t just out of curiosity?
- Yes!
- An d why did you kill Saadallah?
- Because, like you, I wan t to get rid of the strongmen.
The Trustee smiled.
- They're a great evil.
Arafa thought: 'You only hate them because of the money
they take from the Trust, not because of their wickedness.' But
he said:
- You 're quite right, sir.
- You ' ll become richer than you ever dreamed.
Arafa said crafti ly:
- That's all I wanted.
- You needn 't bother to work for milliemes; you'll have all
your time to make magic for my defence, and whatever your
heart desires shall be yours.
1 0 6 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On the sofa sat the three of them - Arafa describing what
had happened, and Awaatif and Hanash following his words
with anxious attention. Arafa finished by saying:
- We have no choice. Saadallah is not yet buried. It's either
accept or be destroyed !
Awaatif said:
- Or run away!
- There's no escape from his spies who are all around us.
- We shan 't be safe under his protection.
He ignored her words, and would have liked to ignore her
thought. He turned to Hanash and asked:
- Why don't you say something?
Hanash said sadly:
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- We came back to this Alley with simple, modest hopes.
You alone have to answer for the change that came about later
- for the high hopes we came to have. I was against your
ambition at first, but I didn't hesitate to help you. I began to
be convinced by your views, little by little, till my only hope was
the Alley's hope offreedom and perfection. Now you surprise
us with a new p lan by which we' ll become a terrible tool for
oppression - a tool that can 't be resisted or destroyed,
whereas a strongman can be fought or killed.
Awaatif said:
- An d after that there will be no safety for us; he may get
what he wants from you and then get rid of you by a trick, as he
is now preparing to do with the strongmen.
Deep down Arafa could not help agreeing with what they
said, but he spoke as if trying to persuade himself:
- I'll make him need my magic always.
Awaatif said:
- At best you' ll be his new strongman.
H anash backed her up:
- Yes, one whose weapon is a bottle i nstead ofa cudgel. And
remember how he feels about the strongmen; then you'll
know how he'll feel about you.
Arafa became angry.
- Well, well ! lt's as ifl was the greedy one and you were both
pure. But it's me that you came to believe in. I only spent my
nights awake in the back room and risked death twice for the
good of the Alley. If you don't want to accept what's being
forced on us, tell me what's to be done.
He gave them a look of angry defiance. Neither of them
spoke. Pai n was crushing him and he saw the world as a stifling
nightmare. He was overcome by a strange feeli ng that his
suffering was in revenge for his cruel trespass on his Ancestor.
His grief and anguish grew worse. Awaatifwhispered i n desperate entreaty:
- Let's run away.
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He asked angri ly:
- How?
- I don't know, but i t can 't be harder for you than getting
i nto Gebelaawi 's house.
He puffed.
- The Trustee iswaiting for us, and his spies are all around;
how could we possibly escape?
There was a silence li ke that ofGebelaawi's tomb. Arafa said
reproachfully:
- I don't want to bear failure alone.
Hanash said apologetically:
- We have no choice. (Then, brigh tly: ) The future may
bring a chance to escape.
Arafa said absen tly:
- Who knows!
I-Ie went to the back room, followed by Han ash . They began
packi ng glass and gravel and other i ngredients into bottles.
Arafa said:
- We must i nven t symbols for our magic procedures and
write them in a secret book so that our efforts don ' t risk getting
lost - and so that my death will not mean the end of the
experiments. Besides, I hope you 'll be ready to learn magic,
for we have no idea what fate has in store for us.
They wen t on worki ng with great care. Arafa glanced at his
companion and saw that he was scowling. He did not hide his
thoughts, but made the best of the strange situation.
- These bottles wi ll finish off the strongmen.
Hanash said, almost in a whisper:
- Not to our advantage nor that of the Alley.
Arafa spoke without pausi ng in his work:
- What has the rebec told you? In the past there were men
like Gebel, Rifaa and Qaasim; why shou ldn ' t such men come
in the fu ture?
1-Ianash sighed.
- I al most thought sometimes that you were one of them.
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Arafa laughed a short, dry laugh.
- Has my failure made you change your mind about that?
Hanash said nothing. Arafa went on:
- I shall never be like them from one point of view at least:
they had a following, but as for me, nobody understands me.
(He laughed. ) Qaasim could win a staunch follower by a single
kind word, but it will take me years and years to train one man
in mywork and make him i nto my follower. ( He finished filling
a bottle, put the cork in and held it up to the lamp admiringly. )
Today these just frighten people and cut their faces; tomorrow
they may kill. I tell you, there will be no end to magic.
1 0 7 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Who would be Strongman of the Alley? N o sooner had
Saadallah been laid in his grave than people began to wonder.
Each faction started pushing its own man. Gebel's people said
Yoosuf was the most powerful and the one most certai nly
related to Gebelaawi, and the Rifaaite's said they were the
followers of the finest person the Alley had ever known, the
man Gebelaawi had buried in his own house and with his own
hands. Qaasim's people said they were the ones who had used
victory not just for the benefit of their own sector, but for the
benefit of everyone, and that the Alley had been united in the
days of their hero and ruled by justice and brotherhood. As
usual, the differences began as whisperings over the hashish,
which spread and grew till people were preparing for the
worst. The strongmen stopped going about alone, and if they
stayed up late in a cafe or hashish den they were surrounded
by supporters armed with cudgels. Each bard prayed to the
sound of his rebec for the strongman of his sector. The
shopkeepers and peddlers scowled and looked gloomy, and
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people were so worried and afraid that they forgot about the
death ofGebelaawi and the murder ofSaadallah. U m Nabawia
the bean seller expressed the general feeling when she cried
out at the top of her voice:
- Damn this life ! Those who die are the lucky ones.
One evening a voice shouted from a roof in Gebel's sector:
- Listen, you people, and let reason judge between us and
you: Gebel's sector is the oldest and Gebel was the first of our
heroes, so it will disgrace nobody if you accept Yoosuf as
strongman.
Shouts of derision rang outfrom the Rifaaites and Qaasimites,
mixed with obscene i nsults and curses. In no time urchins had
gathered chanting:
Yoosuf with your lousy face i t's you,
You who fi nd a crazy thing to do!
People's hearts became still harder and blacker. The only
thing that put off disaster was that three factions were involved;
two would have to unite, or one must withdraw from the
competition. Inciden ts began happeni ng far from the Alley.
Two peddlers fought at Beit el-Qadi; one- a Qaasimite - lost
some teeth while the other - a Gebclite - lost an eye. At
Hammam e)-Sultan there was a battle between women from all
three factions, naked in the baths. They scratched and bit each
other and tore at each other's hair. The air was thick with flyi ng
jugs, pumice stones, luffas and pieces of soap. Two women
fainted and one had a miscarriage, and blood was everywhere.
Later the same day, after the amazons had trooped back to the
Alley, they resumed battle on the rooftops, and the sky was
fil led with missiles, and filthy insults flew up to the clouds.
The Truslcc sccretlysenta messenger to Yoosuf, Lhe Gebclite
strongman, asking him to come for a meeti ng without letting
anyone know. The Trustee received him graciously and asked
him to do somethi ng to calm people down in his sector,
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especially as i t was the one next to Trustee's House. When he
shook his hand to say goodbye, the Trustee said he hoped that,
the n ext time they met, Yoosuf would be Strongman of the
Alley. The man left intoxicated by the thought of this frank
support and believing power was i n his grasp. Soon he had
organized his people, and they whispered to one another
about the power and prestige that tomorrow held i n store for
them. The news got out to the rest ofthe Alley, and feelings ran
high. Not many days passed before Fisticuff and Harpstrings
met secretly and agreed to join forces to destroy Yoosuf and
then, after victory, to draw lots to become strongman.
Next day at dawn the men ofQaasim and Rifaa gathered and
attacked Gebel's sector. There was a fierce battle and Yoosuf
and many of his men were killed. The Gebelites submitted i n
despair to superior strength. The afternoon was chosen for
lots to be drawn as agreed, and at the appointed hour the
Qaasi mite and Rifaaite men and women hurried to the top of
the Alley, filling the area between Trustee's House and
Strongman 's House, which would belong to the wi nner of the
draw. Harpstrings and Fisticuff arrived, each with his gang,
and greeted each other amicably and peacefully. They embraced i n front of everyone, and Fisticuff said i n a voice that all could hear:
- You and I are brothers and we'll remain brothers what-
ever happens.
Harpstrings said with enthusiasm:
- Always!
The two factions stood opposite one another, separated by
a space i n front of the entrance of the Great House. Two men
came forward, one from each side, with a basket full of paper
bags. They pu t it down in the space and retreated, each to his
own people. It was announced that the hammer was Fisticuffs
symbol and the cleaver Harpstrings', and that models of each
were equally divided between the bags. A young man was led
blindfold to the basket to make the draw. In the tense silence
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he dipped in his hand and pulled out a paper bag. Still
blin dfold, he opened it, took out its content and held it up.
The Qaasimites shouted:
- The cleaver! The cleaver!
Harpstrings stretched his hand out to Fisticuff who took and
squeezed it, grinning. There were excited shouts of:
- Long live Harpstrings, Strongman of the Alley!
From the ranks of the Rifaaites a man came towards