Children of Gebelaawi (33 page)

tiredness !

The woman put down her bundle and sat on it, resting her

belly between her thighs. The man stood for a moment,

peering about, then he too sat down on his bundle. A moist

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dawn breeze stirred around them, but the woman did not

forget the question that absorbed her:

- Where do you think I ' ll have my baby?

Shaafiy said crossly:

- Anywhere's better than our damned Alley, Abda. ( He

looked up at the outline of the jebel, which stretched to north

and south as far as the eye could see, and continued:) We shall

go to Muqattam Bazaar. Gebel went there in his time of trial.

I 'll open a carpentry shop and carry on with the work I did i n

the Alley. I have a golden touch, and a fair amount o f money

to make a start.

The woman drew her chador closer round her head and

shoulders and said sadly:

- We' ll live in exile as if we had no people, we who belong

to Gebel's people, the lords of the Alley.

The man spat angrily:

- Lords of the Alley i ndeed! We are just miserable slaves,

Abda; Gebel and his happy times have gone, and 'Snarler' has

come, damn him, our strongman who is against us and not for

us, who gobbles up our earnings and destroys anybody who

complains.

Abda could not deny any of this, for she had always lived

bitter days and sorrowful nights; but it seemed that the further

she was from the hateful things in the Alley, the more her heart

clung to good memories. She said:

- Our Alley would be the best of all ifit wasn'tfor i ts wicked

men. Where else is there a house like our Ancestor's, or

neighbors like ours? Where else will you hear the stories of

Adham and Gebel and Hind's Rock? Damn wicked men !

- The cudgels crack down for the slightest reason, and the

migh ty swagger about among us like fate itself.

He remembered the abominable Snarler who had taken

him by the collar and shaken him till his ribs almost rattled,

and had then dragged him in the dust in front of everyone, all

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because he had once talked about the Trust. He stamped his

foot on the groun d and wen t on:

-That dam ned criminal snatched the little son ofSidhum,

the head-meat man, and after that nothing was ever heard of

him again. He had no mercy on a little one a month old, and

you ask where you 're to have your baby! You 'll have it with

people who don 't ki ll babies.

Abda sighed and said gently:

- If only you cou ld be content with the same as other

people.

He frowned in the darkness.

- What did I do wrong, Abda? Nothing. I just asked what

had become of Gebel and Gebel's covenant and of just force,

and why Gebel's people are poor and wretched again. He

smashed my shop up and beat me, and would have killed me

but for the neighbors. If we'd stayed at home till you had your

baby, he'd have pounced on it as he did with Sidhum 's.

She shook her head sadly.

- Oh if only you were patient, my dear Shaafiy! Haven't you

heard them say Gebelaawi will certainly come back one day to

save his children from oppression and hu miliation?

Shaafiy puffed:

- So they say! I 've been hearing that ever since I was a boy.

But the fact is our Ancestor has shut himself away i n his house,

and the Trustee has taken the Trust's money for himself,

except what he gives to the strongmen to protect him; and

Snarler, strongman of Gebel's people, takes their share and

buries it in his stom ach, as if Gebel had never been, as if he

hadn 't taken the eye of his friend Digger for the eye of poor

Triptoe.

The woman was silent in the darkness. Morning would fi n d

her amongst strangers who wou ld be her new neighbors, and

her baby wou ld be born into their hands. It would grow up on

strange soi l, like a cutting taken from a tree. She had been

happy enough wi th Gebel's people, taki ng the food to her

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husband's shop, sitting at night by the window to listen to the

rebec of dear old jawaad the blind bard. How sweet was i ts

music, and how lovely was the story of Gebel, the nigh t

Gebelaawi met h i m in the darkness and told him not to be

afraid, assuring him of his love and support till he succeeded.

He had come back to his Alley with joy in his heart. How sweet

it was to come back from exile!

Shaafiy was gazing up at the sky and at the unsleeping stars,

and he glimpsed the first signs of light over the Jebel. He

warned:

- We must be on our way so as to reach the Bazaar before

sunnse.

- I still need rest.

- Damn those who caused your tiredness.

How beautiful life would be but for Snarler; it was full of

good things: the pure air, the starry sky, pleasant sensations.

But there were also the Trustee lhaab and the strongmen:

'Bayoomi ' 'andjaabir, 'Handoosa' and Khaalid, and 'Snarler'.

It would have been possible for every house to become like the

Great House and for the groans to turn into songs; but the

wretched people still yearned for the unattainable as Adham

before them had yearned. And what were these poor people:

necks red from beatings, backs bruised by kicks, eyes grazed by

flies, heads i nfested by lice.

- Why has Gebelaawi forgotten us?

The woman murmured:

- God knows how he is!

Shaafiy shouted i n grief and anger:

- Gebelaawi !

The echo threw back his voice. He stood up saying:

- Trust i n God !

Abda stood up and put her hand in his, and they headed

south for Muqattam Bazaar.

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4 5 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Abda spoke with joy in her eyes and on her lips.

- There's our Alley! And here are we, back after our exile.

Praise be to God, Lord of all worldsl

Shaafiy smiled, wiping his forehead on the sleeve of his

cloak, and said with composure:

- It's good to be back!

Rifaa listened to his parents with a mixture of surprise and

sadness on his handsome, open face. He protested:

- Is Muqattam Bazaar going to be forgotten, and our

neighbors?

His mother smiled, drawing the corner of her chador over

her greying hair. She understood that the boy felt as strongly

for his birthplace as she did for hers. With his gentle, affectionate nature he could not forget friendships. She answered:

- Good things are never forgotten. But this is where you

really come from, and your people are here, the lords of the

Alley. You'll love them and they'll love you. How lovely Gebel's

sector wi ll be now that Snarler's dead!

Shaafiy warned:

- 'Dungbeetle' will be no better than Snarler.

- But Dungbeetle doesn't hate you.

- Strongmen's hatreds spring up as quickly as mud follows

ram.

Abda said hopefully:

- Don ' t think like that. We've come back to live in peace.

You 'll open a shop and make a living. And don' t forget that you

lived under a strongman at Muqattam Bazaar. Everywhere

there's a strongman for people to bow down to.

The family continued on their way to the Alley, Shaafiy in

the lead carrying a sack, Abda and Rifaa following with a big

bundle. Rifaa, with his height, his sli m build and his innocen t

face, was a n attractive young man with a mild and peaceful air,

a stranger to the earth he walked on. He examined the scene

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eagerly, till his eye fell on the Great House, isolated at the head

of the Alley, the tops of trees waving above its wall. He gazed

at i t for a long time, then asked:

- Our Ancestor's house?

Abda said happily:

- Yes! You remember what we told you about it? Your

Ancestor lives there, the master of all this land and everythi ng

that stands on i t. I ts goodness is his and so is its abundance. If

he wasn't shut away the Alley would be fi lled with light.

Shaafiy wen t on scornfully:

- And in his name l haab the Trustee robs us, and the

strongmen attack us.

They went towards the Alley, past the south wall of the Great

House, at which Rifaa continued to gaze. Then Trustee's

House came into view, with i ts gatekeeper sitting on the bench

by the open gate. Facing i t stood the house of Bayoomi,

Strongman of the Alley, in front of which stood a donkey cart

with baskets of rice and fresh fruit. The servants were carrying

them in one after another. The Alley itself looked like a

p laygrou nd for barefoot urchins, and women sat on the

ground or on rush mats in front of their tenement-houses,

shelling beans or mashing jute leaves and exchangi ng gossip,

jokes and abuse. There was a great deal of laughter and

shouting. Shaafiy and his family made for Gebel's sector. An

old blind man , feeling his way slowly with a stick, met them at

the side of the road. Shaafiy set down his sack and went up to

him beami ng. He stopped in fron t of him and exclaimed:

- Dear old jawaad the bard ! Hello!

The bard stopped, cocking an ear, then shook his head i n

puzzlement and said:

- Hello ! That's a voice I seem to know.

- Have you forgotten your old friend Shaafiy the carpen-

ter?

The man's face lit up and he exclaimed:

- Dear old Shaafiy! Good heavens!

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Rifaa

He opened his arms and the two men embraced with such

ferven t affection that bystanders stared at them, and two

urchi ns playfu lly imitated their embrace. Jawaad seized his

friend's hand and said:

- You left us twenty-odd years ago, what an age! And how's

your wife?

Abda said:

- Dear oldjawaad! I'm well thank you, and I hope you are

too. And here's our son. Rifaa, come and kiss the hand of our

dear old bard.

Rifaa came up to the bard happily, took his hand and kissed

it. The old man patted him on the shoulder and reached up to

feel at his head and his features. He said:

- Amazing! Amazing! How li ke your Ancestor !

This praise made Abda's face light up, but Shaafiy laughed