Children of Gebelaawi (44 page)

clouds. Dew and tears moistened their faces. Hussein led the

way to his tomb. They busied themselves silently opening it.

The light gradually became stronger, till they could see the

shrouded body and their bloodstained hands and their eyes

red from crying. They carried the body down into the depths

of the tomb, and stood rou nd it humbly, fighting back their

tears. Kareem whispered, sobbing:

-Your life was a brief dream , but it has filled our hearts with

love and purity. We didn't imagine you 'd leave us so soon, let

alone that somebody would kill you, somebody from our

ungrateful Alley. You loved it and served it, and all it wanted

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was to destroy the mercy and healing you brought. They've

damned themselves til l the end of time.

Zaki moaned:

- Why do the good die? Why do the wicked live?

Hussei n sighed:

- But for your love remaining in us, we'd hate people for

ever.

At that Ali said:

- We shan 't know any peace of mind till we've made up for

our cowardice.

As they left the cemetery for the desert, dawn was tinting the

horizon rose-red.

6 2 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

None of the four friends reappeared in Gebelaawi Alley.

Their people thought they had left wi th Rifaa to be safe from

attack by the strongmen. They lived on the edge of the desert

in a distraught state of mind, fighti ng with all their migh t

against their anguish and remorse. The loss of Rifaa was worse

than death to them, and his absence was a dreadful torture.

Their only hope in life was to defy his death by reviving his

mission, and to punish his murderers as Ali was resolved to do.

Of course, it was not in their power to return to the Alley, bu t

they hoped to achieve their aims outside it.

One morning Victory House was awakened by Abda's wai ling. The neighbors hurried rou nd to find out what had happened and she cried out in a hoarse voice:

- My son Rifaa has been killed.

The neighbors were dumfounded. They looked at Shaafiy

who was drying his eyes. l-Ie explai ned:

- The strongmen ki lled him in the desert.

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Abda moaned:

- My son who never harmed anybody in his life!

Someone asked:

- Did our Du ngbeetle know about it?

Shaafiy said angrily:

- Dungbeetle was one of the murderers.

Abda sobbed:

-Jasmine betrayed him and told Bayoomi where he was.

They looked disgusted. A voice said:

- So that's why she's been living in his house since his wife

left him!

The news spread i n Gebel's sector, and Dungbeetle came to

Shaafiy's home and yelled at him:

- Are you crazy? What's this you've been saying about me?

Shaafiy faced him fearlessly.

- You joined in his murder - you - his strongman and

protector.

Dungbeetle put on a show of resentment and shouted:

- You're crazy, Shaafiy; you don't know what you're saying.

I'm not stayi ng here, in case you force me to teach you

man ners.

He stalked out, fuming with rage. The news reached Rifaa's

sector, where he had stayed after leaving Gebel's, and the

people were stunned. There were shouts of rage and sounds of

crying. But the strongmen wen t out into the Alley and patrolled it up and down, their cudgels in their hands and a cruel glin t i n their eyes. Then a report wen t round that the sand to

the west of Hind's Rock had been found stained with Rifaa's

blood. Shaafiy wen t with his closest friends to look for the

body. They searched and dug, but found nothing. There was

uproar at the news, and great confusion, and many people

expected thi ngs to happen in the Alley. The people of Rifaa's

sector wondered what he had done to be condemned to death.

Gebel's people pointed out that, now that Rifaa was dead,

Jasmine was living in Bayoomi's house.

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The strongmen slipped out by night to the place where

Rifaa had been killed. They dug up his grave by torchlight, but

found no trace of the body. Bayoomi mused:

- l-Ias Shaafiy taken it?

Dungbeetle answered him:

- Oh no; he found nothing, so my spies tell me.

Bayoomi stamped on the ground and shouted:

-It was his friends! We were wrong to let them escape; here

they are fighting us from behind our backs.

As they went back Dungbeetle whispered in Bayoomi 's ear:

-Your keepingJasmine is a source of trouble for us.

Bayoomi retorted:

-Admit that you aren't in control of your sector.

Dungbeelie left him in a fury.

Tension rose again in Gebel's sector and Rifaa's. Again the

strongmen acted against the malcontents. Terror reigned so

that people avoided going out unless they had to. One night,

when Bayoomi was at Blubberlips' cafe, relatives of his wife

crept into his house to allackJasmine. She detected them and

fled into the desert wearing her night-dress, with them in hot

pursuit. She ran like mad in the darkness, even after they had

given up the chase. She went on till she could hardly breathe

and had to stop, panting violently. She threw her head back

and shut her eyes, standing like that till she got her breath

back. Behind her she could see nothing, but she was afraid to

go back to the Alley by night. She looked in front of her and

saw a faint light far off, coming perhaps from a hut. She set off

towards it, hoping to find a refuge till the morning. She had to

walk a long way before she reached it. It was, as she thought, a

hut. She approached the door, calling out to whoever was

inside. Suddenly she found herself face to face with her

husband's friends: Ali, Hussein, Zaki and Kareem.

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6 3 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jasmine stood fixed to the spot, her glance shifting from

face to face. She seemed to be living a nightmare, finding her

way barred by a wall. They staredat her in disgust, and Ali's eyes

were cold and cruel as steel. She shouted:

- I'm innocent, by the Lord of Heaven, I'm i nnocent. I

wen t with you till they attacked us, and then I ran away just like

you.

They scowled. Ali asked furiously:

- Who told you we ran away?

She said in a trembling voice:

- If you hadn't you wouldn't have lived. But I'm innocent;

all I did was run away.

Ali gnashed his teeth.

- You ran away to your master, Bayoomi.

- Never! Let me go! I'm i nnocent.

Ali shouted:

- You shall go under the ground.

She tried to escape but he leapt at her and seized her by the

shoulders. She screamed:

- Let me go, for his sake ! He didn' t love killing or killers.

Ali seized her by the throat. Kareem said wretchedly:

- Wait till we've thought abou t it.

Ali roared:

- Quiet, cowards!

He tightened his grip on her throat, putting into it all his

pent-up anger and hatred and suffering and remorse. She

tried in vain to free herself, seizing his forearms, kicking him,

shaking her head - all to no avail. Her strength ebbed away,

her body was convulsed, and she was still for ever. He dropped

her at his feet, a corpse.

Next morni ngjasmine's body was found at Bayoomi's gate.

The news spread like wind-driven dust. A crowd of men and

women quickly assembled by Trustee's House, and there was

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uproar. Conflicti ng commentaries were offered, and people

hid their true feelings. The gate of Bayoomi's house opened

and out he charged like a mad bull. He laid about him with his

cudgel, hitting anyone he could catch. People ran away i n

terror and took refuge i n the tenement-houses and cafes.

Bayoomi stood in the empty alley, cursing and swearing and

uttering threats, beating the air and the walls and the ground.

That same day Shaafiy and his wife left the Alley. It seemed

as if all trace of Rifaa had vanished, but there were still things

that recalled him, such as Shaafiy's home i n Victory House, the

carpentry shop, Rifaa's home in the sector that was now called

the Home of Healing, the place west of Hind's Rock where he

had died, and above all, his faithful friends. They kept i n touch

with his followers and taught them the secrets of casting out

spirits to cure the sick. They were convinced that in this way

they were bringing Rifaa back to life. However, Ali 's mind

would not be at rest until he had destroyed the culprits.

Hussein reproached him:

- You have nothing of Rifaa i n you at all.

Ali retorted fiercely:

- I know Rifaa better than you. He spent his short life i n a

violent struggle against devils.

Kareem said:

- You want to go back to strongman methods, but he hated

nothing more.

Ali shouted:

- He was a strongman, the greatest of all, but his mildness

deceived you.

Each party set to work according to its views wi th sincere

faith. The true story ofRifaa, which most people did not know,

was told in the Alley. It was also recounted that his body had

remained in the desert till Gebelaawi hi mself had carried i t

away and buried it i n his luxuriant garden.

Major events seemed almost to have stopped after that, but

then strongman Handoosa disappeared suspiciously. One

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morning his mutilated body was found i n front of the home of

Trustee lhaab. Trustee's House trembled, as did Bayoomi 's,

and the Alley went through a terrible period of fear. Attacks

were made on anyone who had any connection - or seemed

to have any-wi th Rifaa or one of his friends. No head was safe

from sticks, no stomach from kicks, no chest from punches, no

neck from bruises. Some barricaded themselves i n their homes

and others fled. Those who were careless of the danger got

killed in the desert. The Alley resounded with shouting and

wailing, and all seemed black and overcast. The smell of blood

hung everywhere.

The strange thing was that all this did not put an end to the

actions of whoever was responsible. The strongman Khaalid

was killed as he was leaving Bayoomi's house a little before

dawn. The reign of terror reached an i nsane peak. Then the

Alley was awakened in the early hours by a fire that destroyed

the home and the family of another strongman,Jaabir. Bayoomi

roared: 'Rifaa's madmen are spreadi ng like bedbugs. They

must be killed, by God, even if it's in their own homes. ' The

rumor went round that their homes would be attacked by

night. People were crazy with terror. They stormed out brandishing sticks, stools, saucepan lids, knives, clogs, bricks ...

Bayoomi decided to strike before all was lost. Waving his

cudgel, he charged out of his house with a crowd of supporters.

Ali was at the head of the rebels, together with some tough

men, showing himself for the first time. As soon as he saw

Bayoomi coming up he ordered a volley of stones to be thrown.

The stones fel l like a cloud oflocusts on Bayoomi and his men,

and the blood began to flow. Bayoomi attacked, roari ng like a

wild beast, but a stone landing on his head stopped him in his

tracks, in spite of his anger and power and strongman's pride.

He staggered and fell, his head covered in blood. His men fled

in no time and the angry crowd surged into his house. The

sounds of rending and breaking reached the Trustee in his

house. Contagion spread everywhere. Retribution fell on the

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remaining strongmen and their friends, and their homes were

destroyed. The danger mounted and all order almost broke

down. At that moment the Trustee sent for Ali. Ali went to

meet him, and his men stopped their vengeance and destruction to wait for the outcome of the meeti ng. Things quieted down and tempers cooled.

The meeting produced a new covenant for the Alley; the

Rifaaites were recognized as a new sector, with the same rights

and privileges as Gebel's. Ali was made trustee of their part of

the Trust, which meant strongman over them. He wou ld

receive their share of the Trust's revenues and share it between

them on a basis of perfect equality. All those who had fled from

the Alley during the reign of terror came back to the new

sector, led by Shaafiy and his wife and Zaki , Hussein and

Kareem. Rifaa enjoyed in his death an honor and respect and

love that he had never dreamed of while alive. His life became

a glorious story repeated by everyone, and chanted to the

music of the rebec, especially the part about Gebelaawi taki ng

up his body and buryi ng it in his luxuriant garden. The

Rifaaites all agreed abou t this, as they agreed on loyalty to his