Adrift on the Nile

Saniya rose and went over to Ragab. She touched his hand to calm him down, and kissed his forehead. Then she stood in front of Samara. "Do you really mean to sacrifice yourself and us?" she asked calmly.

"Yes," Samara persisted, still angry.

"So be it," Saniya replied. "Do with us what you will."

But before Samara could say a word, Amm Abduh entered. Everyone was silent.

He gave Anis a small package. "I nearly wore myself out getting that," he said.

"Get rid of it at once," Ahmad told Anis.

"No."

"Well, I've had my say!" Ahmad said.

"There's nothing easier than throwing it into the water if we have to."

"What has happened?" asked Amm Abduh.

Anis gave it back to Amm Abduh for him to make a cup of coffee with it. The old man took it away. His arrival had subtly altered the atmosphere.

Silence reigned. Then Mustafa said sadly: "The evil eye is upon us."

"Let's roll a joint with it--who knows . . ."

Ali's face shone with a sudden optimism. "I bet that Ragab will have children!"

And then Anis laughed. He laughed in spite of his tense nerves. "You've made a mountain out of a molehill," he said.

And when no one paid him any attention, he continued: "Samara is a girl of principles, but she is also a woman with a heart."

They looked at him warningly, in open displeasure, but he continued to speak. "We are indebted to love."

More than one voice implored him to be quiet, but he concluded: "For it is love that has rescued us from the judgment of principles!"

Samara, irritated, muttered: "For heaven's sake!" and then burst into a storm of crying, as if her nerves had been suddenly ravaged. Ali approached her, moved by her distress, to calm her. As for Ragab, he had thrown himself at Anis, yelling: "You! You!"

And he gave him a great slap on the face.

18

Ahmad grasped Ragab's arm and pulled it violently back. "You're mad!" he said, his voice shaking. "What a calamity! What madness!"

Samara stopped crying. She gaped at them. There was a deathly silence. Anis took the slap without moving. He looked at Ragab for a long time without speaking. Mustafa started to approach him, to support him, but Anis put out a hand. "If you please," he said.

"It was a terrible thing to do," said Mustafa, "without the slightest doubt--but the culprit is a friend, he did not mean it. He was blinded by anger--"

"No!" Anis bellowed, with a voice like thunder.

Amm Abduh came, as if in answer to his call. "The coffee is on the stove," he said. Anis motioned for him to leave. Then he rose to his feet and began to pace back and forth across the room, and to speak inaudibly to himself. Then suddenly he leaped upon Ragab and fastened his hands around his throat. Ragab immediately struck at his arm to free his neck, but Anis butted him on the nose, and they lunged at each other, punching and kicking. The others rushed to separate them, but then Anis staggered and crashed to the ground. Amm Abduh appeared at the door, and stood looking at them, bewildered, muttering: "No! No!" Ahmad ordered him to leave, but he continued to repeat: "No! No!"--finally retreating under the pressure of their combined gazes, shaking his head miserably.

Mustafa and Ali helped Anis to an armchair. The others surrounded Ragab, who was wiping away the blood trickling from his nose. Anis placed his hands to either side of him, on the arms of the chair, and leaned his head against the back. He half closed his eyes. Layla and Saniya began to administer first aid. They fetched water and cotton to wipe the blood from Anis' lower lip and eyebrows, and they sponged his face and neck. As for Samara, her face was screwed up in pain, and she mumbled words that no one could hear. Ahmad struck one palm against the other. "I could never have imagined it!" he said.

"This is a catastrophe," muttered Ali.

"A demon has possessed us. Finished us off."

Saniya's eyes filled with tears. "Who would have believed this could happen on our houseboat!" she said.

Samara began to cry again, but without making a sound. Anis opened his eyes and stared sightlessly ahead. Ali bent over him. "How are you?" he asked, but Anis did not reply. "I will send for a doctor, if you wish," his friend continued, at which Anis replied: "There is no need for that."

"Misery has ruined us all, believe me," Ali went on. "Even Ragab himself. He would like to be reconciled with you."

Anis spoke, with a strange calm. "Nothing is important," he said, "except . . ." He swallowed, and continued: "Except the murder."

It seemed that none of them had understood what he said. Anis sat up in the chair. "Are you feeling better now?" Ali asked him, and he replied with the same calm: "Nothing is of any consequence, except the murder."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that justice must be done."

"But Ragab is fully prepared--" Ali began, but Anis interrupted him.

"I mean the murder of the unknown man," he said.

They looked at each other oddly. Ali shrugged. "The important thing is that you return to your old self again."