Children of Gebelaawi (69 page)

taught me we mustn't rely on anything but the magic we

already have. Haven't I risked a crazy expedition running after

something that may be as far as possible from what I thought?

- Yes! Nobody but you ever said the famous book was a

book of magic.

Arafa seemed to be fighting more than ever against the

confusion in his mind and spirit as he said:

- The experiment with the bottle will succeed sooner than

you imagine and i t'll be very useful when we have to defend

ourselves.

The dreadful silence fel l again. Hanash said:

- If only you 'd known some magic to enable you to reach

the Great House and its master without that escapade.

Arafa spoke with feeli ng:

- Magic has no limits. All I have now is a few cures and a

p lan for a bottle that could be used in defence or attack. As for

what might be, it's beyond i magining.

Awaatif said angrily:

- You should never have thought of that crazy plan at all.

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Our Ancestor belongs to one world and we belong to another.

You couldn' t have got anything out of talking to him even if

you'd managed to. He's probably forgotten all about the Trust

and the Trustee and the strongmen and his children and the

Alley.

Arafa was angry for no apparent reason, though his u nusual

state excused any strange behavior. He said:

- This stupid, ignorant Alley! What do they know? Nothi ng! All they have is the rebec and its stories, but they would never do the things they hear about. They think their Alley is

the center of the world, but it's just the refuge of idlers and

beggars. In the beginning it was a desolate breedi ng ground of

insecls, ti ll the most terri ble of bandi ts, your Ancestor the

Founder settled there.

Hanash started. Awaatif moistened a rag and tried to put it

to Arafa's forehead, bu t he pushed her hand away roughly and

said:

- I have something nobody else has, not even Gebelaawi:

I have magic, which can give our Alley things that would have

been beyond Gebel, Rifaa and Qaasim put together.

Awaatif implored him:

- When are you going to sleep?

- When the fire stops burning in my head.

Hanash murmured:

- It wi ll soon be morni ng.

Arafa bellowed:

- Let morning come ! It won't really come till magic has put

an end to strongmen and rid people of demons and brought

far more wealth than the Trust could ever give. Magic will

become the ease that Adham dreamed of.

He heaved a deep sigh and leaned his head agai nst the wall,

exhausted. Awaatif hoped sleep would follow. Suddenly a

dreadful voice rang out i n the stillness. It was followed by

screams and wails. Arafa leapt up in panic:

- The servant's body has been found.

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Awaatifs mouth was dry as she said:

- How do you know the voices come from the Great House?

Arafa ran out and they followed him. They stood in front of

their tenement-house, craning their necks in the direction of

the Great House. The darkness was fading and giving way to

morning. Windows opened and heads poked out, all looking

towards the Great House. A man came from the end of the

Alley, hurrying towards Gemalia. When he passed them Arafa

asked him:

- What's happened?

l-Ie answered without stopping:

- God's will be done! Mter his long life Gebelaawi is dead.

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The three of them turned to go to the basement. Arafa's feet

wou ld hardly carry him. He sank down on the sofa, saying:

- The man I ki lled was a miserable looking black servant.

He was sleeping i n the private chamber.

Neither of them said a word. They looked hard at the floor

to avoid his darting eyes. He said:

- I can see you don't believe me. I swear l didn'tgo near his

bed.

Han ash hesitated a while and then spoke, feeling that it was

i n any case better to speak than to i nflict silence on him:

- Perhaps you couldn't see his face clearly because of the

shock.

He shouted in despair:

- Never! You weren't wi th me.

Awaalif whispered:

- Talk quietly!

He left them and hurried away to the back room where he

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sat i n the dark, trembling and confused. What madness had

led him into that damnable exploit? Yes it was damnable. The

earth i tself seemed to sway with him, breathing out its sorrows.

He had no hope left save this wonderful room.

At the first rays of sunlight the people all gathered i n the

Alley outside the Great House. The news spread fast, especially

after the Trustee had paid a short visit to the house and then

returned to his own. The word was passed aroun d that burglars

had broken i nto the Great House through a tunnel they had

dug under the wall at the back. They had killed a faithful

servant, and when Gebelaawi heard the news the shock had

been more than his frail heart and great age could stand.

People were too furious for tears or cries of rage. When he

heard the news from his wife and Hanash, Arafa exclaimed:

- There you are ! The reports bear me out.

Then he at once remembered that i n any case he had been

the cause of his death and he lapsed into a silence of shame and

grief. Awaatif could think of nothing to say. She murmured:

- God rest his soul!

Hanash said:

- He didn 't die before his time.

Arafa moaned:

- But I was the cause of his death - I, of all his children -

I, and not one of the many wicked ones.

Awaatif wept as she said:

- You went wi thout a trace of malice.

Hanash asked anxiously:

- Isn't it possible they' ll find us out?

Awaatif cried out:

- Let's run away.

Arafa waved the idea aside impatien tly.

- And give them the clearest proof of our guilt!

From the crowded Alley came a babble of voices:

- The culprit must be killed before we bury Gebelaawi.

- Accursed generation! Even the wickedest men respected

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this house all through the past, even Idrees. We're damned till

the Last Day.

- The murderers can't be from our Alley; who could

imagi ne that?

- Everything will soon be known.

- We're damned till the Last Day.

The wailing and breast-beating grew louder till Hanash lost

his nerve and said:

- How can we stay in the Alley after today?

Gebel's people proposed that Gebelaawi be buried in Gebel's

tomb, partly because of their conviction that they were more

closely related to him than anyone else, and partly because

they would hate him to be buried in the tomb that included the

mortal remains of ldrees wi th those of other members of the

Founder's family. Rifaa's people called for him to be buried in

the grave he had dug for Rifaa with his own hands. Qaasim's

people said Qaasim was the best of the Founder's children and

his tomb was the one most suitable for the body of their

glorious Ancestor. It almost came to blows, with the man not

yet u nder the ground, but Trustee Qadri decreed that

Gebelaawi would be buried in the little mosque that had been

set up in the old Trust office in the Great House. Remarkably,

this solu tion met wi th general approval, though people were

sorry they wou ld be denied the sight of his funeral,just as in his

lifetime they had been denied the sight of the man. The

Rifaaites whispered to one another that Gebelaawi would be

buried in the grave in which he had buried Rifaa with his own

hands; bu t no one else believed that old story and they were

jeered at till Fisticuff, their strongman, was furious and almost

fell to blows with Harpstrings. At that point Saadallah bellowed

a warning to everyone:

- I'll break the head of any stuck-up fool who spoils the

solemnity of this sad day.

Only Gebelaawi's trusted servants witnessed the washing of

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the body, and it was they who wound it in its pall and laid it on

the bier and carried it through the great drawing room that

had seen the family's most important events: the giving of the

trusteeship to Adham and the rebellion of ldrees. Then the

Trustee and the heads of the three sectors were summoned to

the funeral prayers. Mter that the body was laid to rest as the

sun went down. In the evening all the people of the Alley

repaired to the funeral marquee. Arafa and Hanash went

along with the Rifaaites. Arafa's face was deathly, for he had

not slept since the cri me. The conversation was all in praise of

Gebelaawi, conqueror of the desert, master of men, symbol of

strength and courage, lord of the Trust and the Alley, father of

so many generations. Arafa looked miserable, but no one

imagined what was going on in his mind.

Here was he, the man who had broken into the house, not

caring about its reputation, who had not been sure of his

Ancestor's existence till his death, who had set hi mself apart

from everyone and soiled his hands for all time. He wondered

how he could atone for this crime: all the glorious feats of

Gebel, Rifaa and Qaasim put together wou ld not be enough;

destroying the Trustee and the strongmen and freei ng the

Alley from their wickedness would not be enough; exposing

himself to every danger wou ld not be enough; teaching everyone magic with all its benefits would not be enough. One thi ng alone would be enough: to reach such a degree of magic that

he would be able to restore Gebelaawi to life - Gebelaawi

whom it had been easier to kill than to see. Let time give him

the power to mend his broken heart. And these strongmen

with their crocodile tears ... ! But - oh God ! - none of them

had sinned as he had. They were sitting there in silence,

overcome with shame and humiliation. People would say i n

the neighborhood that Gebelaawi had been killed in his house

while round about it the mighty strongmen were smoki ng

hashish. Because of that, their eyes threatened vengeance,

suffering and death.

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When Arafa came back to the basement late that night he

drew Awaatif to himself and asked her helplessly:

- Awaatif, tell me frankly, do you think I'm a criminal?

- You're a good man, the best I 've met, but the unluckiest.

He looked down.

- Nobody before me has tasted such pain.

- I know.

She kissed him with cold lips and whispered:

- I'm afraid the curse will rest on us.

He turned his face away from her. Hanash said:

- I don ' t feel safe. They'll discover about us today or

tomorrow. I don 't see how they can know everything about

Gebelaawi - his origin, his Trust, his dealings with his sons, his

contacts with Gebel and Rifaa and Qaasim - and not know

about one thing: his death.

Arafa sighed deeply.

- Have you any solution, apart from running away?

Hanash said nothing. Arafa went on:

- I have a p lan, but I want to be at peace with myself before

putti ng i t i nto action. I can't do it if I'm a criminal.

Hanash said without conviction:

- You're innocent.

- I'll do it, Hanash. Don ' t be afraid for us; the Alley wi ll be

distracted from the great crime by other events. Extraordi nary

things will happen and the most extraordinary of all will be

that Gebelaawi will come back to life.

Awaatif gasped, and Hanash said, scowling:

- Are you mad?

He said 'in a feverish voice:

- A word from our Ancestor used to cause the best of his

children to act for him till death. His death is more powerful

than his words; it makes it necessary for the good son to do

everything, to take his place, to be him. Do you understand?

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