“You mean, it was imposed on you,” said Isa jokingly.

“But, at the same time, I chose it. May God’s will be done.”

Ibrahim Khairat rubbed Isa’s shoulder. “Why aren’t you saying anything?” he asked. “Haven’t you any news?”

“A few days ago,” Isa said simply, “I hung a ‘For Sale’ sign on my late mother’s house.”

“It’s old, but at least it’s land!”

“My share of it will enable me to live like a notable,” Isa said joyfully, “and that’s how I’ll carry on for as long as possible.”

“Do you think that’s a decent way to live?”

“Maybe it’ll cure me of my split personality.”

“Is that some modern illness?” asked Abbas Sadiq.

“The truth is,” replied Isa after thinking for a moment, “although my mind is sometimes convinced by the revolution, my heart is always with the past. I just don’t know if there can be any settlement between the two.”

“It isn’t a question of principles to be convinced by,” said Ibrahim Khairat. “The relationship between ruler and ruled is regulated secretly, just as in love. We can say that the ruler who will be most attractive to his subjects is the one who respects their humanity the most. Man shall not live by bread alone!”

“But that’s why I would still be out of work, even if I got scores of jobs,” Isa replied sadly.

“Is that your heart or your mind speaking?” Abbas Sadiq asked.

“The heart means totally different things to us,” Samir Abd al-Baqi said with a smile.

“Why are we laughing,” Isa asked, “when life is a tragedy in every sense of the word?”

“We think of death as the ultimate tragedy,” said Ibrahim Khairat, “and yet the death of the living is infinitely worse than that of the dead.”

Abbas Sadiq gave an explosive laugh. “Isn’t it appropriate,” he said, “that the conversation should take us from death to the atom!”

Isa had still not fully emerged from his sudden feeling of sorrow. “One of the things about using the atom as a threat,” he said, “is that it lightens life’s drudgery; I mean, our life…”

“What about modern civilization?” Abbas Sadiq asked sarcastically. “Aren’t you worried about what may happen to it?”

“Fortunately for us, we haven’t entered the world of modern civilization yet. So why should we be afraid of getting wet?”

“I hope it’ll be an age like the flood,” Ibrahim Khairat said. “Then the earth will be purified.”

“Have you heard that from an official source?” Abbas Sadiq asked.

“Let’s admit,” said Samir Abd al-Baqi, “that if it weren’t for death, our life wouldn’t have any value at all.”

“What a lot of talk about death!”