Oh, if only I could tell everything to Elham. How much easier things would be. She told me everything. I told her nothing but lies. Oh, Father, why do you insist on remaining lost?

Your mother thought she killed me. But it is I who killed her.

Then you are a criminal, a murderer; but I’ll find you.

The seduction of Elham. The bloody struggle. Her screams, I’ll kill you! Her torn dress revealing a naked, ravished body.

The muezzin calling the dawn prayer. Another sleepless night? But no, there was the dream, his mother, his father, and the seduction of Elham.

He got up at seven, opened the window, and heard the beggar down in the square chanting his nonsensical rhymes. O! One with the beautiful face, Christians and Jews have embraced your faith. He saw Khalil being helped down the stairs by the porter, Aly Seriakous.

He sat in the lounge watching the old man. His trembling hand, adding up the money in his ledger. The money. Oh, if only you’d drop dead, old man. What possible joy can life offer you now? Karima’s beauty wasted on your sterile love. The only pleasure you get is watching her undress and having her rub your back so as to get you to sleep. Either you die or my father appears. He remembered his days of violence. That evening in one of the dingy cabarets. He almost killed a police officer in a fight.

“Don’t ever get involved in a fight again,” his mother had said. “I can’t bear the thought of losing you. If anyone gives you trouble, just tell me. I have means of sending him to the grave.” That’s true; she had once dispatched one of her competitors. One of her men had taken care of her and then escaped to Libya. Everyone said Basima Omran had killed her. But there was no evidence. As for you, Khalil, death won’t really make much difference to you!

CHAPTER EIGHT

“I don’t think continuing with the advertisement is much use,” said Saber to Tantawi the next morning. Tantawi agreed. “He must have seen the ad by now,” continued Saber.

“Yes, that’s almost certain,” said Tantawi.

Elham joined the conversation. “Then he is refusing to make an appearance.”

“Maybe he is out of the country,” said Saber. “In any case, there’s no sense running the advertisement any longer.”

Elham’s enthusiasm was mounting. “It really all depends on him now. Time is the only thing we can rely on. He’ll return when he wants to. We read of many similar cases.”