“Yes, I’ve given the matter much thought in jail.”

For the first time his confidence in his mother was shaken.

“Yes,” she continued, “I’ve thought about it a lot, and I am now convinced that I have no right to keep you here, since it is no longer good for you.”

He looked at her, a questioning glance in his dark eyes.

Then with a tone of defeat she whispered, “You don’t understand. The government took you away from me at the same time that they confiscated my wealth. I don’t have the right to own you either. I knew that the day they sentenced me.” She was silent for a while, utter despair on her face. “Saber, this means that you must leave me,” she said.

“Where to?” he asked resentfully.

“To your father,” she replied in a barely audible voice.

He raised his eyebrows in bewilderment and cried, “My father…”

She nodded.

“But he’s dead. You told me he died before I was born.”

“I told you so. But it wasn’t true.”

“My father, alive…Incredible…My father…alive.”

She looked at him with sudden disdain as he continued: “My father alive…Why did you hide this from me?”

“Yes, the hour of reckoning has come.” She sighed.

“No, no. But I’ve got a right to know.”

“What father could have done for you all that I’ve done, your happiness…?”

“I don’t deny this at all…”

“Then don’t reproach me and start searching for him.”

“Searching?”

“Yes. I’m talking about a man whom I married thirty years ago, and now I don’t know anything about him.”

In a calmer vein but still bewildered, he asked, “Mother, what does all this mean?”

“It means that I’m trying to show you the only way out of your dilemma.”

“But he might be dead.”

“Or alive.”

“Must I waste my life, then, looking for someone I’m not even sure exists?”

“You’ll never be sure unless you find out. Anyway, it’s better than staying as you are with no work and no hope.”

“It’s a very strange and unenviable situation!”

“Your only alternative is to become a hustler, a crook, a pimp, or a murderer. So you must do what must be done.”

“How can I find him?”

She sighed, and an even greater sadness fell upon her. “His name is on your birth certificate, Sayed Sayed el-Reheimy.” Her eyes grew misty as she continued: “He fell in love with me thirty years ago. That was in Cairo.”

“Cairo…Then he’s not even in Alexandria.”

“I know that your real problem will be to find him.”

“Why didn’t he try to find me?”

“He doesn’t know about you.”