“We’re almost neighbors. I have a room at Bab al-Shariya, in Karam Younis’s house.”

“The prompter?”

“Yes. Are you going to ask me up to your flat, or shall I invite you to my place?”

“What about Karam and Halima?” I laughed, and she smiled. “There’s no one else in the house?”

“They’ve only got one kid. He’s a student.” She was pretty. She had a flat. And her salary was the same as mine.

—

Why has Sirhan al-Hilaly sent for me in the middle of rehearsals? Leaning across the conference table in the warm sunlight, he speaks before I have a chance to say anything: “You’ve asked to be excused from rehearsals twice, Tariq?” I say nothing, and he goes on: “Don’t mix friendship with work. Isn’t it enough that you have driven Abbas into hiding?”

“Perhaps the reason he fled is that he’s been exposed.”

“Are you still clinging to those strange ideas of yours?”

“He’s a criminal. No doubt about it.”

“It’s a play. And you’re an actor, not a public prosecutor.”

“But he’s a criminal. And you know it as well as I do!”

“Your judgment is blinded by hate.”

“I don’t bear any grudge.”

“Haven’t you recovered yet from unrequited love?”

“Our rehearsing is going to bring success to a criminal!”

“It will be our success—and your chance after years of obscurity to be seen in the limelight.”

“Please, Sirhan, life….”

“Don’t talk to me about life. Don’t start philosophizing! I hear that stuff onstage every night and I’m sick of it. You’ve neglected your health. Sex, drugs, and the wrong kind of food. In that play about the female martyr you took the role of the Imam*2 when you were drunk, without the slightest twinge of conscience.”

“You’re the only one who knew it.”

“There was more than one member of the faithful out front who could smell your breath. Are you going to force me to….”

“Don’t treat the friendship of a lifetime as if it were nothing,” I break in, alarmed.

“And you recited a verse from the Koran incorrectly. That’s unpardonable.”

“Nothing happened.”

“I beg you, please. Forget this obsession of yours, this prying and spying, and concentrate on learning your part. It’s the chance of a lifetime.” As I leave the room he adds, “And you’d do well to treat Umm Hany better. If she leaves you, you’ll really be in a bad way.”