Ibrahim Meguid - The House of Jasmine

“I received my B.A.,” he said. It was the first time that any of my friends had visited me at home since my mother’s death. We hugged, and I wasn’t sure whether I was hugging him because he had received his degree or because he was visiting me.

“I’m happy for you and for myself,” I said. “For your graduation and for your visit.” We were standing in the empty hallway, so I led him to the balcony, where there was an old chair, and I brought another chair for myself.

“It’s true that we haven’t been very good to you,” he said with real sorrow in his voice.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Congratulations on your B.A.” He was looking at my thick beard, the dark circles of exhaustion around my eyes and the swelling beneath them, which was due to insomnia and excessive smoking.

“I will shave for your sake,” I said. Then I went to the bathroom, shaved, and returned to find him with a big smile on his red face. He must have been wondering at the way I behaved.

“Between you and me, I think it’s worthless,” he said.

“What is?”

“The B.A.” We both laughed, then he went on: “I’m thirty-six, and my salary now is higher than that of any new university graduate. The important thing is that I’m through with wars and conspiracies, with studying history.”

We laughed for a few moments. He seemed to be refreshed by the view of the sea before us. I asked him if he wanted something to drink, and he said no. Then he asked if we could go to the café.

“I went to the café more than once, and didn’t find any of you there,” he said.

“Why didn’t you go see Magid at the pharmacy or come here?”

He looked as if he were at a loss at how to answer, and he blushed, then said, “I don’t know.”

We got up to go to the café, and I said, “We no longer function according to the same secret clock.”

But shortly after we arrived at the café, we saw Magid coming. Hassanayn looked as happy as a small child, and he cried, “Here we are again, getting together without any plans.” Hassanayn seemed to be truly overjoyed, nothing like the person ‘Abd al-Salam had once described as permanently contented, enjoying the bliss of contentment and avoiding all of the more powerful emotions.

“Many people like to stick to smooth roads, even if they don’t lead anywhere,” ‘Abd al-Salam had once said. “The important thing isn’t where they lead, but that they are smooth. Maybe it’s also a matter of age, because after thirty the level of ambition decreases and people’s lives fall into a pattern, which they only break if they go insane.”

“Hassanayn has received his B.A.,” I told Magid after we hugged.

“Congratulations. Now you will start making real history!” Magid said with a wide smile. Then he laughed and added, “Don’t you dare ask me about Cairo and the school of natural science!”

Hassanayn and I looked at each other. Magid had just reminded us of a long-forgotten matter. We both cried at once, “So you found her?”

“Of course I did.”

“Boy! I bet she couldn’t believe all the trouble you went through,” I said.

“Of course she didn’t,” Magid said, then turned to the waiter and said, “Bring us a backgammon board, Muhsin.”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “First tell us how you found her, and what happened.” Magid took off his glasses, started wiping them, then said without looking up at us: “I never found her. I was just joking. The whole thing was crazy, anyway. Now I’m studying German at the Goethe Institute. I’ll be traveling to Austria.”

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Magid told us that he had bought a used Fiat and was planning to drive us around the city at night. He also said that Dr. Musa, who worked in the pharmacy with him, had secured a job for himself in Kuwait, and that he was now satisfied, was working hard, and treating the customers nicely.

I told them about something that had happened in my building recently. Two weeks earlier, I had heard a noise on the stairs. I was excited at the thought of another resident moving in. I hadn’t seen a single resident in the building from the summer of 1976 until the summer of this year, 1979. I didn’t know what all the tenants were doing abroad for so long. For three whole years, I had locked the entrance to the building every night. . I opened the door and, as I expected, saw delivery men carrying new furniture. I stood on the stairs for a moment listening to the sound of footsteps coming up and the carefree laughs of a young couple, who soon came up to where I was. There was an older woman who looked like she could be the girl’s mother. I was embarrassed at my intrusion and ashamed of my shaggy beard, but I remained standing on the stairs outside my apartment.

“Do you live here?” the young man, who had very thick hair, asked me.

“Yes.”

“Then you must be Mr. Shagara,” said the girl with a smile as she looked up at me. I realized that ‘ Abdu al-Fakahani must have told them about me and given them a key to the front door. I also realized that it must have been ‘ Abdu who gave the police a key on the night when they came to arrest me. Maybe that was why he had seemed to be afraid of me when I went to see him after I was released, and maybe he thought that I was really dangerous. But that was an old story, and I should not have bothered with it anymore. Besides, the police would have gotten in with or without the key.

“Yes,” I finally answered.

“Do you live alone, son?” asked the mother.

“Yes.”

“Then you will let us enjoy your company,” they all said at once, and then laughed. I smiled, but felt myself blush. I also felt that they were a bunch of barbarians. I’m not sure how I felt about them exactly. . I was almost dancing with joy in my apartment for the rest of the day, for no matter what they were, they were still people who were going to live with me in this huge building. Besides, I saw the girl’s face become a bit pale after they all laughed. It was Friday, and I was getting ready to go fishing. I had bought some fishing equipment but I had not used it yet. I didn’t even use it that day, but never mind. I will use it some day. I took off my clothes and put on my bathing suit, but then I didn’t actually leave. I kept going out to the balcony and listening to the sounds of moving furniture on the floor above. I kept looking up, and one of them was always looking out from the balcony above mine. I was embarrassed every time our eyes met, but the other person always smiled and waved at me. I thought that I was going crazy, and that they were too. They should have at least found my nakedness distasteful, especially because their balcony was about half a meter smaller than mine and allowed them to see me fully.

I thought that maybe they were truly happy to discover they had a neighbor, but I wondered why I was so excited. Residents moving into one of the apartments in the building could not explain such excitement. It was all quite silly, and I was annoyed at my foolishness. In the evening I went to see Magid at the pharmacy, but he wasn’t there. I bought a cream to relieve rheumatic pains from Dr. Musa. I was starting to have rheumatic pains because I slept naked at night and the apartment was empty. I once heard my father say that furniture breathes in a place and makes it warmer — but a woman would have been even better. She would breathe warmth like a steam engine. I know this is true, even though I haven’t tried it. I was afraid that I was bound to live alone until I died, and I even thought of asking ‘Abdu al-Fakahani to find me a wife — yes, ask him to sell me a woman and buy me in exchange!

Magid and Hassanayn laughed heartily at my story, which I told without many of the details that I just wrote, and I almost wished that I hadn’t said the last sentence. Magid said that ‘Abdu al-Fakahani doesn’t care for such minor exchanges, that he was now trading in big plots of land in ‘Agami, and that he had recently bought five feddans on Abu Yusif beach and another five on Abu Talat beach.