Cairo - Joys and Tears - chapter (7)

(7)

Egypt witnessed a turmoil against President Mohamed Nagib in March, 1954. He was forced to resign. Members of the Free Officers Movement were not well known to people. Because of the popularity of Mohamed Nagib things were about to explode. Abd El-Aziz was among the armor officers who supported Mohamed Nagib while Soliman as a member of the Free Officers movement took Nasser´s side. Few weeks before Soliman succeeded in appointing his brother in law to a command of battalion post. In fact, this move was part of a bigger one to put loyal officers to the Free Officers in sensitive posts. Soliman did his best to convince the commandship that Aziz would be loyal to them. When Aziz took Nagib´s side, this enraged Soliman. He went to the battalion to have a word with his brother in law.

´How come you support General Nagib against us?´ Soliman said before sitting.

´What else should I do? If you remember when we talked about the new regime while you and your force were, surrounding Abdeen palace you said that Nagib was the command. I don´t know why things deteriorated between Nasser and Nagib. I know that Nagib wants the army to return to barracks and let politicians do their job. After all you said that you were a corrective movement,´ Aziz said.

´What could I say to the commandship after all the efforts I did to give you a post in the army?´ Soliman said.

´I don´t know what you are talking about. The revolutionaries said that they did all that for people. Nagib wants to build a democracy. I don´t see any good reason to impeach him,´ Abd El-Aziz said.

´Please Aziz, don´t go to the end of the road,´ Soliman said.

´I don´t understand,´ Abd El-Aziz said.

´Don´t go with armor and artillery officers, who want to riot in the general commandship headquarters,´ Soliman said.

´Sorry, but I think I´ll do,´ Abd El-Aziz said.

That evening, Nashaat went to his sister and found Roh there. They were listening to the radio that suddenly announced the return of General Mohamed Nagib as a president. Nashaat did not show much enthusiasm about the news. Farida received the news with joy while Roh was anxious.

´You did not comment on the news Nashaat,´ Roh said.

´Yes, I´m thinking about something else. I´ll go and ask father to give me the land I inherited from mother. I´ll sell it and I´ll start the spinning factory business,´ he said.

´Oh, my God, Dad would die if you did it,´ Farida said.

´I don´t think this is the right thing. The era of big capitalists has gone forever,´ Roh said.

´Who talked about capitalism? The man who will help me is Hassan Al-Sheikh. I met him in the detention. He is a communist. I´ll pay to workers what they deserve,´ Nashaat said.

´A communist? I think this is a bad choice Nashaat,´ Roh said.

´The business is not about policy. It is a factory,´ Nashaat said.

Aziz became happy that efforts succeeded and President Nagib returned. Roh knew that her husband would not be that happy. She knew that they argued about the matter few days ago. She asked her brother if he saw her husband that day. When he denied seeing him, she left, as she knew that her husband might come depressed. Farida and Aziz discussed the Nashaat´s plans of selling the land when they were having the dinner. For Farida´s astonishment, her husband was supporting Nashaat´s point of view.

´In fact, keeping lands is risky now as the revolutionaries may cut the property again after their first limit to 200 acres. Who knows?´ Abd El-Aziz said.

The day Nashaat went to the village, Fayza who received a phone call from her sister Farida about their brother´s intentions, was very anxious. She said to her father that Nashaat would come and the father thought that his son would come to apologize and to stay with him to run the land and other properties. She could not discuss the real cause. She thought that if she talked to Nashaat that their father was ready to forgive the son, he might rethink it and postpone his intentions.

´Did anybody ask you to expel me out?´ Nashaat said to the servant who opened the iron and glass door of the palace for him.

The servant did not reply but Fayza hurried and hugged her brother.

´I understand that Farida told you why I´m here. Where´s your father?´ Nashaat said.

´I think he´s your father also?´ she responded with a smile.

´He was,´ he said seriously and aggressively.

´Please Nashaat don´t do action that you may regret it later on,´ she said.

He ignored her pegging not to have a fight with his father and went to the study room where his father was used to spend most of his time when he was in home.

´I want to sell the land that I inherited from mother. I have no objection if you buy it,´ Nashaat said.

´Get out,´ Refaat Pasha said.

´I go out but tomorrow you will receive a note from my lawyer. This is my final word,´ Nashaat said. He left the palace.

In the evening Nashaat was in his flat when Farida called him. She was crying. She asked him to come to her home. He told her that he would pass at the lawyer then he would come to her apartment. After about half an hour of talking and crying, she proposed that she would go to their father and talk to him so he might buy the land. After few days Refaat Pasha agreed to buy Nashaat´s land after Mahmood Pasha convinced him. That was better than confronting him in courts and the press would not have a mercy on Pashas those days.

Nashaat met Hassan Al-Sheikh and they decided to buy a factory that its foreign owner decided to sell it and to return to his homeland. At the same time, Nashaat started to attend meeting in the Liberation Authority. There Nashaat met with members from the Free Officers Movement and he was considered one of the national capitalism that the new regime wanted it to replace the old capitalists. He sensed that the Free Officers prepare the political scene to impeach President Nagib forever.

The relation between Soliman and Abd El-Aziz was not so good as before since Abd El-Aziz took Nagib´s side during March crisis. Yet the relation between Roh and Farida was not affected. Both women tried to amend rifts between their husbands and asked Nashaat to help them. Nashaat decided to make a small party in Oberge the famous nightclub in Pyramids street because his factory started to produce. In fact, he did it to invite Soliman and Abd El-Aziz. That day when they came accompanied by their wives, they found that Nashaat invited two directors and their wives. They welcomed their presence. However after few minutes a single man came. They thought that he was another director.

´Mr. Hassan Al-Sheikh, our workers´ boss,´ Nashaat introduced the man.

At first Roh and Farida were not at ease to sit with a worker on the same table. They talked to each other in French. They discovered that Hassan shared them their conversation in fluent French. They also discovered that Hassan knew how to behave according to the high class protocols and they found him intellectual.

´Sorry, but who taught you the French language?´ Roh asked.

´Michel Courier, the founder of the Egyptian Communist Party,´ Hassan said.

´Did you know him?´ Soliman asked.

´I was one of his closest friends and I consider him my teacher,´ Hassan said.

Hassan, the two directors, and their wives did not stay for long. They left after dinner.

´Take care Nashaat. These communists are troublesome,´ Soliman warned.

´He is a good boss and workers respect him much. He is expert in spinning machines,´ Nashaat responded.

That night resolved much of the crisis between Soliman and Abd El-Aziz and they agreed on meeting again at the weekend.

When Roh and Soliman returned, they received an early morning phone telling that the Soliman´s father died.