Between Two Wars - Chapter (5)

Ibrahiem was in Cairo to discuss some reports with the command-ship. After he finished he had a whole day to spend with his family. He phoned his uncle´s family and knew that Nagwa was living alone in a flat in Garden City. He decided to pay a visit to Amal to discuss the matter with her. The aunt told Nagwa to come.

´What´s the problem with you Ibrahiem? You know that I´m working now and earn the enough money to live on my own,´ Nagwa said to Ibrahiem.

´It´s not about money. I think that if you need anything my father will be more than happy to cover,´ he said.

´We´ve enough. My father´s pension covers everything but she insists on living alone. Since she has worked in the newspaper she thought that this is a license for her to do what she likes,´ Emad said angrily and left.

´I´m not here to have lectures about what I should do and what I shouldn´t. Everybody has to mind his own business,´ she shouted.

Ibrahiem left and Amal blamed Nagwa for her words.

´They don´t know what forced me to do so. Living here makes everybody know what I´m really doing. They´ll know that I´m a slut and they will never understand,´ she said to her aunt. Before saying good-bye, she asked about the girls and her younger brother Tamer.

´They went to the Consumer´s governmental shop. They say that there are sugar and tea. They may have a chicken as well or some oil for cooking,´ Amal said.

Nagwa phoned Hussein. After an hour, a van came in front of the house and four soldiers carried several boxes filled with foodstuffs. Amal decided to send some to Abd-Allah house.

´Some soldiers carrying food stuff are on the door,´ Thurya said to Ibrahiem. She thought her brother had sent them. When he discovered that Nagwa used her contacts to obtain the foodstuff, his doubts about her indecent conduct became certain. He dismissed the soldiers and phoned Amal and told her not send anything that Nagwa might get in the future. Objections came from his mother Samira but his father´s opinion was that Ibrahiem did the right thing. Few hours later Ibrahiem was ready in his military dress to leave.

´Take care,´ Samira hugged him. The army was engaged in the exhaust war. Everyday families received bad news about their sons. Many martyrs and injured officers and soldiers brought sadness and tears to their families. Nobody knew when the end would come.

´Nasser accepted Roger´s initiative for a truce,´ Nagwa said to Hussein.

´It is a good maneuver. Now the Israelis have to do the same. We need time to build our air defense,´ he said what he had heard from his commands.

´Yes, I see.´ Few times, she agreed with him about policy. ´But the Palestinians refused this move and their radio attacked this step.´

´They will be convinced later on. Anyhow we decide the war steps,´ he said.

´When shall we fight?´ she asked.

´In time,´ he said the same answer.

´At least mothers may have sometime to dry up their tears before crying again,´ she said.

´They should have been proud of their martyr sons. The early Moslem women had celebrated when they had been told that their sons had been killed,´ he said.

´First time I know you have an idea about Islam,´ she said sarcastically. They were both naked on the bed.

´You´ll have a good beat for that,´ he started to beat her, and then he sodomized her.

Ibrahiem was standing among his men teaching them how to use a new weapon.

´Captain Ibrahiem,´ a solider saluted him. ´The colonel wants you in his tent.´

Colonel Mohamed Zaher was looking at the Suez Canal map when Ibrahiem entered.

´High!´

´You will fly to Russia soon. Now you go to Cairo. Be ready for departure next week.´ The colonel said.

When Ibrahiem was in the military jeep that was carrying him to Cairo, he was reading a critic about Nagwa´s first published novel. When she had been graduated, she became one of the permanent journalists and started to write novels. Publishing her novels met no obstacles due to the intelligence influence behind her efforts. However, she had the talent and most critics admired her creativity. He was happy for her and he never regretted that he was her husband one day. Two days later, he was in Moscow.

In her new flat in Garden City, Nagwa was in the bathroom having a shower when she heard the doorbell ringing.

´High,´ Nagwa opened the door. She was wearing a robe ´You may come in.´

´Thank you,´ Shahinaze looked at the wall watch and added, ´sorry for coming ten minutes earlier.´ As a presenter in the TV due to her husband´s influence she had to do some services for him and for the intelligence. They decided to make Nagwa a star among writers. She heard about the new writer whom some was telling that she was a mistress of an intelligence officer. She had doubts about her husband and the young girl as he had asked her to invite the young writer to her program. He told her that the girl was one of the faithful persons in the press.

´It´s all right and thank you for choosing me to be your guest in your weekly program.´ Nagwa said. Since the success of her first novel, many media persons had contacted her. ´Few minutes and I´ll be ready.´

´Do you see my show?´ Shahinaze asked Nagwa ignoring her wish to be dressed.

´Never done before and never heard about it,´ Nagwa answered directly. She felt that she was rude to tell the famous presenter the embarrassing truth. She tried to be more decent, ´I usually listen to the foreign broadcast. Only I show TV when they broadcast a film. I know you double as a TV presenter and a radio presenter in the English program but I prefer BBC to know the truth.´

´In fact the BBC has become more popular than Sound of Arabs Radio after the Egyptian media had broadcast lies about the number of warplanes that our withdrawing army claimed falsely that it had dropped,´ Shahinaze said. She sat down and crossed her legs and the miniskirt showed much of her thighs.

´What do you like to drink?´ Nagwa decided to give her guest something then she would change.

´Coca Cola,´ Shahinaze said.

Nagwa picked two imported bottles from the fridge.

´Who manages to provide you with the imported and boycotted drink?´ Shahinaze asked about the influential man who could get the governmental banned bottles.

´Someone, whom I think you don´t know,´ Nagwa said but she could not hide the disturbance she felt for fear of uncovering the intimate relationship with the presenter´s husband.

The hesitation and the disturbance of Nagwa proved the rumors that Shahinaze had heard. ´How come I don´t know my husband?´ she laughed.

´Who´s your husband?´ Nagwa said.

´Never mind, let´s talk about that after the conversation for the program,´ Shahinaze gave her a smile full of bitterness and pity.

´Do you think that I´m your husband´s mistress?´ Nagwa was afraid of Shahinaze. She sat down on the nearest chair.

´What do think of me? Am I an idiot?´ Shahinaze enjoyed the silly play.

´I´m not a mistress of anybody,´ Nagwa said. Her trembling hands when she tried to pick up a cigarette were an enough proof that she lied.

´My husband is not anybody. He´s Hussein Yousry the sadist intelligence officer, who fucks women in ass,´ Shahinaze smiled.

´You must be crazy,´ Nagwa said.

´You stand up,´ Shahinaze pulled the bathrobe belt and undid the knot.

´What are doing?´ Nagwa cried. ´I´m forced to be. He threatened me of arresting my brother. He had ordered his men previously to rape my mother and me in front of my father who had died on the spot.´ Nagwa fell down on the Iranian Shiraz carpet that Hussein had stolen it from one of the royal family palaces and cried.

Shahinaze remembered the man whom her husband had arrested and remembered the name Saber Mazloom. ´Your full name is Nagwa Saber Mazloom?´

´Yes,´ Nagwa was still crying.

´I know your story,´ Shahinaze helped Nagwa to sit on a chair. ´I´m also one of his victims. I had two options either to be his mistress or to be his wife. Being his wife served the family´s interest. That´s why I have married him.´

Nagwa let the robe wide open. ´Tell my how I can go away without doing harm to my family. I don´t enjoy sex with him. I don´t enjoy sex at all. It became something disgusting to me.´

´I believe you. That´s what I had felt in the early days of marriage. I don´t hate you,´ Shahinaze took Nagwa´s head on her breasts and rubbed her hair. The old victim´s tears fell on the recent victim´s head. ´Rumors circulated. You know media persons. They live on them. I decided to settle my doubts when he asked me to have you in my program. He told me that you´re one of the faithful journalists. I can´t refuse his requests, you know.´

Both women cried then Shahinaze kissed Nagwa in mouth. Both were panting then Shahinaze said, ´let me teach you the true love. We´ll enjoy it both.´

Shahinaze´s small Fiat car engine suddenly stopped on her way from Garden City to Heliopolis after she had recorded the conversation with the new novelist for the radio program and set a date for her to be in Maspero TV building to have her videoed for the show. After several trials with the key of the march, Shahinaze decided to take a taxi. All taxis refused to go. She heard a man asking another about the Quran recitals in the radio and the TV. She went on feet to the radio and televisions building in Maspero, but security forces were around the building. It was five o´clock in the afternoon when she decided to return back to Nagwa´s flat.

´The BBC says that Naser died,´ Nagwa said when she saw Shahinaze at her door.

´It can´t be. He leaves us in the worst situation. Did the TV broadcast the news?´ Shahinaze asked.

´Not yet,´ Nagwa said.

´My car has broken down and the traffic is blocked,´ Shahinaze said.

´You welcome. I was about to prepare something to eat,´ Nagwa said.

Shahinaze knew her way to the bedroom. She chose a gown then took off her cloths.

´May I prepare the bath for you to have a shower?´ Nagwa said to the naked Shahinaze.

´It's a good idea.´

Few minutes later, both women immersed themselves in the bathtub. The telephone rang. Nagwa took the bathroom receiver that was hung on the wall.

´Sorry but I won´t come today as something serious has come,´ Hussein was on the other end of the line.

´Yes I know. They say that Naser died,´ Nagwa responded to his arrogance.

´Who is the bloody fucken liar who told you such lies? The president is quiet well and he´s in a good health condition,´ he shouted.

By then Vice President Anwar Al-Sadat was reading the official letter announcing the death of the president. ´I let you listen to him,´ she said. She approached the receiver to the transistor radio. ´Didn´t they tell you the time they are going to broadcast the news. They have to trust you more. Honey they deserve punishment. You´re a colonel now and they should have asked you before deciding to tell the people.´ The wife smiled and the mistress laughed.

´Okay, just stay at home until you´re sure that everything is secured,´ he said. He felt humiliated and was too nervous and added, ´I´ll give you a lesson.´

In his office, Colonel Hussein put the phone mouthpiece after he had dialed Shahinaze several times without response. ´She must be in bed of one of her homosexual friends,´ he thought. He called one of his aids using the internal line. ´You may add to the list the students who shared in riots regardless of their ideology. Security has the top priority now. I´d like the names of your list to be registered in New Valley Detention Center tonight.´