Sugar Street

159

"It concerns the reputation of our entire family. If nothing else, he's as much your son as he is mine. But you're free to hold your own opinions."

As Khadija spoke, her eyes glanced swiftly and anxiously from face to face, from her husband, Ibrahim, who was sitting on her right, to her son Ahmad in the opposite corner of the sitting room, uot omitting Yasin, Kamal, and Abd al-Muni'm on the way.

Imitating his mother, Ahmad said playfully, "Pay attention, everyone. The family's reputation is at stake, and I'm your son, if nothing else."

She complained bitterly, "What is this ordeal, son? You won't listen to anyone, not even your father. You refuse advice, even when it's for your own good. You're always right, and everyone else is wrong. When you stopped praying, we said, 'May our Lord guide him.' You refused to go to Law School like your brother, and we said, 'The future's in God's hands.' You said, 'I'm going to be a journalist.' We replied, 'Be a cart driver if you want.'"

He replied jovially, "And now I want to get married…."

"Get married. We're all delighted. But marriage has certain conditions…."

"Who sets these conditions?"

"A sound mind."

"My mind has chosen for me."

"Hasn't time shown you yet that you can't rely only on your own intellect?"

"Not at all. Asking advice from other people is possible in everything but marriage, which is exactly like food."

"Food! You don't just marry a girl. You marry her entire family. And consequently, we marry along with you."

Ahmad laughed out loud and exclaimed, "All of you! That's too much! Uncle Kamal doesn't want to marry, and Uncle Yasin would like my bride for himself."

Everyone laughed except Khadija. Then before the smile vanished from his face, Yasin commented, "If that would remedy the situation, I am more than ready to make the sacrifice."

Khadija cried out, "Go ahead and laugh! This just encourages him. It would be far better if you'd give him your frank opinions. What do you think of a person who wishes to marry the precious daughter of a printshop employee who works for the girl's own magazine? It's hard for us to bear your working as a journalist. How can you want to marry into the family of a pressman? Don't you have an opinion about this, Mr. Ibrahim?"

Ibrahim Shawkat raised his eyebrows as if he wanted to say something but kept quiet. Khadija continued: "If this disaster takes place, the night of the wedding your home will be jammed with press operators, artisans, cabdrivers, and God knov/s what else."

Ahmad responded passionately, "Don't talk like that about my family."

"Lord of heaven do you deny that her relatives are people like this?"

"She's the only one I'm marrying, folks."

Ibrahim Shawkat said in exasperation, "You won't marry just her — may God give you as much trouble as you're causing us."

Encouraged by her husband's protest, Khadija said, "I went to visit their home, as custom dictates. I said, 'I'll go see my son's bride.' I found them living in a cellar on a street inhabited almost entirely by Jews. Her mother's appearance differs in no respect from that of a maid, and the bride herself is at least thirty. Yes, by God! If she had even a hint of beauty, I would excuse him. Why do you want to marry her? He's bewitched. She's cast a spell on him. She works with him at that ill-omened magazine. Perhaps she put something in his coffee or water when he wasn't looking. Go and see her yourselves. You be the judge. I've met my match. I returned from the visit scarcely able to see the road because of my chagrin and sorrow."

"You're making me angry. I won't forgive you for saying such things."

"Sorry!" Then, quoting the title of a wedding song, she continued: " 'Sorry, sovereign beauty!' I'm in the wrong! All my life I've been overly critical of other people, and now our Lord has afflicted me with children who suffer from every known defect. I ask the forgiveness of God Almighty."

"No matter what allegations you make about her family, unlike you they don't make false accusations about other people."

"Tomorrow, after it's too late, when you've heard everything," you'll utiderstand that I was right. May God forgive you for insulting, me."

"You're the one who has done an outstanding job of humiliating me."

"She's after your money. If she had not come upon a failure like you, the most she could have hoped for would have been a newspaper vendor."

"She's an editor at the magazine with a salary twice the size of mine."

"So she's a journalist too! God's will be done! What kind of girl works outside the home except an old maid, a hag, or a woman who apes men?"

"God forgive you."

"And may He forgive you, too, for all the suffering you're causing us."

Yasin, who had followed the conversation attentively while twisting his mustache, said at this point, "Listen, sister. There's no reason to squabble. Let's give Ahmad the candid advice he needs, but arguing won't help matters."

Ahmad stood up angrily, saying, "Please excuse me. I'm going to get dressed and go to work."

Once he was out of the room, Yasin went to sit beside his sister and, leaning toward her, said, "Quarreling won't do you any good. We can't rule our children. They think they are better and cleverer, than we are. If there's no way to avert the marriage, let him get married. If he's not happy with her, it will be entirely his fault. As you know, I was never able to settle down until I married Zanuba. It's just possible that he has made a wise choice. Besides, we gain understanding from experience not from words". Then he laughed and corrected himself: "Although I haven't been enlightened by either words or experience."

Kamal agreed with Yasin. "My brother's right."

Giving him a reproachful look, Khadija asked, "Is this all you have to say, Kamal? He loves you. If you would talk to him in private…."

Kamal answered, "I'll leave when he does and have a word with him. But we've had enough quarreling. He's a free man. He has a right to marry any woman he wants. Can you stop him? Are you planning to break off relations with him?"

Smiling, Yasin said, "The matter's quite simple, sister. He'll get married today and divorced tomorrow. We're Muslims, not Catholics."

Narrowing her small eyes and speaking through half-closed lips, Khadija said, "Of course. What attorney doeshe need to defend him besides you? Whoever said that the son takes after his maternal uncle was right."

Yasin roared out his mighty laugh and said. "God forgive you. If women were left at the mercy of other females, no girl would ever get married."

Pointing to her husband, she observed, "His mother, God rest her soul, chose me for him herself."

Sighing cheerfully, Ibrahim said, "And I've paid the price… may God have mercy on her and pardon her."

Khadija ignored his comment and continued regretfully: "If only she were pretty! He's blind!"

Laughing, Ibrahim remarked, "Like his father!"

She turned toward him angrily and snapped, "You're an ingrate, like all men."

The man replied calmly, "No, we're just patient, and paradise belongs to us."

She shouted at him, "If you ever enter it, that will be thanks to me, because I taught you your religion."

Kamal and Ahmad left Sugar Street together. The uncle was skeptical and undecided about this proposed marriage. He could not fault himself for adherence to foolish traditions or for indifference to the principles of equality and human dignity, but still the hideous social reality, which he could not change, was a fact a person could not ignore. In the past he had been infatuated with Qamar, the daughter of Abu Sari', who sold grilled snacks. Despite her charms, she had almost repulsed him with the disagreeable odor of her body. Kamal admired the young man, envying Ahmad's courage, decisiveness, and other qualities that he himself lacked — particularly belief, diligence, and a will to marry. Ahmad could almost have been awarded to the family in compensation for Kamal's stolid negativism. Why did marriage seem so significant to him while for other people it was a normal part of everyday life like saying "Hello"?

"Where are you going, my boy?"

"To the magazine, Uncle. What about you?"

"Al-Fkr magazine to meet Riyad Qaldas…. Won't you think a little more before taking this step?"

"What step, Uncle? I'm already married."

"Is that true?"

"It's true. And I'm going to live on the first floor of our house … because of the housing crisis."

"How provocative!"

"Yes, but she won't get home until after my mother has gone to bed."

After recovering from the impact of the news, Kamal asked his nephew jovially, "Did you marry in the manner prescribed by God and His Messenger?"

Ahmad laughed too and replied, "Of course. We marry and bury according to the precepts of our former religion, but we live according to the Marxist faith". Then, as they parted, he added, "You'll like her a lot, Uncle. Once you see her, you can judge for yourself. She's a wonderful personality, in every sense of the word."