The Automobile Club of Egypt

38

The staff had waited eagerly for Suleyman and Karara to come back from their meeting with Alku. They all found a moment from their work to go down to the entrance door or to go up to the restaurant to ask about the outcome.

“What happened with Alku?” they all asked.

Suleyman and Karara seemed to have agreed to give the same answer: “Come to the café tomorrow at five o’clock, and we’ll talk.”

The staff’s anxieties ran wild. Some of them thought that this answer meant that Karara and Suleyman had failed in their mission, while others thought that they merely wanted to save themselves the kerfuffle of having to repeat themselves over and over again. The following day, most of the staff went to the café, filling the whole right side. Abdoun and his friends sat on the left. Suleyman waited until everyone had settled down and then made his way with Karara to the center of the café. There was silence as Suleyman stated slowly, “Alku refuses to let us have our tips again.”

Shouts of objection went up, but Suleyman waited until they calmed down again before continuing, “Alku wants to be sure first that we have understood the error of our ways before he lets us have our tips.”

“Alku has to give us our tips! It’s our right!” said Abdoun.

Suleyman gave him a look of rage and shouted, “Hey, son! What job do you do?”

“I’m an assistant barman.”

“You’re a servant, then!”

“No, Suleyman. I’m not a servant. I do my job and I get paid.”

“And we,” said Suleyman angrily, “have been servants our whole lives long and accepted our situation and were happy until you put a wrench in the works.”

“God forgive you!”

“You, Abdoun, and Bahr and Samahy and the rest of your lot — you have your way of thinking, and we have ours. You want to go head-to-head with Alku! You’re the cause of our woes.”

Abdoun smiled sadly and replied, “Suleyman, we objected to Alku’s beatings.”

Avoiding his glance, Suleyman responded, “Well, thanks a million, Abdoun. We don’t need more problems. We were happy and contented until you turned up and started agitating. And now, the whole Club is in chaos. All the arguments and squabbles have left us unable to earn a living.”

Some voices seconded Suleyman’s opinion.

“Abdoun,” Suleyman shouted, getting himself worked up, “you knew what the Club was from the start. You must have been told, before you came to work here, that Alku is strict and hard-hearted. So why did you come?”

“It’s our right to work, and it’s our right to be treated with respect.”

Suleyman blew his top at this, screaming at Abdoun, “You can speak for yourself but not for us!”

There were shouts of support for Suleyman, but Abdoun looked at him and said, “Alku will never reinstate the tips just because you beg him and kiss his hand. We have to take a united stance and demand our rights.”

“You can take your united stance and stick it,” replied Suleyman. “We have a different plan. We will keep begging him to forgive us until he reinstates the tips.”

Abdoun looked at his colleagues with a mixture of sorrow and disgust.

“We,” he told them, “will neither beg for forgiveness nor kiss any hands. We will defend our rights and make him reinstate the tips. You’ll see for yourselves.”

Abdoun turned to leave the café amid a clamor of sarcastic jeers:

“We’ll see about that, idiot!”

“You’re not as clever as you think!”

“You’re deluded!”

Abdoun walked straight on without turning back, followed by Samahy and Bahr and some others. Suleyman then continued solemnly, “Brothers! We have nothing to do with them. Karara and I are going to beg Alku again tonight, and please God, he will listen to us.”