Khan Al-Khalili by Naguib Mahfouz

from your household might see us,” was his gentle reply.
    “Who cares?” she retorted with a shrug of her shoulders. Seeing how shocked he looked, she went on, “Are you still scared?”
    “Yes,” he replied after a little hesitation, “I’m scared someone from my own family might spot us.”
    She burst into laughter. With that she took him to a garden. “Now,” she whispered, “we’re out of range of all those spies!”
    They walked around in silence as the sun continued its descent and sunset shadows grew longer, erecting a pavilion to welcome the onset of night.
    “I had an amazing dream,” this brazen girl now said, trying to work her way round his shyness.
    “A nice one, I hope,” he said, beginning to warm to her conversation.
    “I dreamed that I met you somewhere. You told me that you wanted.… Then you said a word that I’m not going to tell you. You have to say it. Can you guess?”
    That made him feel even more flustered. “I d-d-d-don’t know,” he stuttered.
    “Yes, you do,” she replied sweetly, “you’re just pretending! Go on, say it.…”
    He swore to her that he really didn’t know.
    “There’s no point in lying to me,” she said. “You’d better remember. It’s a word whose first letter is K.…”
    He remained silent, heart pounding.
    “The second letter is I.…”
    He still said nothing and turned away.
    “The third letter is S,” she went on. “So what’s the last one?”
    He gave her an embarrassed smile, but still had no idea of what to say.
    “If you don’t say something,” she said, squeezing his arm, “I’m never going to talk to you again!”
    That threat had the desired effect, since he drew another S in the air.
    “So now at last you’ve told me what it is you want,” she laughed in delight, “and I’m not going to stop you.” She leaned toward him, totally frustrated by his incredible bashfulness.
    He stole a quick kiss that seemed to last for whole decades. How he longed for more of the same! But that is the way he was: intense passions but along with them desperate shyness. This pretty Jewish girl liked to poke fun at his face. He took her seriously and started hating his own face to an unnecessary degree. Now he had yet another excuse for his innate shyness, which only intensified. Had it been possible for a man to wear a veil over his face, he would have been the one to do so. It was one of the key factors in the excessive attention he paid to his personal appearance, something that transformed itself into utter neglect when despair got the better of him.
    The pretty Jewess suddenly disappeared from his life. No sooner did a young man from her own community become engaged to her than she abandoned her playful ways and adopted a more serious lifestyle, entirely oblivious to the bloody wound she was leaving behind in a tenderheart. But then tender hearts can salve their wounds very quickly. So it happened that in the final phase of his time at secondary school the proximity of neighbors brought him into contact with the pretty and youngest daughter of a widow who was one of his mother’s friends. An affection developed between the two young people, duly encouraged by their two mothers who were soon referring to them as the “bride and groom.” This second relationship was not like the earlier one that had served as a wake-up call to a heart that was now ready for sentimental education. However, this girl by contrast possessed strength of character and determination. As a result, when she fell through his fingers, he regretted it bitterly. Afterward he would often tell himself that if he had followed his and her mother’s advice and married that girl, he would have enjoyed a married life of unparalleled happiness. However, no sooner had he obtained his high school diploma than his family was struck by disaster. His father was pensioned off, and it was now up to him—Ahmad—to face the dire consequences. Cruelly snatched from the gentle