The Last Cut by Michael Pearce Page B

So—so—’
    ‘So?’
    ‘Womanly. I just stood there. All I wanted to do was look at her. She went away, but I guessed that she did it every day, so the next day I found out where he would be and I—well, I went there, and waited for her. And then I followed her home.’
    ‘Did you speak to her?’
    ‘No. Not at first. I just wanted to see and I followed her every day. And then one day she—she realized. At first it frightened her and just made her hurry all the more. But then—then she saw how it was. And then one day—one day she smiled at me—’ Owen sighed inwardly.
    Mahmoud, however, frowned. This was loose behaviour. ‘Smiled?’ he said. ‘Was she not in her veil?’
    ‘Oh yes. But I—I knew somehow.’
    Mahmoud looked stern.
    ‘And then?’
    ‘Well, I—one day I approached her. Not that day. Much later. I—I went up to her. And spoke.’
    ‘You spoke to her without asking her father’s permission?’
    ‘He wouldn’t have given it me. Our families—our families had quarrelled. Years before. In the village.’
    ‘You shouldn’t have spoken to her.’
    ‘I meant no harm! I—I spoke to her honourably.’
    ‘How could you speak to her honourably? Without her father knowing, and your father knowing?’
    ‘I was going to. I wanted to. Only—only Leila said I should wait. And I thought, perhaps that was a good idea, perhaps I would be able to talk my father round—’
    ‘Wouldn’t that have been better?’
    ‘It would have been difficult. The daughter of a water-carrier! He would have been very angry.’
    All the same—’
    ‘I would have tried. We agreed that was best. Only—’
    ‘Only what?’
    ‘One day she told me her father was going to marry her to Omar Fayoum.’
    ‘Well—’
    ‘But he’s old! And foul! And not really very rich. All he does is run a water-cart. Well, that may look good to a water-carrier but it’s nothing really. I thought I would go to him and say, look, you can do better than that. I have a job at the Water Board, and if you will only wait—But Leila said no, the fates were against us, and I said, let us defy fate—’
    Owen groaned again; inaudibly, he hoped.
    Mahmoud, however, became fierce.
    ‘Did you touch her?’ he demanded.
    ‘No! I would never show her any disrespect, never—’
    Are you sure?’
    ‘Never! Never! I was honourable, she was honourable. She was always honourable. She—’
    The boy dissolved in tears.
    All right, all right. All right!’
    ‘Never!’ sobbed the boy.
    All right! So what did you do?’
    ‘Do?’ The boy looked at him in surprise. ‘We didn’t do anything.’
    ‘You must have done something. What happened next?’
    ‘Nothing. Leila said we must stop seeing each other now that she was betrothed.’
    ‘So—?’
    ‘So we stopped seeing each other.’
    ‘Come on, you don’t expect me to believe that!’
    ‘Just the once. I said I had to see her, she owed it to me. And then—’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘I pleaded with her. I pleaded with her for hours. But she said no, she was betrothed, it was different now, and we must stop seeing each other.’
    And what about the next time?’
    ‘There was no next time.’
    ‘You just went away?’
    ‘No. Not at first. I—I hung around. But she wouldn’t see me. And in the end—yes, I went away. The fates were against us!’
    ‘And you never saw her again?’
    ‘Never. I wanted to, but—Then one day I heard.’
    ‘That—?’
    ‘That she was dead.’
    ‘How did you hear?’
    ‘My work brings me down in these parts sometimes. I went into a shop to buy some oranges and I heard the women talking.’
    ‘And then you went away again?’
    ‘What else was there to do?’ the boy said.
    After the boy had gone, they talked to the woman.
    No, she said, she hadn’t done it, although she knew who had. It had all been very difficult because there was no mother to act on Leila’s behalf. If there had been, all this wouldn’t have happened. Leila would have been circumcised