8 - The Call

At one in the morning, I returned home, took off my clothes, and collapsed onto my bed, exhausted... What a long day!! My headache was killing me, and dizziness overwhelmed me... There was a complete detachment from existence in my entire being... But... one in the morning?! I'd said goodbye to Dr. Asem two hours ago... Did it really take me two hours to get home?! I don't remember anything, and I don't care to remember... All I want now is to sleeeeep...!

I don't know when sleep overtook me...

Early the next morning, I woke up with my mouth as dry as straw and one pressing image in my mind... two snakes, each swallowing the other's tail... Where had I seen that? And when...? What did it mean...?!

But my questioning didn't last long because I fell asleep again...

At the low table, I sat devouring the eggs and flatbread my sister Reifa had prepared for me... I was so distracted that it worried her... She started talking to me about various topics that seemed distant and trivial, so I closed my ears and began humming in different tones to feign attention... as if I agreed with her:

"Hmm...!"

"Hmm...!"

"?!....."

"Hmm..."

Then I noticed her looking at me with frustration and surprise, saying:

"I'm asking you!"

I had answered her question with a hum that suggested I was following her... And so, my distraction was embarrassingly exposed, which must have annoyed her... I said awkwardly:

"Forgive me... what were you saying?"

"You're not listening to me at all... I'm asking you what you're going to do about Rifaat?!"

"Is there something new?!"

"Yes... His wife sent word this morning saying that..."

"He escaped?!"

"No... not yet... The Nadaha called him yesterday, and he tore off his restraints and almost escaped... She had to ask the neighbors to stop him... She didn't want them to know..."

She didn't want them to know? That's strange...

"Has she not told anyone about this yet?"

"Of course not... You know your brother's wife... She doesn't like gloating... She hides the secret and claims to the neighbors and his friends that he's sick..."

"So I'm the first to examine him?!"

"Of course... and I was saying that..."

There's something in this very important talk... It means... But oh, the confusion in my mind!

I can't extract anything from this talk, but it suggests a very important idea... and I've forgotten what it is!

My sister's lips were still moving with many words... Will she never stop talking?! I don't understand a word of what she's saying, let alone hear it... Now I must visit Rifaat to check on him and that secretive, strong-willed wife of his...

I finished my breakfast and drank my tea, then left the house, heading to Rifat's house. I deliberately crossed the cornfield where yesterday's events had taken place... At the spot where the Nadaha had stood, I stopped and began examining the ground... There were footprints from my rubber-soled shoes that I'd worn last night... A few meters away, there were other strange marks... precise, deep holes in the dirt that no shoe could make... To be precise, they were more like the marks left by a cat's paws as it creeps cautiously toward a bird...

I headed to Rifaat's house and knocked on the door. Najat opened it for me:

"You don't know what happened yesterday while you were sleeping like a baby!"

She shouted as soon as she saw me, but I stopped her firmly, raising my hand:

"I know... and I wasn't sleeping like a baby... God forgive you..."

"Then where were you?!"

"I was standing in the cold and open air, waiting for your Nadaha... I saw her... and heard her calling him..."

"And what did you do?"

"Nothing... I went to get help, and when I returned, she was gone..."

"What a disappointment!!"

This woman is going to shatter my nerves... Why do I tolerate her rudeness and stupidity without smashing her head in?!

Unfortunately, I have to because it's the price I pay—and will keep paying—every time I want to enter my brother's world... She's the lady of the house... and there's no way around it!

I studied her face... her soft black hair... her wide eyes... These features reminded me of something... Then her lips were unusually cracked, and she revealed a long, white neck... I don't want to be biased, but this woman resembles the Nadaha quite a bit... And don't forget—this is the most important thing—that strange blue mole on her left cheek... She looks like the Nadaha, but she's not her... She can't be her...

"Why are you so distracted?!"

I swallowed... It could be a coincidence, or it could be a suggestion left in my mind by yesterday's events, or it could be a reflection of my dislike for her... But I can't imagine the justification or motive that would make her leave her husband and go out at night to call him from outside the house... It would be a ridiculous repetition for every girl I meet to be another evil character... (Ekaterina) disguised as a madwoman in Romania, and (Najat) disguised as a Nadaha in Egypt...

No... This passing observation won't affect my thinking... I'll just keep this point in my memory and never forget it:

Najat resembles the Nadaha to some extent... This information might come in handy one day... I bid her farewell and left, heading home...

But I went to the health unit to check something in the birth records office, then returned home without meeting... (Asem).

Patients began arriving at our house... so I resumed my work in the side room, but my distraction affected the accuracy of my diagnoses. More than once, my pen hesitated as I tried to remember the name of a medication... I forgot many of the faces I'd seen yesterday... In short, my performance was pitiful to an indescribable degree...

In the afternoon, I went up to my room and ate a bite of the lunch my mother had prepared for me... Then I lay down on my bed to rest, preparing for the harsh night that awaited me... Soon, sleep overtook me, and I fell into a deep, dreamless slumber...

I woke up in complete darkness... What time is it?!

I looked at my phosphorescent watch and saw the hands pointing to ten at night... Fatigue had betrayed me, and I was two hours late for my appointment at the unit with Dr. Asem... I had to get dressed and rush to him before he went mad...

I put on my Nadaha gear—the gun, the Quran, the cigarettes, and the light shoes... Then I headed for the door to leave, and that's when I heard a strange sound... a sound coming from the direction of the canal near our house... a long, drawn-out sound like a wail... a sound I knew well, saying:

"Rifaaaaat... Rifaaaaat!"

She was calling me... me specifically... My moment had come, and now I wouldn't have to search for her or endure any more nightly fieldwork... All I had to do was leave the house, and she'd be there waiting for me...

"Rifaaaaat...!"

Then the door opened, and I saw my mother, my sister, and Reifa's husband, Talaat, entering the room. My mother was holding a lit candle, and there was a look of terror in her weary eyes:

"In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful... She's calling you, my son?!"

Then she saw me preparing to leave... and shouted:

"No... you're not going...!"

I said harshly, despite myself:

"Listen, Mother... No one has a say in this... It's my problem, and I'll solve it myself..."

She beat her chest in anguish:

"Help me, people... Am I going to lose my son and his brother?!"

Meanwhile, the voice repeated with insistence and coldness:

"Rifaaaaat...!"

I headed for the door... There's something about this call that's irresistible... Then the image of her face... I must see that face again... How captivating... how strange... how thrilling...

They won't be able to stop me with family sentimentality.

Talaat grabbed my arm with his strong, pincer-like hand and said roughly:

"Rifaat... I don't want to hurt you...!"

I said angrily, trying to pull my arm free as my glasses fell to the floor:

"This is none of your business, Talaat... Let me go..."

But his grip only tightened... And then the voice rang out again:

"Rifaaaaat...!"

No... I won't miss this chance... I tried to break free in a frenzy, which gave Talaat the perfect opportunity to show off his strength... All I remember is a fierce struggle in which I was the very weak party...

My mother was wailing, and my sister was slapping her cheeks while her child clung to her dress and sobbed... Talaat punched me, then threw me onto the old wooden bed... My sister handed him a palm-fiber rope, which he tied around my ankles as he panted... then around my wrists... I resisted... I screamed... the rope tore into my flesh, but the restraint was tight... Then I gave up, exhausted... The voice kept calling:

"Rifaaaaat...!"

My sister let out a scream... and shouted:

"Won't you shut up, you daughter of a...?!"

Then she began to cry, her words taking on a soothing tone:

"First Rifaat... and now my brother Rifaat, the pride of men... I wish you hadn't come from Cairo... I wish you'd left us in our misery..."

Why is she crying this time?! I don't see any tragedy in what's happening... All there is is that this restraint is irritating me, and I need to get rid of it as soon as possible... Out there, my delicate beloved in her black robe is waiting for me, calling me... Why shouldn't I answer her call?!

I don't remember anything about what happened in the following days...

A continuous, chaotic delirium in which Dr. Richard mingled with Esteban, the madman with Dracula's mummy, the scene of Ekaterina's death, Dr. Asem, the Nadaha's face, Judas's face, and the two snakes swallowing each other's tails...

Later, Reifa told me everything...

I was in a daze, staring at the world with open eyes that saw nothing... I wasn't eating, so they force-fed me like a duck... My mother burned tons of incense by my bed and recited Surah Yasin hundreds of times...

As for Reifa, she brought a sorcerer—a charlatan, as usual—to try to break the curse binding me... Of course, he burned more incense, recited dozens of incantations, and made hundreds of demands, then left, claiming that a jinn was angry with me because I hadn't brought him the gifts he wanted...

Talaat was more materialistic in his thinking... He went to the village and brought Dr. Asem, the unit doctor, to see me... The latter expressed his regret and sorrow, saying he'd guessed this had happened when I didn't show up for our appointment, and he told them the story of my encounter with the Nadaha... Then he gave me a sedative injection, offered his services at any time, and advised them to loosen the restraints occasionally and let me move in bed so I wouldn't get bedsores... He charged a pound for the examination, even though it's prohibited by union regulations...

What a fraud...

And every night—my sister told me—the Nadaha would call me from near the canal... I would toss and turn, trying to get up, but the restraints were stronger than me...

One night, Talaat insisted on going out to see this devil, but my mother and sister begged him to stay... They weren't ready to lose the last man in the family... My sister even had to kiss his hand to curb his deadly curiosity, and he reluctantly gave in...

How long did this last?!

Two weeks...

And how did it end?! That's a small story I'll tell you, but don't rush me...

A letter arrived addressed to me, which Talaat, my sister's husband, received... He saw no point in showing it to me because I was completely detached from the world... So he completely forgot about it in the pocket of his galabiya... Then one night, he thought of reading it by my bedside, hoping something in it might catch my attention or be something he could handle...

By the light of the kerosene lamp, he began to read... The letter was from my student, Dr. Alaa Abdel Samad, talking about the blood sample I'd sent him to analyze in his lab in Cairo:

Dear Dr. Rifaat,

I couldn't come in person, nor could I call because the village has no telephone, so I'm sending this letter, which I estimate will take only three days and thus won't cause any delay...

I've conducted the tests you requested... and as you expected, I found no evidence of diabetes, kidney or liver failure, or changes in blood acidity... The electrolyte levels () are fine... and all bacterial cultures are negative... In short... nothing at all...*

Then I conducted a chromatographic analysis at the Faculty of Pharmacy, searching for specific toxins... After a meticulous and exhausting search, we found a very small but detectable amount of barbiturates in the sample...

Talaat was reading in his shaky, weak voice, struggling to pronounce words like "electrolytes," "chromatography," and "barbiturates"... But the last word reached me intact and settled in my consciousness, causing a sweeping shock... Then I repeated it after him—so he said—and it was the first word I'd spoken in two weeks, which sent him into a frenzy of joy... He began praising God, tears streaming down his face:

"Rifaat... you've spoken, you good man... You've spoken..."

Here I am... alive and well... I don't know what happened to me, and I don't care to know... I just want this letter now... I need to know what's in it... But... I'm tied to the bed like a sacrificial animal... Who did this... Talaat?! And why?! I remember something about the Nadaha and that night, but it's completely muddled... These fools must have tied me up so I wouldn't follow the others... I said in a hoarse voice:

"Talaat... I'm fine... Please untie me..."

He looked at me in confusion and didn't respond...

"Talaat... let me get up, and I'll tell you everything... The coma is over...!"

His face was covered in shadows, and he didn't want to respond... He has the right not to believe me, but how can I convince him?

"Talaat... believe me... I'm not lying..."

He stood up firmly and put the letter in his pocket... Then he said to me with obvious coldness:

"Seek refuge in God, Doctor, and don't answer the devil's call."

"But..."

"That cursed creature is trying to call you to her... but you won't fool me...!"

He picked up the kerosene lamp and headed for the door... Before leaving, he repeated in disgust, as if spitting:

"You won't fool me!"