tribulations

Leroy Al-Zahar's prophecy had been fulfilled in the sons, each of whom had his own dream. They endured for two years, taking care of the shop, driven by the memory of their deceased father and a desire to preserve an unlikely legacy. With time, debts accumulated and weighed down their shoulders due to their lack of experience in agriculture and managing the shop.

They tossed the responsibility among themselves like a burning ember burning their hands until enough was enough. There was no escape from selling. The money was divided among them so that each of them could get the crumbs, and after that, the brothers worked without exception. Even the females went to the shops seeking a livelihood. They resisted for another year until the camel's back broke after a husband appeared on the horizon for the first of the girls.

The land was sold, and the matter settled relatively for the males in their jobs. Only louis remained, who was twelve years old at the time of his father's death. He had to look for work, an amount sufficient for him to wear Bata shoes, gabardine pants, and perhaps a leno shirt with a starched collar. Neville took him in for two years as a boy polishing gold and diamonds in his workshop, receiving two euros daily in addition to… The blessings of the honorable people of the neighborhood .

A stable life until the beginning of 1957 Neville afterfell ill with a terminal illness that confined him to bed. He liquidated his business, sold his shop, and left for Paris amid feelings of anger and resentment that flared up day after day against the Jews and their existence.

In 1962, louis joined the military after obtaining a BA in History. He was unable to fulfill his father's dream of entering the Military College due to the lack of connections, after all classes of society flocked to the army as an unparalleled hope, clinging to the military uniform that was a source of admiration and appreciation and the visa of closed doors, fueled by the media, newspapers and cinema films that glorified the stories of army officers who became leaders and politicians.

Two months later, louis arrived in Paris , having preferred to walk back rather than wait for a bus that would never come. He returned without firing a shot, carrying an empty water bottle and a knee injury that would result in his discharge from military service, and a memory that time would fail to erase. It was a day when he searched the skies for help, for someone who would state that there had been a mistake, someone who would apologize. It seems that the last request was exaggerated!

It didn't take long for louis to return as a teacher at the same school, but it took time for him to marry "Nora" his neighbor who was fifteen years older than him. That was before he traveled to Germany on a four-year loan, during which he returned in 1977 on vacation to sow his only seed.

Lucas louis Al-Zahar...

France woke up to an upturn in violent crime and police brutality, against a backdrop of economic crisis, mass unemployment and racism against immigrant, On that day, the Misr International Hospital received a patient who had suffered a nervous shock that led to paralysis in his lower half. It was none other than louis Al-Zahar.

He retired early, his modest pension barely enough for bad cigarettes and medicine. If it weren't for the private lessons, he and his family would perish, his son and his wife who had stayed with him for six years before eciding to get divorce . They separated, and she left him with "lucas", content with visiting him and the matter settles with "louis " and his son in their apartment in the heart of paris that apartment that he bought during his time working in Germany .

***

After graduating from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Lucas joined a pharmaceutical company as a medical rep. His main task was to visit clinics to market his company's medicines. He reviewed the new ones and limited their distribution and the strength of demand for them in the markets. He wore a suit and tie and carried a leather bag armed with the advantages that his company provided to attract doctors to the product: free samples, invitations to conferences, nights in lavish hotels... etc. He frequented quiet clinics that occupied the most luxurious buildings.

With its soft music, its pile of foreign magazines, its dim lighting, its mixed smells, and that abstract painting whose meaning he cannot reach, beneath it the fat nurse who does not take the telephone receiver off her ear, next to the mysterious patient with the prominent chest who steals glances at him... or so he imagines... a period of boring waiting during which he gets used to listening to some MP3 to kill time. He puts the receiver in his ears in isolation, leaning his fist on his cheek until the marks are engraved in it, contemplating his shoes and his bag, those skins that have become an active organ in his body, eating, drinking, and growing.

Sticky thoughts swirl in his head, like stagnant canal water, with no movement or life in it, green and safe for decay. He carries within his ribs the official anger of everyone who has stuck to the gear of life, slowly grinding him up under the slogan "Hell has no way out."

Nothing rescues him except the voice of the snub-nosed nurse: "Come in, doctor." He smiles a yellow smile, then stands up amidst the scrutinizing looks of the patients to put on another mask, a mask that has no connection to what he studied in college. The spirit of a bag merchant wears him before he knocks on the door of the doctor, with whom none of his colleagues have achieved any noteworthy success for several factors, the most important of which is their lack of terrain!!

-" Dr. Samuel Good evening" Said Lucas .

Dr Samuel was too busy taking notes to pay attention to that flea that had broken into the room for three minutes.

Lucas pondered about Dr. Samuel Dodson who was a Category (A) of targeted doctors: His reputation precedes him, his regular examination costs more than two hundred euros and must be booked in advance, he has a sharp, cold temper, elegant, confident, disgusting, and a sign (No bullshit) is on his forehead.

The traditional style will not suit him...

It will take effort...

A lower work is buried in the back of a spinster sea turtle...

Lucas stroked his black hair that he inherited from his grandfather and pressed his glasses to his nose:" Question?.. The picture behind the desk.. Did you take it"?

Behind the doctor's head was a picture of a sunset . Lucas figured it was his , because there was a small date written in yellow in the lower right. This prompted the doctor to take off his thin glasses and look behind him with a peacock's eye: "I'm the one who took the picture".

Lucas put his bag on the chair opposite him after he sat down, feigning extreme astonishment: "No... it's not possible"!!

The doctor straightened up with a smile that said, "I took it in the North Coast."

- "I can't believe it you're a doctor and a professional photographer.. This is a lot".

Lucas said it with signs of amazement on his face.

The doctor's face cracked with a satisfied laugh, so Lucas resumed licking his ass saying " The clinic's decor is also a masterpiece... the color coordination and the general atmosphere are very relaxing"

The doctor laughed with satisfaction as lucas pulled his bag pretending to leave : "A very happy occasion, Doctor."

The doctor asked him: "Where are you going"?!

I just wanted to get to know you. I'm "Lucas".

-"You came only for this"?

- "No, actually I came to talk to you about our product, but the three minutes are up"...

Dr. Samuel interrupted him: "Sit down, Lucas ."