Look & Move On by Mohammed Mrabet

Author:Mohammed Mrabet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

7

Now I was able to live just as I pleased. There was no Reeves to worry about, no Maria to ask me where I was going and what time I was coming back. I could fish all day, get drunk in bars, cook the food I liked, or lie on the beach. No one cared. I had brought back dollars, so I could buy what I wanted. And meeting the right girls is a big part of having money. I found several good ones.

One of these I got to know through an accident, something I happened to see as I was getting off a bus at Souq el Bqar. A girl from my neighborhood was walking past. When she got a little further up the street, I saw a young Italian who lived in the quarter step in front of her. She tried to walk past him, but he would not let her. Then she began to yell at him, and he slapped her. That made me feel like having a fight. A Nazarene does not have the right to hit a Moslem girl.

I went over to them. What’s the matter with you? The girl’s just walking down the street, and you come and slap her?

He was tall and heavy, and so he thought he could swear at me. I brought my knee up to his groin, hard. When he doubled over I grabbed his ears and butted him in the face. He lay on the sidewalk and I kicked his head.

I had seen the girl many times in the quarter, but I did not know her name. She turned to me. Get out of here fast, she said. His father’s a police inspector.

Two friends of mine who had been watching began to run toward my house with me. They helped me pack some clothes in a bag. Then the three of us set out, carrying blankets and sheepskins

and pans for cooking. At the food of the Old Mountain Mjidou and Hassan went into the baqal and bought food supplies and candles. I kept walking toward Merkala Beach, and they caught up with me. Then we went westward along the coast. We passed through Agla and kept going in the direction of the cape. Finally we came to a cave in the rocks above the sea.

First we gave the cave a thorough cleaning. We got sand and covered the floor with it. Then we set the large cartons on the sand and spread out the sheepskins. I daubed some tar around the walls of the cave, to keep out insects and snakes. And we sat down and rested.

I’ve got my fishing gear with me, I said. I can live on fish if I have to. Anyway, this is where I’m going to stay.

You can count on us, they said. We’ll bring you whatever you need.

After a while Hassan went back to the city. Mjidou spent the night with me there in the cave. In the morning after we had eaten I gave him the keys to my house and some money.

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