The Thief & the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz

Author:Naguib Mahfouz [Mahfouz, Naguib]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: nepalifiction, TPB
Published: 2011-10-17T20:15:29+00:00

NINE

God, it’s dark! I’d be better off as a bat. Why is that smell of hot fat seeping out from under some door at this hour of night? When will Nur be back? Will she come alone? And can I stay in her flat long enough to be forgotten? You might perhaps be thinking you’ve got rid of me forever now, Rauf! But with this revolver, if I have any luck, I can do wonderful things. With this revolver I can awake those who are asleep. They’re the root of the trouble: They’re the ones who’ve made creatures like Nabawiyya, Ilish and Rauf Ilwan possible.

Something sounded like footsteps climbing the stairs. When he was sure he heard someone coming, he crouched and looked down through the banisters. A faint light was moving slowly along the wall. The light of a match, he thought. The footsteps came higher, heavy and slow. To let her know he was there and to avoid surprising her, he cleared his throat with a loud rasp.

“Who is it?” she said apprehensively.

Said leaned his head out between the banisters as far as he could and replied in a whisper, “Said Mahran.”

She ran the rest of the way up and stopped in front of him out of breath. The match was almost dead.

“It’s you!” she said, breathless and happy, seizing his arm. “I’m sorry. Have you been waiting long?”

Opening the door to the flat, she led him in by the arm, switched on the light in a bare rectangular hall, then drew him into a reception room, square and somewhat larger, where she rushed to the window and flung it open wide to release the stifling air.

“It was midnight when I got here,” he said, flinging himself down on one of two sofas, that stood face to face. “I’ve waited for ages.”

She sat down opposite, moving a pile of scraps of cloth and dress cuttings. “You know what?” she said, “I’d given up hope. I didn’t think you’d really come.”

Their tired eyes met. “Even after my definite promise?” he said, hiding his frozen feelings with a smile. She smiled back faintly, without answering. Then she said, “Yesterday they kept questioning me at the police station over and over. They nearly killed me.

Where’s the car?”

“I thought I’d better dump it somewhere, even though I need it.” He took off his jacket and tossed it down on the sofa next to him. His brown shirt was caked with sweat and dust: “They’ll find it and give it back to its owner, as you’d expect of a government that favors some thieves more than others.”

“What did you do with it yesterday?”

“Nothing whatever, in fact. Anyway, you’ll know everything at the proper time.” He gazed at the open window, took a deep breath, and said, “It must face north. Really fresh air.”

“It’s open country from here to Bab al Noor. All around here is the cemetery.”

“That’s why the air isn’t polluted,” he said with a grin. She’s looking at you as if she could eat you up, but you only feel bored, annoyed.

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