by Wendy Beach
it’s in bad shape. At the moment I’ve been in hospital for a couple of days.
AMINA: What’s wrong with you?
KHALIL: See here and here … and here. They had to cut the cancers out.
AMINA: Oh.
KHALIL: I have medicine. Tramadol is great for the pain. Oxycodone too, but makes me hallucinate.
AMINA: Do you still have cancer?
KHALIL: Doctor says I’m doing well, just got to make 5 years.
AMINA: Then why are you, I mean, why is your body at the hospital?
KHALIL: Ran out of pain killers. Knew they’d give me some more morphine.
AMINA: But, if you’re better then you wouldn’t need painkillers.
KHALIL: Life’s better with a shot of morphine or a snort of coke or a….see this lump on my head?
AMINA: It's a pimple.
KHALIL: It's the cancer coming back.
AMINA: It's a pimple!
KHALIL: You sound like my doctor.
AMINA: Khalil!
ABU WALID: You keep calling for that stupid boy, but he’s not here.
AMINA: He is!
ABU WALID: Have some shame!
AMINA: It’s Khalil, the painter’s son, don’t you remember him?
ABU WALID: I know who Khalil is… he’s the son of a gambler and a whore.
AMINA: Father!
KHALIL: It’s fine, Mina, he’s entitled to his opinion - just like everyone else: man, woman and child.
AMINA: You’re not upset?
ABU WALID: I’m upset!
KHALIL: Nup, my mother was a bit of a slut in her younger days and good on her
for it!
AMINA: Khalil!
KHALIL: What? It’s all good. Never know, your old man might be my father … maybe you’re really my sister! How’s that! I always wanted a little sister.
ABU WALID: It’s just you and I, daughter.
AMINA: He’s here Father - even if you don’t like him.
ABU WALID: You’re crazy!
AMINA: and … and you’re entitled to your opinion.
ABU WALID: That ‘a girl!
AMINA: Do you feel pain here, outside your body?
KHALIL: No, and I’ve seen enough of death’s work so I left it…
AMINA: Doesn’t that mean you’ve died?
KHALIL: Nah, I’m shackled to the world by a silver thread. It keeps pulling me back. I imagine that the grave has a similar thing.
AMINA: The life of the world is too short.
KHALIL: The life of that world.
AMINA: Where does your spirit go, when you leave your body?
KHALIL: At first I walked around in the land of the living but they couldn’t see me and they were busy at their daily lives.
AMINA: And then?
KHALIL: Then I found the gates.
AMINA: What gates?
KHALIL: Gates to the cities of the dead. There is at least one in each cemetery and there’s tunnels running between ‘em all. There’s a tunnel running up to the cemetery near here.
AMINA: A tunnel!
ABU WALID: We can’t risk tunnelling; it might bring the roof down on us. We have to wait.
KHALIL: The men who died as slaves digging tunnels in the Pharaohs’ tombs, well they were kind of pissed off about it. So they just kept digging. Figured everyone had a right to an afterlife!
AMINA: Even in death they’re slaves?
KHALIL: Nah, they’re master craftsmen! You should see their work, perfectly carved tunnels and spiral stairwells sliced into cavernous rooms. Oh and once they met the Greeks, then they added aqua-ducts and lakes filled with pure water from underground springs. It’s truly magnificent. They’ve even managed to get light into most places.
AMINA: Oh God, we are the dead and forgotten.
ABU WALID: Amina!
KHALIL: I’m so sick of selfish people putting themselves first all the time! Why don’t you just let her go Abu Walid?
AMINA: He can’t hear you.
KHALIL: Number one! It’s the cause of most human suffering.
AMINA: Leave him Khalil, he’s wounded.
KHALIL: Okay Mina, for you… Hey do you remember when we used to meet up in the market place? We’d hide down in the alleyway behind the toy store … I never could have imagined losing you back then.
AMINA: You’d always bring ice-cream and I’d wish we could walk down by the sea, but people would have seen us and told my father.
ABU WALID: I did hear about it.
AMINA: Did you, Father?
ABU WALID: Together in public, like an engaged couple!
AMINA: You didn’t say anything.
ABU WALID: I don’t have to say anything!
AMINA: Who told you?
ABU WALID: Some of the men came to talk to me while you were at school.
AMINA: Oh!
ABU WALID: What did you think I would do Amina, push you off a balcony like my father did to my sister?
AMINA: It was only ice-cream.
ABU WALID: They were going to shoot Khalil. But I told them you’re just a girl and I wasn’t feeling well so I paid him to take you down to the toy store to buy a gift for your niece’s birthday.
AMINA: And they believed you?
ABU WALID: I made myself look like a fool because of your childishness! And Khalil, he should have known better!
AMINA: We’re in love.
ABU WALID: They told me, “She’s not a child anymore, you should be more careful with your daughter.” So I said I’d send you to live with your uncle and aunty in the village.
AMINA: I’m sorry, Father.
KHALIL: Were you planning on marrying her off to one of her cousins?
ABU WALID: I don’t know what possessed you to behave like that.
AMINA: I love the drive through the cedars on the way up to the village.
KHALIL: I would have found you eventually.
AMINA: …I wonder if the geraniums are still alive on our balcony.
ABU WALID: We can get more cuttings.
KHALIL: Did you know that if you cut a branch from a plant and throw it away, it’ll still grow new leaves for up to a month on its stored energy?
AMINA: I didn’t.
KHALIL: Even as it decays and dies, small green leaves can be seen growing at the tips… That’s where I’m at.
AMINA: You need to look after yourself.
KHALIL: The other day I found a dead kitten in the gutter. It’d been hit by a car and covered in blood. A child passed by it on his way home from school. He asked, “Mum, why does that kitten have blood on it.” She couldn’t answer him but she pulled him quickly away. I felt for the other children on their way home so I walked over to the kitten and scooped it up. As I looked at it, I wondered… do animals have that stored energy too?
AMINA: Like in the leaves?
KHALIL: Yeah, like that. So I placed it into my shirt and closed my jacket.
AMINA: Couldn’t you just carry it over your shoulder or something?
KHALIL: People might get angry over a bloodied kitten.
AMINA: They must really love their animals in Australia!
KHALIL: I travelled on two trains to the cemetery. It was almost closing time and the place was deserted. There I dug out a small bit of a grave and put the kitten in. I called out to the grave owner that I’d come get it later.
AMINA: Did you go back?
KHALIL: It wasn’t long after that, I’d had a hit. Injected it that time. And I found myself floating again. So I walked through the gates and down to his plot. And there she was playing with his hand … of course he wouldn’t part with her!
AMINA: She was keeping him company.
KHALIL: It made me realise… You can take it with you when you’re gone!
AMINA: I guess you’ll need to find another one.
KHALIL: Too easy, the Egyptians took heaps of cats to the underworld, and they come gift wrapped!
AMINA: Mummified!
KHALIL: It’s pot luck but once the wrappings open, yeah, they spring to life. I’ve traded quite a few of them, filled my plot up with some very nice things… What do you say Mina, are you coming with me?
AMINA: Only if my dad comes too.
KHALIL: Well first let’s see if I can get you to out of here. I’ve never taken someone out of their area before.
AMINA: Can people leave their graves? You know, to wander.
KHALIL: I don’t think so, at least, not the ones who’ve had a proper burial. That’s why I want you to come with me now. Once I pass over, my family will bury me in my plot and that may be the end of my travels.
AMINA: Yes, Khalil. I’ll come.
KHALIL: I love you, Mina.
AMINA: I love you too… Father… I’m going, Father…
[The sound of bullets firing in the distance]
ABU WALID: Oh God! If I wasn’t injured!
AMINA: We’ll be back soon.
ABU WALID: Don’t start crawling the walls again.
AMINA: I’m going with Khalil. I promise we’ll come back.
ABU WALID: I can’t bear to watch you scraping your nails off on the cement!
[Sounds of shooting increases]
AMINA: They’re coming back… those men with guns. Why? … Why can’t they just leave us alone? They know us. They lived beside us as our friends for years!
KHALIL: Blame it on the fish!
AMINA: What?
KHALIL: It’s like…Sometimes people try a fish like, say, a barramundi. They like it so much, yum, that’s it for them. They’re only ever going to eat barramundi cuz it’s the best fish there is. Then someone else does the same thing with, say uh, a tuna.
AMINA: I’m frightened and you’re talking about fish!
ABU WALID: Shh.
KHALIL: Next thing you know they’re all beating each other to death over whose fish tastes the best.
AMINA: …Perhaps no one should eat fish.
ABU WALID: Be quiet!
KHALIL: The underworld is full of fallen men fighting unwinnable wars! … We can escape if we’re quick! Let’s go.
AMINA: I’m not going out there now!
KHALIL: They’re trapped; it’s a kind of time loop. I’ve seen it
