The Last Cut mz-11

by Michael Pearce

  ‘Nevertheless he is suspected? Well, my friend was right. It is time I came.’

  ‘There are powerful people who speak for him.’

  The old man smiled.

  ‘But not as powerful as the Mamur Zapt.’

  He had come in the time-honoured way to plead for his son. And in the time-honoured way he had gone to the Mamur Zapt, not for justice, for that was the prerogative of the Kadi, but for mercy, because that was the prerogative of power, and for centuries the Mamur Zapt had been the Khedive’s right-hand man, the man, after him, most powerful in the city. Things had, of course, changed; but many in the countryside were not yet aware of this.

  ‘The time for intercession is not yet,’ he said. ‘It may be that there will be no need of it. The Law has still to ask the questions.’

  ‘In the asking,’ said Suleiman’s father, ‘lies danger.’

  ‘The man who asks,’ said Owen, ‘is a man of honour. But perhaps it would be well to find another man of law who can watch over your son and advise him.’

  ‘I have already done that. It is not that. It is-’ he hesitated-‘that the questions could go deep.’

  ‘Why should they go deep?’

  ‘Because these things have roots. There is bad blood between me and the girl’s father.’

  ‘Why should that affect your son?’

  ‘It already has affected him. It was why the girl’s father spurned him. If there had not been bad blood, perhaps none of this would ever have happened. That is why I wonder what I have done.’

  ‘You should not blame yourself. One cannot trace these things to their infinite cause. All these things are past.’

  ‘I wish they were,’ said the old man. ‘I wish they were. It was never my intention-but sometimes these things return upon us.’

  ‘How came it that there was bad blood between you?’

  ‘We came from the same village. We worked fields next to each other. There was a dispute between us over water. I thought I was in the right, he thought he was. We went to a kadi, who ruled in my favour.’

  The old man shrugged.

  ‘Bitter words were said. I was young and hot and enforced the law to the letter. It meant he went without water. He had to leave the village. It was the beginning for me.. Afterwards, I prospered so that now I own more land than the entire village used to hold. But for him, it seems, it was the end-’

  ‘It was as God decreed.’

  ‘But sometimes He works these things out to their infinite end and lets justice fall not on us but on our children. That is what I am afraid of.’

  ‘Who can read God’s pattern?’ said Owen.

  The debate was not going well for the Government. The Minister had found himself unexpectedly under fire. He would certainly get his Supplementary Vote-the Government had an enormous majority in the Assembly-but things were proving stickier than he had expected.

  ‘This is a work of national importance,’ he said indignantly.

  A man rose on the benches opposite.

  ‘No one doubts that,’ he said. ‘It is the cost of the proposals that we are disputing.’

  Since it was unusual for the Opposition to want to reduce the cost of anything-they were normally in favour of increasing it-the Minister was slightly taken aback. He muttered something about technical reasons.

  ‘But that is precisely the point!’ said the man opposite. ‘We are being asked to take these technical arguments on trust. Has an independent opinion been sought?’

  ‘Tenders will be invited in the normal way,’ said the Minister.

  ‘But who has drawn up the specifications?’

  ‘The Department’s own advisers-’

  ‘British. And the contract will go to the British. Has consideration been given to asking independent consultants to draw up the specifications?’

  ‘That would increase the cost.’

  ‘It would probably reduce costs. The Department’s estimates are usually inflated. Why will not the Minister go outside the Department for advice? Outside the country, even? This is a very big contract and firms outside the country will be interested.’

  ‘They will have an opportunity of tendering.’

  ‘But on terms drawn up by the Department’s British advisers. That is what we are objecting to.’

  It was the usual Nationalist tactic. They wanted the British out; and while they certainly didn’t want other countries in, internationalism was a handy stick to beat the Government with.

  ‘Those estimates are pared to the bone!’ whispered Macrae, beside Owen, indignantly. ‘That laddie doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Who is he?’

  ‘Mohammed Jubbara,’ whispered Owen. ‘He’s a big man in the Nationalist Party.’

  The Minister was muttering something about The Time Factor.

  ‘This is an emergency,’ he proclaimed.

  Someone else rose on the benches opposite.

  ‘Hamad el Sid,’ whispered Owen.

  ‘I hope the Government, in its eagerness to do a quick deal with foreign business interests, will think about the effect of its grandiose schemes on the poor.’

  ‘We are always thinking of the poor,’ said the Minister.

  ‘And how to grind them down further, I know,’ said Hamad el Sid.

  The Minister affected shock. He turned to his colleagues on the benches behind him.

  ‘The schemes that Mr el Sid so disparages have increased the production of grain three times; the production of cotton five times; the production of-’

  ‘But at a price,’ interrupted Hamad el Sid, ‘in terms of the health of the poor. Is the Minister aware that the incidence of bilharzia and ankylostoma in the male population of Egypt is now eighty-five per cent? Would he care to put a figure-since he is so keen on figures-on the role of water-borne diseases over the last few years? And relate them to the public works of which he is so proud?’

  It was almost, thought Owen, as if he had been talking to Cairns-Grant. Perhaps he had; or perhaps Cairns-Grant had been talking to him.

  Macrae shifted restlessly.

  ‘Aye,’ he said, ‘but-’

  The Nationalists shifted back again.

  Was it true, a third man wanted to know-

  ‘Al-Faqih Mas’udi,’ whispered Owen.

  ‘-that the proposed new regulator will take up a substantial part of the remarkable gardens at the barrage. Gardens which were a source of pride and pleasure to so many ordinary citizens of Cairo-’

  And so it went on. At one point Owen took Macrae and Ferguson out for a cup of coffee. In the corridor he saw Labiba Latifa. She waved a hand to him.

  ‘We’re having a meeting. Care to join us?’ she said.

  ‘Thanks. I’ve got my own,’ said Owen.

  Back in the Chamber, Members were debating the effects of the Aswan Barrage on the Temple at Philae.

  ‘What has this got to do with replacing the Manufiya Regulator?’ pleaded the Minister despairingly.

  At last it was over and the Supplementary Vote, despite the Minister’s travails, agreed. Macrae and Ferguson were jubilant. ‘That means we can get on with it?’

  ‘Heavens, no!’ said Owen. ‘Now it has to go to London.’

  ‘But-but-that will take years!’

  ‘Aye,’ said Owen.

  A door opened and out popped Zeinab.

  Owen was astounded. She had hitherto shown absolutely no interest in the workings of parliamentary democracy. Power was one thing and she was interested in that, but parliamentary democracy, especially in Egypt, quite another. She was a true daughter of her father. Nuri Pasha had once been a Minister; indeed, had hopes, though they were receding, of being one again. But he knew that this had nothing to do with so unreliable a thing as voting. It was a matter of securing the Khedive’s favour. That, in Zeinab’s view, was what Government was all about.

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘I have been at a meeting.’

  That was another shaker. Women didn’t
go to meetings in Egypt, certainly not at the National Assembly. Even if they were, as Zeinab was, dressed in black from head to foot and heavily veiled. Except that…

  ‘Labiba?’ he said.

  Zeinab nodded.

  ‘Circumcision?’

  ‘Certainly not! In the Assembly? They would be shocked!’

  ‘I meant are you talking about circumcision? Is that the subject of the meeting?’

  ‘They would still be shocked. No, health. Sub-heading (very small letters): women’s health. That gets rid of the old dodderers, who would otherwise come to hear how their heart was getting on. It does, admittedly, attract some rather strange men, but Labiba is firm with them.’

  ‘Is she chairing?’

  ‘No, that Scotsman is. You know, the one who cuts you up.’

  ‘Cairns-Grant?’

  ‘Probably. He has a workman’s hands. But then he would.’

  ‘How’s the meeting going?’

  ‘It’s coming to an end soon. I thought I would leave early as the man next to me is getting too excited.’

  ‘I don’t blame him,’ said Owen, glancing along the corridor. No one was coming. He put his arm round her.

  ‘Not here!’ said Zeinab, alarmed.

  The door of the committee room opened again and they quietly disengaged. Out came Mohammed Jubbara, Hamad el Sid and al-Faqih Mas’udi. Owen wasn’t sure whether they had seen. Behind them, close behind, was Suleiman. His eyes were burning.

  Mas’udi stopped.

  ‘Can I get you an arabeah?’ he said to Zeinab.

  ‘No thank you. I have a word or two I want to say to the Mamur Zapt,’ she replied sweetly.

  Mas’udi gave him a startled look.

  Back at her apartment Zeinab did, indeed, have a word or two to say.

  ‘You have an unhealthy mind,’ she concluded severely, ‘in an over-healthy body.’

  Out at the barrage little clumps of papyrus were spiralling in the sun. When they neared the barrage they wavered for a moment uncertainly and then accelerated in towards the piers. Just before they reached them, they were sucked downwards and lost in the grating.

  In the shallows of the river’s edge two men were loading building water-skins on to a donkey. When they had finished, they led it up on to the bank. One of them put a large hamperlike wicker basket on top of the water-skins and then perched himself above that. The other man gave the donkey a thwack on the flank.

  The noise startled the doves in the palms and they fluttered agitatedly. They were all right, thought Owen. It was the ones in the basket that needed to worry.

  He followed the donkey up into the Gardens. There were fewer people there than on his previous visits; or perhaps it was that, with the sun now almost directly overhead, they had retreated into the shade.

  Over towards the regulator, Ferguson was ominously busy with white tape and a measuring rod. He waved to Owen as he went past.

  The workmen, as Owen had hoped, were having lunch. He squatted down beside them at the tray.

  ‘You here again?’

  ‘Babikr asked me to send you greetings.’

  The men received them in silence. Although Owen had embroidered a little when he was talking to Babikr, he had probably reflected their feelings.

  ‘He asked me to tell you he had sworn an oath.’

  The men looked up.

  An oath, was it?’

  It did not excuse, but did explain.

  ‘Yes. He said he was beholden.’

  ‘Ah!’

  They went back to their eating.

  ‘I think better of him,’ said Owen, ‘but still I am worried.’

  He knew they were listening.

  ‘Why is that?’ one of them said.

  ‘Well, what sort of oath is it that dare not declare itself?’

  ‘A bad oath,’ someone said.

  ‘That is exactly what I thought. And then I thought: where does a bad oath stop?’

  ‘It’s stopped so far as Babikr is concerned,’ said someone.

  ‘For the moment. But where does the man who exacted the oath want it to stop? Why cannot he come forward and tell us the extent of the oath?’

  ‘If it was a bad oath, perhaps he is afraid,’ volunteered someone.

  ‘That is what leaves me afraid,’ said Owen. ‘And so I ask: to whom has he sworn the oath? Is there one of you who could tell me?’

  They shook their heads. That did not surprise Owen. Nor did it trouble him. No one would wish to do it openly, but they might well come later in private, whether as an individual or after the group had consulted among itself. As they had done before.

  ‘You see,’ he said, ‘if it has not stopped, further harm could befall. To Babikr. To us all.’

  (T«5S’t?)

  ‘Yes,’ said Georgiades, ‘but you’ve never given me flowers.’

  ‘You don’t look like a flower person to me,’ said the gardener, inspecting him critically.

  ‘I’ve got a wife, haven’t I?’

  The two had become great buddies. They were sitting on the edge of a gadwal drinking the gardener’s tea, which, with Eastern hospitality, he had also offered to Owen.

  ‘Perhaps I will give you flowers,’ said the gardener, relenting.

  ‘You gave some to Babikr,’ Georgiades pointed out.

  ‘Not to Babikr; for Babikr. For him to give to another.’

  Ah, there’s a woman in it, is there? And not his wife. For his wife stays in the village.’ Georgiades shook his head sorrowfully. ‘That a man like you should encourage vice!’

  ‘I did not encourage vice,’ said the gardener, stung. ‘I merely gave him some flowers. For which he paid me ten milliemes.’

  ‘Without knowing who they were going to? They might have been going to the Lizard Man for all you know!’

  ‘They were not going to the Lizard Man!’

  Are you sure? I wouldn’t rule it out. Babikr was a friend of the Lizard Man, wasn’t he?’

  ‘He had other friends as well.’

  ‘Up here in the city?’

  ‘Look,’ said the gardener, ‘I know who the flowers were for and it wasn’t the Lizard Man!’

  ‘Whisper it to me,’ challenged Georgiades, ‘and I’ll believe you.’

  The gardener opened his mouth.

  Then closed it again.

  Firmly.

  ‘If I tell you,’ he said, ‘the Lizard Man might hear me!’

  Chapter 8

  One of the sights of Cairo was the water-carts. Every morning and sometimes at other points during the day they would go through the streets dampening down the dust. There was a tank at the back of the cart from which the water would spray out in little fountains. Urchins would dart in and out under the jets and after the cart had passed there would be a brief moment when the air was full of the seaside smell of water on hot sand. Cairenes loved that moment. They would come out into the doorways and sniff the air like dogs.

  There was a water-cart ahead of Owen now. But it was not spraying the streets. It was standing at a corner and a group of water-carriers were filling their bags from the tank.

  ‘They won’t want to do that next week,’ Owen said to the driver as he passed. ‘Not when there’s water in the canal. What will you do then?’

  ‘Old man Fayoum will just move it further into the Gamaliya,’ said one of the water-carriers.

  ‘Ah, it belongs to Omar Fayoum?’

  ‘It certainly does. And they say he’s going to get another like it soon.’

  ‘He must be doing well, then.’

  ‘Never done better, he says. The last few months especially. Though I don’t know how that could be. It’s the same water, isn’t it? And it takes the same time to carry.’

  ‘Ah, but does it?’ said the man next to him, stooping to pick up his skins.

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Owen.

  ‘Well, they do say he’s found another place where he can get it.’

  ‘That’s a lot of nonsense!�
�� said someone standing on the other side of the cart. Owen couldn’t see him clearly but thought it might be Ahmed Uthman, the husband of the woman who had taken Leila in.

  ‘It’s all got to come from the river, hasn’t it?’ said a man beside him. Owen could see him. It was Leila’s father.

  ‘Well, that’s more than we know,’ said the water-carrier who had first spoken.

  ‘You don’t know very much, then!’ retorted Ahmed Uthman.

  ‘What’s the trouble?’ said the driver of the cart. ‘Don’t you like our water?’

  ‘I like the water. It’s the price I don’t like.’

  ‘Well, you don’t have to pay it, then, do you?’ said the driver. ‘Tell him, Ahmed!’

  ‘Why don’t you just bugger off?’ said Ahmed Uthman, coming round the side of the cart.

  ‘Yes,’ said Leila’s father, joining him. ‘Why don’t you?’

  ‘Here, what’s going on?’

  ‘You don’t like the water? You don’t have to have it, then!’

  ‘Well, I won’t! Not if it’s like that!’

  ‘We won’t need to, will we? Not after the Cut!’ said his friend, supporting him.

  ‘We don’t like your water, either,’ said Leila’s father. ‘Wherever it comes from. We don’t want to see it in the Gamaliya!’

  ‘I take my water where I like!’

  ‘Oh, do you? Well, in that case-’

  He moved forward threateningly.

  Suddenly, he saw Owen.

  Ahmed, it’s him!’ he said.

  ‘Him!’

  Ahmed Uthman recovered first.

  ‘Get out of here!’ he shouted to the driver. ‘Quick!’

  The driver seized his whip. Ahmed Uthman and Leila’s father threw their bags into the cart and leaped up after them. The cart shot away.

  ‘You watch out!’ shouted Leila’s father to the two water-car-riers as they lurched away.

  ‘We’ll be looking out for you!’ called Ahmed Uthman.

  The two water-carriers stood there for a moment, dazed. ‘What’s all this about?’

  ‘I don’t know. Why do they have to be like that?’

  Ahmed Uthman’s always like that. But what’s got into Ali Khedri?’

  ‘It’s his daughter, I suppose.’