A Cold Touch of Ice. Michael Pearce

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ on to one elbow.

      ‘Why,’ he said, ‘it’s Mustapha, the ice man!’

      ‘Selim, let me through!’

      ‘Certainly,’ said Selim. ‘We could do with some ice.’

      The ice man and his donkey pushed through the crowd.

      ‘Selim,’ said the ice man hesitantly, ‘the fact is, I’ve run out of ice. I am just going back to the ice house for some more.’

      ‘Then you’re no good to us,’ said Selim, lying down again. ‘You’d better stay there.’

      ‘Selim, the ice house is just round the corner –’

      ‘You’d never get through.’

      ‘I could send Amina.’

      ‘Amina?’ said Selim, levering himself up. ‘Who’s Amina?’

      The ice man pushed a small girl forward. She was about twelve or thirteen, dressed in rags and had arms and legs like matchsticks.

      ‘All right,’ said Selim, ‘she can go and fetch us some ice.’

      ‘Sod off!’ said the girl.

      ‘What?’ said Selim, astonished.

      ‘Sod off!’ said the girl defiantly.

      ‘You’d better watch out,’ said Selim, ‘or I’ll put you across my knee!’

      ‘You’d have to catch me first,’ said the girl.

      Selim began to stand up.

      ‘You leave our Amina alone!’ came a warning cry from among the porters.

      There were other cries from among the crowd of blocked bystanders. The girl seemed to have a following.

      Selim, who although robust in his approach to mankind wasn’t stupid, changed tack.

      ‘Amina, my darling,’ he said. ‘Light of my eyes. Pearl of the deep seas. Rose of roses. You are like the smell of jasmine, the taste of honey –’

      ‘Go on,’ said the girl.

      ‘Your breasts are like the breasts of doves. Or will be,’ said Selim, who on things like this was inclined to be accurate.

      ‘Go on.’

      ‘Your smile is like the sunrise breaking across the water, your words like the fall of distant fountains –’

      ‘All right,’ said the girl, ‘I’ll get some.’

      ‘I like a girl of spirit,’ said Selim, watching her go.

      ‘You like any girl,’ said Owen. ‘Now come on, get the street unblocked!’

      ‘Get back to work!’ cried the Signora.

      ‘Yes, that’s right,’ said the foreman. ‘Get a move on with these carts. We haven’t got all day.’

      Owen had arranged to meet Mahmoud afterwards but when he turned into the street where Mahmoud lived, he stopped, stunned.

      The street had been transformed. A great yellow-and-red-striped awning covered the entire street. Palm trees in pots had suddenly sprouted along both sides. At one end men were working on a dais, above which a massive yellow silk canopy curled down; and other men were laying a red-and-blue carpet directly across the street itself.

      Further down the street he saw Mahmoud talking to some of the workmen. Mahmoud suddenly noticed him and came hurrying towards him.

      ‘What’s all this?’

      Mahmoud looked embarrassed.

      ‘It’s the wedding,’ he said.

      ‘Already? But, surely –’

      ‘It’s going to be next week,’ said Mahmoud. ‘It has to be,’ he said soberly. ‘Aisha’s mother has cancer. She wants to see her daughter safely married. So everything’s been brought forward. He touched Owen pleadingly on the arm. ‘You will come?’

      ‘Of course.’

      ‘There are no male relatives, you see.’

      ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be there.’

      They walked down the street together. At every four paces Mahmoud stopped to shake someone’s hand and exchange embraces. People even came out of their houses. Owen suddenly realized. He was in Mahmoud heartland. Mahmoud was the local boy made good.

      A shopkeeper hurried out of his shop and came towards them. Owen recognized him. It was Hamdan, one of Sidi Morelli’s domino-playing friends. He embraced Mahmoud and shook Owen’s hand warmly.

      ‘What do you think of this?’ he asked, waving at the carpets. Another one was appearing now, behind the dais, hanging down upright from poles across the top of the tent.

      Mahmoud flinched.

      The shopkeeper laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, Mahmoud,’ he said. ‘It’ll soon be over.’

      He insisted that they come into his shop for coffee. It was a grocer’s shop, smelling of spices and raisins and the rich kinds of soaps that Egyptians loved. At the back of the shop was a low counter, on which they all sat. Hamdan clapped his hands and an assistant brought coffee in brass, thimble-like cups.

      ‘It is good to see you here, Mahmoud. Although I suppose it is not to see the wedding arrangements that you have come.’

      ‘No,’ said Mahmoud.

      The shopkeeper sighed.

      ‘It is four days now,’ he said, ‘and I still can’t get used to it. We meet every evening as before and set out the dominoes as before: but the gap gets bigger, not smaller.’

      Mahmoud laid his hand on his arm. ‘I know, Hamdan,’ he said sympathetically.

      ‘That someone could do this! For a trifle. A purse, a few coins –’

      ‘It was not for money, Hamdan,’ said Mahmoud quietly. ‘His money was not taken.’

      The shopkeeper stared at him.

      ‘Then why –?’

      ‘I do not know, Hamdan. But perhaps you do.’

      ‘I?’

      ‘You knew Sidi Morelli. He spoke to you. Often.’

      ‘Of course. But –’

      ‘Has he ever spoken to you recently about something that was troubling him?’

      ‘I do not think so.’

СКАЧАТЬ