Papa Sartre: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Literature) by Ali Bader Page B

a cigarette and blowing the smoke into the air. She was anxiously watching the door when two men from the Egyptian secret service knocked. They asked whether she was Dalal and after she confidently acknowledged her identity, she left with them. The servants and hotel employees watched her being led to a large black Mer-cedes in front of the hotel, that drove off at a high speed.
    Dalal sat before the prosecutor on a comfortable chair. His desk had an inkwell, pencils, and a small case that she recognized as Sami’s. She faced the heavyset interrogator, who asked her boldly but politely about the drugs that Sami had smuggled into Cairo, all the while staring into her beautiful sad eyes. She did not reply. Soon Sami was brought in, and when she saw him, she stood up to hug him. He was quick to inform the police that she had had nothing to do with the drugs and served only as a cover. Dalal looked at him affectionately, but he covered his face with his hands without saying a word.
    After an intensive investigation the prosecutor could not implicate her and was forced to release her. She was sent back to Beirut, and Sami was condemned to two years in an Egyptian prison. Dalal returned to their apartment in Beirut to wait for her lover, and rarely went out. She was attended by a Greek maid whom Sami trusted fully. As she spent the days recalling the sad moments of his arrest and the good times they had spent together, the old maid informed her that it was the first time that he had been caught and that it had happened because he feared for her life. Sami’s willingness to sacrifice himself for her strengthened her love and attachment to him.
    One day she learned from the maid that Sami had returned to Beirut. She waited for him at the apartment, but he did not show up that day or the days following. His friends asked her to be discreetbecause he feared for her life. She became suspicious, especially when she learned that he had traveled to Istanbul for a new deal. She waited for him again, until months later she heard that he had married the French singer Maria Vincent. That was the last she heard of him until one day a friend of his brought her a packet of money with a message from Sami, informing her of his marriage to the French singer and freeing her from any commitment.
    Dalal returned to the same nightclub where she had met Sami and joined a group of belly dancers performing there. She performed with them for some time but was soon fed up with this exhausting job. She couldn’t compete with professional dancers who had trained in the top dance studios and with the best teachers in Beirut and Cairo. She decided to return to Baghdad and, with the money the smuggler had left her, she opened the Grief Adab. It did not take long for her to become well known throughout the city, especially after the philosopher became one of her customers. This connection gave her a reputation as a patron of writers and culture. She had a table permanently reserved for Abd al-Rahman with a sign that read “reserved for the philosopher.”
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    The philosopher was excited by Dalal’s voluptuous red lips, which held her white cigarette tightly. The smoke she was in the habit of blowing in his face smelled of alcohol and her favorite perfume. Knowing her was liberating and tickled him provocatively, especially when her body quivered left and right and she chewed gum. He was very attached to her because of the sense of freedom he felt with her—no jealousy and no moral or social responsibility. With her he was not concerned with values, especially those related to honor. Dalal had the capacity to free him of responsibility, and this freedom was the reason he wasso attached to her. He was well aware that she had known many men before him and that she would know many after him, but she was fair, balanced, and had common sense. In a distorted kind of way, she was philosophical.
    Dalal used to receive an English friend in her room. She claimed he was