Karnak Café Read Online Free Page B

Karnak Café
Book: Karnak Café Read Online Free
Author: Naguib Mahfouz
Tags: Fiction, Literary, General, Espionage, Political, Egypt, Coffeehouses, Cairo (Egypt), Egypt - Social Conditions - 1952-1970, Cairo, Coffeehouses - Egypt - Cairo
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about you, but not this time.”
    â€œI wonder what’s behind it all?” asked Muhammad Bahgat.
    â€œThey’re all dangerous young men,” Zayn al-‘Abidin ‘Abdallah chimed in. “Why’s everyone so surprised at what’s happened to them?”
    â€œBut they’re children of this revolution!”
    â€œThere are lots of people opposed to the goals of this revolution who claim to be a part of it,” Zayn al-‘Abidin replied with a laugh. “When I was a boy and was heading for the red-light district, I told people I was going to the mosque.”
    â€œMay God forgive these people,” said Taha al-Gharib. “They certainly know how to scare folk, don’t they?”
    A few days after this conversation had taken place, Qurunfula came over and took a seat beside me. She was looking utterly miserable. “Tell me what it all means,” she asked anxiously.
    I understood full well what she meant, but I pretended not to follow her.
    â€œSomeone around here is passing on secret information!”
    â€œCould well be,” I muttered.
    â€œRubbish!” she yelled. “It’s completely obvious. Everyone’s talking. The question is, who’s passing it all on?”
    I paused for a moment. “You know the place better than I,” I said.
    â€œI have no suspicions about my employees,” she said. “ ‘Arif Sulayman is indebted to me for his very life, and Imam al-Fawwal is a man of faith, so is Gum‘a.…”
    â€œHow about those old men sitting there on the sidelines?”
    With that we stared at each other for quite a while. “No!” she said. “Zayn al-‘Abidin may be a wretch, but he has nothing to do with the authorities. In any case, he’s so corrupt himself, he’s scared to death of them.”
    â€œThere are scores of people who come in here every day,” I pointed out, “but we never pay the slightest attention to them.”
    She sighed. “Nothing in the world is safe any longer.”
    That said, the same grief-laden silence descended on the place again. She went back and sat on her chair, looking like a lifeless statue.
    True enough, things like the ones we were experiencing were happening every day, but the effect is very different when the people to whom it is happening are considered part of the family. We began to be suspicious of everything, even the walls and tables. I was totally amazed at the state in which my homeland now found itself. In spite of all the wrong turns, it was growing in power and prestige, always expanding and getting bigger. It was making goods of all kinds, from needles to rockets, and broadcasting a wonderful new and humane trend in the life of humanity. But what was the point of all that if people were so feeble and downtrodden that they were not worth a fly, if theyhad no personal rights, no honor, no security, and if they were being crushed by cowardice, hypocrisy, and desolation?
    Zayn al-‘Abidin’s nerves suddenly snapped for no apparent reason. “I’m so miserable,” he yelled. “I’m unlucky. I feel wretched. God curse the day I was ever born or came to this damned café!”
    Qurunfula studiously ignored him.
    â€œWhat have I done wrong?” he carried on. “I love you. What’s wrong with that? Why do you bad-mouth me every single day? Don’t you realize that it kills me to see you looking so sad? Why? Don’t spurn my love. Love is not to be spurned. It’s far more exalted and lofty than that. I feel really sorry for you, squandering the rest of your precious life so pitilessly. Why do you refuse to acknowledge that my heart is the only one that really adores you?”
    Now Qurunfula broke her silence. “It would appear,” she said, addressing her comments to the rest of us, “that this man has no desire to respect my grief.”
    â€œMe!” retorted Zayn
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