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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 July 1999 Issue No. 438 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 July 1999 Issue No. 438
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Night watch
By Fayza Hassan
Recently, I was lazily thinking about the various purchases and payments of the week when it suddenly occurred to me that I may have spent part of the money I was saving for my ticket to the States. I jumped up, emptied my safe, threw the contents on my bed, and began to count carefully. I was quite pleased to find out that I could still afford the trip, but as I was locking up my fortune, I saw through the open window a shadow outlined fleetingly on the neighbouring building. I was slightly shaken by the idea that someone may have been spying on me, but not afraid enough to wake up my daughter and her husband, sleeping in the next-door apartment.
Quite awake now, I sat in bed watching television. If someone saw me and was coming for the money, he would start by cutting the power, I reasoned, since he now knew the location of the safe. He would therefore have no trouble finding his way in the darkness, whereas I would be at a notable disadvantage. As if on cue, the lights suddenly went out. I sprang up, electrified with terror, and grabbed the telephone next to my bed, remembering at the same instant that those cute little cordless affairs don't work without power. The room was pitch dark. I found my lighter and, after several unsuccessful attempts, managed to light a candle, nearly setting fire to the curtains in the process. There was a regular tapping noise coming from the garden below, which I identified at once as originating from washing hung out to dry without being spin-dried first. This, at least, was reassuring, indicating that someone in the building was still awake. If I screamed, they would hear me and come to the rescue.
Still convinced of the imminent arrival of the intruder, however, I proceeded to prepare myself to receive him: I would use the element of surprise to my advantage. When his head appeared at the window, I would be waiting for him, and attack before he knew what hit him. First, I needed some weapon to perform this task successfully. I did not dare venture outside my bedroom and searched around in vain for a while, until I spotted the faint gleam of the weighty brass coaster on my bedside table. That should do, I told myself, regretting that I had never taken karate lessons. Holding the coaster firmly in my hand, I tried to engage in a lively conversation with our old cat asleep at the foot of my bed, using different intonations to give the illusion of a dialogue. I had to stop after uttering a couple of foolish sentences because all that came out was a stifled croak. My voice did not even stir the cat, which alerted me to the fact that I may not be able to scream when the time came.
I kept looking at the window, imagining a flickering light every now and then. The plastic bag in which my suit had come from the dry-cleaners was still hanging from the handle, rustling in the breeze. That gave me an idea: as soon as I saw hands on the window sill, I would set the plastic on fire. I still had the lighter in my hand. I checked it several times; it was in perfect order. Doubts assailed me once more, however. I had not been exercising and was rather out of shape. Would I be able to leap to the window, set fire to the bag and hit the man on the head at the same time? I am good with my left hand, so I would use it for the hitting. I clutched the lighter in my right fist and began practicing, first standing by the door in case a desperate retreat became imperative, in the course of which I would unfortunately have to abandon the thief, the safe and the old cat to their own devices; then, gathering courage, I added some light leg work as I advanced prudently towards the window. By this time, I was feeling good enough to seriously consider the possibility of throwing the coaster at the intruder like a discus, thus cutting short his course, when the lights came back on. ACs began humming with a vengeance, the TV blared out, and I shrieked loudly enough to be heard throughout the building. Nothing happened. The whole neighbourhood was dead silent.
I must have fallen asleep soon after, with the TV still on. In the morning, my daughter mentioned that she had needed money and had opened the safe without waking me. "You ought to be careful," she said, "a thief could come into your room and take everything you have. You would sleep right through it."
