The girl’s eyes grew even sadder; they looked misty with tears. Did she suspect that he wanted to save her, to tear her away from her monstrous mother? She seemed to be waiting for a sign from Heykal to get up and follow him. But he knew it was all a fantasy. He’d never give in to the wild desire that took hold of him whenever he saw a child of his own kind in the company of unworthy parents. He smiled regretfully at the little girl. And — extraordinary thing — she seemed to understand, for she bowed her head slightly, looking sweeter yet. Heykal’s heart fluttered, and he closed his eyes to savor her innocence and her divine understanding.
Suddenly Soad was standing in front of him. Heykal didn’t recognize her right away; she’d changed. She was wearing her hair in a high bun; her eyes were blackened with kohl and she’d put on lipstick. She carried herself like a lady, and there was an unexpected hardness about her features — quite a disguise. Heykal noticed something even more surprising: the girl was wearing expensive earrings with large precious stones. He didn’t comment, as she clearly expected him to do.
She sat across from him and, for a moment, she staged a grotesque scene, like someone in a silly mask making wild faces in order to be recognized. But Heykal maintained a detached, almost cold attitude; he seemed altogether unaware of her transformation. Vexed by this lack of curiosity, she glanced around in the hopes of exciting some public admiration, only to be disappointed by the lack of customers; she turned back to the young man. She could no longer resist asking:
“How do I look?”
“Superb!” Heykal responded. “You remind me of my grandmother!”
She pouted like a sulky little girl, a look that didn’t suit her new brand of beauty at all — she could tell right away from Heykal’s icy glance. She had just voluntarily crossed the border that separated her from childhood; from now on, she would no longer be able to move him. She was a woman now, and she knew how well he was defended against the ploys and the duplicity of her sex.
She stopped pouting and said in the tone of a poised and very confident young woman:
“Be nice to me. I have some fantastic news for you.”
“Tell me. I’m listening.”
“It happened today. The governor came to see my father, and they had a terrible fight. I heard everything. The governor still can’t believe that my father has nothing to do with that business about the statue; he blames him for the situation.”
“He has good reason to be furious,” said Heykal. “You can’t hold that against him.”
“He has an even better reason to be furious — though you don’t know it: the governor has at most a week left. The prime minister summoned him and demanded his resignation. Happy?”
Heykal pondered the news. He was surprised that he didn’t really feel any joy. It was more like a sense of emptiness now that the governor was gone — as if someone had taken away his toy, a special toy that only he knew how to play with and only he could really enjoy. For a while the governor had been the bottomless source of his every earthly delight. His salvation! He was the sap that made Heykal’s critical spirit grow and thrive. Heykal dreaded that he would be replaced by some mid-level bureaucrat, a petty tyrant without any aspirations, lacking even the absurd fantasies of his predecessor; the banality of tyrants was even more disheartening than their crimes. A period of mediocrity and boredom — that’s where things were headed — one lousy choice among the various candidates for governor and it would all be over. Heykal groaned inwardly to think that his future pastimes hung by a thread of chance. But there it was.
Soad looked at him with enormous eyes; she was expecting a triumphant outburst. She couldn’t understand his silence.
“Why don’t you say something?”
“Well, that’s an exceptional piece of news. I’m sorry. You deserve a reward.”
He reached across the table, took her hand, and gave it a polite kiss. That was when he saw the giant topaz ring on her finger — an extraordinary jewel that leaped out at him like a flash of light in darkness. But he betrayed no surprise as he set the young woman’s hand down on the table. The ring was like a living thing, and Soad gazed at it with hideous delight. Without turning her head from the brilliant stone she murmured:
“Aren’t you surprised to see me with this ring?”
“Why surprised?”
“Oh, I know! Nothing surprises you! You don’t care about me. But I’m so unhappy!”
“Unhappy? With all that jewelry?”
“I haven’t told you everything. In this thing with the governor — I’m the real victim.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, my father acted suspicious about that check. He must have inquired about it at the newspaper you sent it to. He didn’t say anything to me about it, not explicitly at least, but he keeps going on about how badly I’ve treated him.”
“And that’s why you’re unhappy?”
“No, but now he wants to get rid of me. He demands that I get married. Now that’s a terrible punishment, you have to agree.”
“But what does the jewelry have to do with it?”
“Well, I didn’t compromise. I told him I didn’t want to get married. He started off by threatening terrible things, and then to bring me around, he gave me all the jewelry that after my mother died had been locked away to give to me when I was older. But it was time, he’d decided, for me to look like a marriageable woman; he wants his future son-in-law to appreciate the fortune that I’ll bring.”
“He’s quite right. He understands the kind of man he’s dealing with. You should rest easy: you’ll find a husband before you know it.”
“So you aren’t sorry for me?”
“Don’t play the victim. You’re perfectly happy to get married.”
“What choice do I have, since you don’t want me?”
“I don’t like jewelry,” said Heykal, in a cutting voice.
And so the idyll had reached its end — the most ridiculous end imaginable. Heykal hadn’t had any expectations, and he felt no disappointment. Everything was falling into place. A few jewels, and the love-struck little girl was gone, leaving nothing but a woman with an attachment to comfort and money, to the security that comes from material possessions. All of a sudden she’d given up doing things for fun and had gone back to her rotten world. The truth was, her only way forward was through trickery. Trickery was her element; she’d been born to it. And that was how she would succeed in employing her talents, assuaging her thirst for possessions, and triumphing again and again over men.
Heykal would have liked to shed a few tears for this girl whom he’d been so close to and who was now about to disappear from his life, but his eyes remained dry. The pain was good, almost like joy. He felt that he’d been reborn, free and clear, with all his restored richness intact. He looked over at the other little girl — the one who still hated her mother — searching her face for a trace of that innocent spontaneity that had been taken from him. She’d finished her ice cream and was sitting with her elbows on the table, one hand under her cheek, a brooding expression on her face. Heykal thought she was sulking, and he smiled at the thought that already she was jealous.
“But how can I?” whimpered Soad. “How can I even talk to another man, now that I’ve known you! I mean, not only because I love you but because I’ll be bored to death. You’re the only man who doesn’t disgust me!”
He knew that it wasn’t true, that she’d adapt easily to the ugly world she was returning to. The ugliness wouldn’t even offend her as it would be hidden under brilliant costumes and masks. Soon all of the people trailing along behind her would seem charming to her; she’d never see the horror behind the smiling faces that her beauty had conquered. Heykal knew all about the puerile vanity of women who’re only bored when the adoration stops. Soad was too beautiful to ever be bored.