Midaq Alley Chapter 27
Chapter 27

Darkness  had  spread  its vault  over the  alley and  deep  silence fallen on its every side. Even Kersha's cafe had closed its doors following the departure of  the patrons-and at this watch of the night, what should pass through  the bakery door if not the shadowy figure of  Zeita  the Cripple-maker, setting  off on his nightly  rounds? The man  passed  along  the  alley  to  Boxmakers Street and  was turning hurriedly to the left heading for  el-Hussein when  he almost collided  with  another shadowy  figure  in the  middle  of  the street.  As the  latter's face  showed  briefly  in  the  dim  light  of  the  stars,  Zeita exclaimed, "Doctor Bushi! Where  are you coming from?" Swiftly and urgently, the doctor  answered him,  "I was on my way to see you." "You've got people who  want  deformities?"
In a whisper, the doctor said, "Better. Uncle Abd el-Hamid el-Talbi
has died."
Zeita's eyes lit up in the gloom as he asked with interest, "When? Is
he buried yet?"
"He  was buried yesterday  evening." "Did you find out where  the grave is?"
"Between the Gate  of  Victory  and  the desert road."
Zeita  took his arm  in his and  moved off with him in the direction from which he had been coming,  asking, to be sure, "You couldn't miss the way in the dark?"
"Certainly not.  As I walked in the funeral procession, I carefully
watched where  we were  going  and  memorized the  landmarks. Any­ way, we both  know the route well and we've traveled  it together in the pitch  dark."

*******

Zeita  approached the grave without hesitation, followed by Bushi with quaking limbs, and  bent  over, feeling for the dirt over the buried steps  that  led  down  to the  grave.  He  found  that  it was still soft and damp and  worked  it carefully  and  slowly with  the  mattock, piling  it between his open  legs and  persisting in the work, which  was not  new to him,  until  he had  uncovered the slabs that  roofed  the steps. Then he hitched up  the  skirts of  his gallabiya, pulled  them  forward into  a tuft of  cloth,  and  kuotted this so as to hold  the  gallabiya  out  of  the way around his waist. Applying himself  to the edge of  the first slab, he  raised  it, straining his muscles,  until  it was standing upright, and then,  with Doctor Bushi's help, started lowering  it to the ground. He did the same with the next. The  gap that  he had  thus opened was big enough for him and his companion to slip through, which  he did, descending the stairs and  murmuring to Doctor Bushi,  "Follow me." The latter  did so unhappily,  his skin crawling. In such situations, it was the doctor's job to sit halfway down  the stairs, light the candle,  and  fix it on the bottom step, after which  he would close his eyes and  bury  his head  between his kuees. He  entered the graves  only  because  he was forced  to do so and  had  often  pleaded with Zeita  to be merciful  and let him off. However,  the other,  who took a secret  delight  in torturing him,  refused  to perform these services for him  uuless he participated in them  every step  of  the way.

The  candle's wick was now lit and  illuminated the  grave.  Zeita cast  an  unflinching look  over  the  stacked,  shrouded corpses  whose parallel rows filled the grave  to its farthest  reaches,  their  order  indi­ cating  the serial  unfolding of  history  and  time,  their  terrible silence speaking of  the  eternal emptiness.  They  raised  no  echo  in  Zeita's breast,  however, and  he quickly turned his gaze away and  fixed it on the new shroud close to the entrance. Squatting down,  he  uncovered with  indifferent hands the  corpse's  head,  pulled  the  lips  back,  and worked  the set of  false teeth  with his hand  until  he had  removed  it, placing it in his pocket with his now polluted fingers. Then he covered the  head  once more  and  turned from  the body  to the door, where he beheld Doctor  Busbi, head between knees, and the candle shining at the bottom of the stairs. Casting him a mocking glance, he muttered con­ temptuously,  "Step  on  it!" Trembling,  Doctor  Bushi  raised  his head, bent down to the candle, took it, blew on it, extinguished it, and ran up the stairs like one pursued.  Zeita ascended  the stairs too, but before he could stick bis head out of the opening, a great cry reached  his ears and he heard Doctor Bushi crying with a kind of howl, "I surrender!" Zeita's feet rooted themselves to the spot. Then  he turned and went back down the stairs, unconscious of  his actions, his limbs like ice. Still retreating, his heel came into contact  with the body, so he took a step forward  and stood there unmoving  unable to think of a means of escape. It occurred to him that he could lie down among the corpses but before he had time to take a single step, he was flooded with a brilliant light that caused him to close his eyes involuntarily, and  he heard  a harsh  voice shouting  at him in Upper  Egyptian  dialect, "Come  on out, or I'll shoot!"
Despairing, he surrendered and climbed the stairs as ordered,  for­
getting  about the set of false teeth in his pocket.
It wasn't  until  the  afternoon of  the  following  day  that  word  of  the apprehension of  Doctor Bushi and  Zeita  at the  Taibi  tomb  reached the alley. The news spread and  the reasons  for it became known,  and people  passed it on with amazement and alarm. The  moment Mistress Saniya  Afifi learned of it, she panicked, started  to wail, pulled out her set  of  gold  teeth,   and  threw  it  down  on  the  ground, beating   her cheeks in hysteria. Then she fell down in a faint.  Her  husband was in the bathroom and when her cries reached his terrified ears, he put his gallabiya on over his wet body and  hurried straight to her.