Setting: A veranda by a large pool in a garden overlooking the Sea in Gouna
Characters.
Salah the owner
Samia his friend and special guest
Mo The help
It is dusk. Salah is in linen shirt and pants. He is a little bit too heavy for his look. A case of mutton dressed as lamb
Samia arrives in a golf cart and wafts over in a last season’s Kaftan
Salah: My dear, my dear. Ahlan. I am so glad you could join me tonight in my little hide away
Samia: Little!, what are you saying, …. I love this place. I love all your homes ya salah.
She looks around the veranda, and out to sea
-You are in the nicest part of the area, overlooking the sea
She sits on a rattan sofa
-I was so bored in Cairo. You called and I decided to come here. At least we could keep each other company. Remember old times. How can I refuse an invitation to this place
-Salah: Yes, yes, it is nice. I love it here. We can drink and chat and …., (he winks) keep a safe distance. It is perfect for now
He calls out and rings a bell
-Mo, come and light the candles and fix us our drinks
A dark middle aged man walks in
Mo: Yes sir
Samia: Bravo, you have help. How lovely. I am so sick and tired of doing everything myself. I don’t even have a dishwater. Thought it a waste of money as Om Salma did it all. Now I hesitate before I make a salad. So much washing up. Such hard times. It reminds me of the revolution.
Salah: Which one?
Samia: you know the Midan Tahrir one. The one, when we were all locked up and worried.
Salah: My dear, I have memories of so many distasteful times. I still remember my mother in tears over the departure of king Farouk.
Samia: Those are very very old childhood memories Ya Salah. Best Forgotten. Like the earthquake. I remember the earthquake in 1992. Actually I try to forget it.
She stands up and goes by the veranda edge and looks out at the sea.
- But tell me, how did you manage to bring Mo here? Did he come to clean up and then go back to Cairo? You know it is not safe to have help coming and going. They bring bad things with them.
Salah: Do you think I would do such a thing? I told him, I said “you are not permitted to go home.” He can’t leave me here if he wants to be paid this month.
He sleeps inside and is not allowed out of the house.
He brought his son along but I keep the boy in the pool house and don’t let him near the main house.
Samia: You have such a soft heart my dear. Letting him bring his son.
She returns to her chair and speaks to the man who is politely waiting to take her order
-Scotch for me ya Mo
Mo: Tamam ya samia Hanem
Salah: Ya Mo, bring out the Mezze and bring me my drink too.
Mo: Yes Sir
Mo returns with the drinks and sets them on side tables. He goes in and comes back with a large tray piled with small dishes and cutlery. He empties the tray on the large table and slowly walks back into the house
Salah: The sea is so beautiful. We can watch the moonrise. If we were in Cairo we would be locked down now. I love it here when the sky darkens and we see each other by moonlight, by candle light (he winks again)
Salah stands up and walks towards the flickering candles. One large candle goes out as the wind blows across the veranda
-The candles ooof, their going to go out. The idiot put them in the wrong place
Samia: Don’t remind me of Cairo. It is as if the city is in mourning. So drab, so quiet, so miserable without life
Salah: Let me serve you my dear. “This food is cold, the idiot did not heat up the liver or kobeiba. He does not know the difference between hot and cold mezze.
Where is he anyway. Where did he go?
Salah rings his bell several times but there is no answer
Samia: Maybe he is with his son. Call out to him to come and heat it up
Salah walks across the garden and shouts out
Salah: Ya MO, Ya MO, where are you? You love to disappear. You always disappear.
Salah returns to the veranda and rings his bell again
Salah: These people have no work ethic. I bring him to this piece of heaven I let him bring the boy, I pay him, ..
Salah walks out again to the garden and then goes into the house
Salah: Ya Mo, Where are you?
Samia looks at something flying slowly through the darkening sky. Something carried by the gentle wind coming their way.
Samia: Look, what is that
Salah: What is what
Samia: Look it is coming from the pool house, it looks like a paper plane
The plane sims through the sky and falls in the pool
Samia: Oh, Go get it. Get it ya Salah
Salah ambles over to the pool and kneels with difficulty to get the plane cursing quietly
Salah: (in low mumble) now the idiot is littering my pool
He fishes out the plane with difficulty and notices writing on its wings
He reads the writing and then rushes back to the veranda pale and in a sweat
Salah: (panting) Shit, shit. Don’t eat anything, throw away your drink, let’s get out of here
Samia (alarmed): What is it?
Salah: The plane. It had writing on it, I could just make it out, the ink is running.
Samia: What does it say? What is the matter?
Salah: (he reads off the wet paper plane) “My father is not able to breathe. He is on the floor”
THE END