"I'll miss him," Kamal thought. "He's not a soul mate, but he's my lifelong friend."
Laughing, Riyad Qaldas inquired, "Doesn't Iraq need any translators?"
Kamal asked, "Would you leave home if you had an opportunity like Isma'il's?"
"In the past I wouldn't have hesitated, but not now."
"What distinguishes the present from the past?"
Riyad Qaldas replied merrily, "For you, nothing. For me, everything. It seems I'm soon to join the fraternity of married men."
Astonished by the news, which came without any warning, Kamal felt anxious in a way he could not pinpoint precisely.
"Really? You've never alluded to this before."
"No. It's come about suddenly… at the last meeting. When the two of us last met, it wasn't even under consideration."
Isma'il Latif laughed triumphantly. Attempting to smile, Kamal asked, "How did this happen?"
"How? The way it happens every day. A woman teacher came to visit her brother in the translation bureau. I liked her and, on exploring my prospects, found myself invited to proceed."
Ashe accepted the hose of the water pipe from Kamal, Isma'il asked jovially, "When do you suppose this fellow will get around to exploring his prospects?"
Isma'il never missed a chance to bring up this stale topic. But there was a more serious side to the matter. All of Kamal's friends who had tried marriage maintained that it was a cage. If this wedding took place, he would probably see Riyad only on rare occasions and his friend might change into a different person, a kind of pen pal. The writer was so gentle and tender, it would not take much to subdue him. But how would Kamal's life be possible without him? If marriage transformed Riyad as radically as it had Isma'il, Kamal could bid farewell to the joys of life.
"When are you getting married?" Kamal asked.
"Next winter, at the latest."
It seemed that the tormented Kamal was fated to lose a best friend time and again. "At that moment, you'll become a different Riyad Qaldas."
"Why? … You have a fantastic imagination."
Masking his anxiety with a smile, Kamal asked, "A fantastic imagination? Today Riyad Qaldas is a man whose spirit always wants more while his pocket is happy to go empty. Once you're a husband, your pocket will always need more money and you'll have no opportunity for spiritual fulfillment."
"What an offensive description of the husband! But I don't agree with you."
"How about Isma'il, who is being forced to migrate to Iraq? I'm not making fun of that decision, for it's not only natural but heroic. Yet, at the same time, it's hideous. Picture yourself up to your ears in the problems of daily life, thinking only of how to make ends meet, reckoning your hours by piasters and milliemes. Then the poetic side of life can only seem a waste of time."
Riyad replied scornfully, "Imagination's fantasies inspired by fear…."
Isma'il Latif said, "Oh, if only you would experience marriage and fatherhood…. Even today, you have no idea of the true meaning of life."
This view might well be correct, in which case Kamal's life was a silly tragedy. But what was happiness? What exactly did he desire? Even so, the main cause of his distress was the fact that he was once again threatened by a terrifying isolation of the kind he had suffered when Husayn Shaddad had disappeared from his life. What if it were possible for him to find a wife with the body of Atiya and the spirit of Riyad? That was what he really wanted: Atiya's body and Riyad's soul united in a single person whom he could marry. In that way, he would free himself from the threat of loneliness for the rest of his life. This was the challenge.
Riyad remarked impatiently, "Let's not talk about marriage, ['ve made my decision, and, Kamal, I hope your turn is next. Still there are important political events that demand our attention today."
Althc ugh Kamal shared his friend's sentiments, he was unable to shake off his surprise and appeared indifferent to the suggestion, offering no comment.
Isma' il Latif said cheerfully, "Al-Nahhas knew how to avenge his forced resignation of December 1937. He stormed Abdin Palace at the head of a column of British tanks."
To give Kamal a chance to comment, Riyad hesitated briefly. But when his friend was slow to respond, he asked gloomily, "Vengeance? There is little resemblance between the facts and your imagination's depiction of them."
"So what are the facts?"
After glancing at Kamal in a fruitless attempt to induce him to speak, Riyad continued: "Al-Nahhas is not a man who would conspire with the English in order to get returned to power. Ahmad Mahir's crazy. He's the one who betrayed the people and joined ranks with the king. Then he strove to hide the weakness of his position by making a stupid declaration and calling in the press to hear it". Riyad looked at Kamal to see what he thought. This political discussion had finally begun to attract some of his attention, but he felt inclined to disagree with Riyad, if only a little.
"It's clear that al-Nahhas has saved the situation," Kamal said. "I have no doubts whatsoever about his patriotism. A man his age doesn't turn traitor to obtain a position he'sheld five or six times before. But hashe behaved in the ideal manner?"
"You're a skeptic, and there's no end to your doubts. What behavior would have been ideal?"
"He should have persisted in his rejection of the British ultimatum for him to become prime minister. Regardless of the outcome, he should not have yielded."
"Even if the king had been deposed and a British military government had taken control of the country?"
"Yes."
Huffing furiously, Riyad exclaimed, "We're having a pleasant chat over a water pipe. But a statesman has to shoulder tremendous responsibilities. In these delicate wartime conditions, how could al-Nahhas have agreed to let the king be deposed and the country be ruled by an English soldier? If the Allies are victorious — and we must realize that this is possible then we would be counted among the defeated enemies. Politics isn't poetic idealism. It's realist wisdom."
"I still believe in al-Nahhas, but perhapshe's made a mistake. I don't say he's a conspirator or a traitor "The responsibility rests with those troublemakers who supported the Fascist cause behind the backs of the English as if the Fascists would respect our independence. Don't we have a treaty with the English? Doesn't honor oblige us to keep our word? Besides, are we not democrats who should be interested in seeing the democratic nations triumph over the Nazis, since they place us at the bottom level of the world's peoples and races and stir up antagonism between the different races, nationalities, and religious groups?"
"I'm with you on all that, but when he yielded to the British ultimatum our independence was reduced to a legal fiction."
"The man protested the ultimatum, and the British deferred to him."
Isma'il laughed out loud and then said, "How admirable the protest was!" But he soon added in earnest, "I agree with what he did. If I had been in his place I would have done the same thing. He was humiliated and forced out of power, even though he had a majority. And he's known how to exact revenge. The fact is that our independence is nothing but a fiction. What purpose would be served by having the king deposed and our country governed by an English military ruler?"
Riyacl's expression looked even glummer. But Kamal smiled and said with odd detachment, "Others have made mistakes, and al-Nahhas is having to deal with the consequences of those errors. No doubt he has saved the situation. He's saved the throne and the country. Moreover, all's well that ends well. If, after the war, the English remember appreciatively what he did, no one will bring up the ultimatum of the fourth of February."
After clapping his hands to order more charcoal for the water pipe, Isma'il scoffed, "If the English remember his good deed! I tell you right now they'll sack him long before that."