The first thing that was told to me about him was his ability to make a friendship in a couple of minutes, but it would have been better for him to know that this kind of friendship doesn't exist for a long time .The contradiction he had was obvious, "why do the people become so friendly with him for the first time they see him and then treat him in a bad way later as if there was something in his face that makes people love him and as if that thing disappear when they see him again? ". I always felt that I had a great responsibility towards him, I wanted to give him confidence in himself.

He was a tall strong person whose eyes were deeply sunken and who was always dressed in purple.

The first day I talked to him was in the university, a tedious lecture was going on and nobody seemed to understand anything, so I went to sit beside him and said " Do you understand anything from what is being said."

"Are you talking to me?" he said in a shaking voice.

" Yes, what makes it so surprising," I said.

" I just can't believe it, a person who is being loved and respected by all our colleges talking to a detestable character as me," he said.

" Don't say that, what really made me come to speak with you was what I had heard about your being a decent person," I said, trying to give him confidence in himself.

I looked at his face and saw a very nice smile, a smile that seemed to come from his heart as if he had really felt it, I pitied him.But what had puzzled me was that he hadn't at all the talent of making a friendship with anybody quickly as I had heard, on the contrary I saw him a hesitatent person.

" I really hate my self, I hate being an irresolute character, I hate my little experience in life, I know that I have great faults in my character, but I don't know how to reform myself. I really think that I can't cope with my society," he said.

" Don't you think that the word "cope" doesn't give a good description of your problem. In my opinion, I think that you must know your self and try to do what is right, know yourself," I said.

" You aren't giving me the magical solution, what you are saying will not solve my problem, what I must do is to leave here, go and live in any other place where I can see new people and start a new life," he said.

" By doing so, you will be deceiving yourself because if you have faults in your character you will face the same problem in any part of the world, with any people, just listen to my advice, know yourself," I said.

At that time the lecture finished and our conversation had to be disconnected. But the idea of thinking about that unusual person was in my mind.

Was he right? Was he a nice person, who really can't cope with the people around him, and the people didn't know how to treat him in a good way as they don't understand his character in the right way, but were all the people wrong.

Was he wrong? Was he a bad person who had an untolerate character and deserved what was done to him by the people who knew him.

I didn't know the answer although I wanted to.

Author: MOHAMMED SAID MOHAMMED
Posted: July 22, 1998

A DECAY

In fact, he was not worthy of being called a father. He had nothing to do but drinking, gumbling and insesting. He never regarded his only daughter nor his two sons who had become, as a result of his disregard, two well-known dangerous men in the police regestries. His anger was a reproduction of what he had found in his girl’s notebooks: he found letters which were written to her by a boy who pretended to have loved her, and he found some other unmintionable photographs to his daughter with that boy. That, accordingly, resulted his suspect to increase, and he was insistant to punnish her immediately after she was to enter the house door.

At five o’clock in that afternoon, and immediately after she had entered the house, her father received her in a way that was full of eagerness, love, mercy and fatherhood: instead of greeting her, he boxed her twice, took her hand to her back, bate her with his right leg and threw her on the ground towards a wall to which she went directly, as if she were longing to have had her head stuck to it. She did not scream or weep, since she thought that her father had been drunk as usual, but she got shocked when she heard him saying: "Where have you been, doxy?".

She stared at him without saying a word waiting for him to repeat his question or to go away. However, he took a chair, picked out one of its legs, went straight-forwardly towards her, and began to beat her.

The chair leg was moving continuously as an ax which was supposed to arrange a certain area of land, while she was screaming so loudly that her shouts were as those of an innocent child who seeked for food. Her tears were running from her beautiful blue eyes wherein her innocence, kindness and beauty were carried and seen clearly, and moving through her face to make it as a river that could be wide enough for no more drops of water. Her golden hair looked like a ring in his finger whereby he was pulling it trying to use to lift her. With all those trials, however, he failed to lift her, hence, he took a great deal of her golden hair, divided it between his hands and began to pull her inside a room.

In the room where he took her in, he threw her on the floor beside a table to the left of a bed whereupon some notebooks and some other sheets of paper were put, kicked her with his right leg, and shouted saying: "What does the writing in these papers mean, doxy?"

"What!?", she replied in a way of exclamation, as if she did never imagine her father to have come across whatever was written, "you do not have right whatsoever,", she continued hesitatingly, "to see my particulars.".

"What!?", said he nervously, "I am your father, and, if you do not know, I am your owner until you find someone else to buy you and take you away.".

"What do you want then?" asked she.

"What is that?" asked he in a hard way.

"Letters from my own lover," she answered faintly.

That conversation had lasted a long time, before her father decided that she would not be allowed to leave home any more, and as for her studies, he went to the place of her studies, took her papers and certificates, and burnt them all. He cut the telephone wire, closed all the windows, and asked the doorman not to let her out. He treated her harshly: in the morning, he was used to awaking her up at dawn, taking her away to the hall, and beating her by the chair leg in the afternoon, he was used to taking her in the balcony, and beating her with the chair leg to let all the neighbors hear her screams and in the evening, he was used to taking her hair, throwing her on the floor, and wandering with her in the flat. The poor innocent could not stand all that torture, so, she decided something.

One morning, after her father had left the house to go to work, she went to the doorman’s wife, gave her some money, and asked her to convince her husband to let her out for half an hour. Neither did the woman tolerate the money being taken back from her, nor did she want to refuse the poor girl’s appeals, consequently, she went to her husband and convinced him to let the girl out for half an hour.

As soon as she had been set free, she stopped a taxi and asked the driver to take her to the place where the flat, where they had been used to meeting, existed. No sooner had she reached the place than she rang the bell. The door was opened after a short while to uncover her lover sitting with another naked girl. She could not help shouting and screaming, and she took off her shoe, went directly towards the naked girl, and began to beat her. The naked girl’s voice and screams disturbed the people who were living around the place: they came to the flat, found the whole thing clear, so, they took the three of them to the nearest police station.

It was a shock for her father to discover that the relation that his daughter had with her lover had not only been a love relation, but, a sexual affair as well. He, therefore, and after his girl had been allowed to go home, began to deal with her in a more up-to-date way: he cut her hair, burnt her hands and legs, hurting her body with a knife, and beating her with a piece of leather which he had bought specially for her.

Once, he came back home early with a metallic tube in his hands. He called her to come since, according to what he had said, he prepared an incredibly delicious meal for her. The moment he had seen her, he stepped towards her, and with the metallic tube, he began to hit her again and again. The pure girl was screaming in a loud voice so as to let people hear and come to stop or forbid him to do what he was doing. With her shouting, however, no one had come. She was running before her father, but, he was faster, and he could beat her more. Suddenly, with a flower pot she had met put on a table near the door, she threw her father who had the flower pot stuck to his head directly. The pot was very sharp, and the girl’s hands threw it so accurately that his head was bleeding generously.

The poor father could not bear the pot, so he fell down and shouted loudly asking for help. The girl, seeing her father in such a state, went near him, took the metallic tube, and began to beat him with it. He could not see himself being beaten by his daughter, hence, he got up resolutely and began to run after the girl. She was sure that had she gone down staires, she would not have been able to escape as the doorman was ready to face any lunatic movement from her. She thought about going up staires so that she might have hurt her father more, and because she was sure that no matter her father was to do, he would not be able to catch her. Her father, having seen her going up staires, insisted upon arresting her. He exerted every possible effort he had and followed her quickly. The girl, seeing her father in such a crazy insistence, increased her speed. She was so fast that she did not notice that there was no obstacle in the roof between her and the street. The father, on arriving at the roof, after ascending nine floors, could not see his daughter, he shouted: "Come back, doxy! Come Back!", he fell on the floor, closed his eyes, and, he became a body without soul.

Author: MOHAMMED SAID MOHAMMED
Posted: July 22, 1998

THE AMBIGUOUS MESSAGE

On having been held the envelope, I initiated bootlessly to scrutinize it assiduously yearning for any information about the sender. Yet, I could stumble upon nothing but my name, my address and some indecipherable post marks. I, then, settled upon opening the letter trying to find something about who sent it. I took the letter out of the envelope and began to read. Nonetheless, a strange obsession hypnotized me on having seen the letter: Nothing was written but very few words, besides, the handwriting was so unclear that it cannot be easily read. Notwithstanding all this, I clang to read it so that I might have found something. Nevertheless, I did not find but the following:

Soraburum, 21ST, November, 97,
Dear Friend,
I read your announcement in which you ask for friends of correspondence, therefore, I sent you this letter hoping that you answer me soon.
Thank you very much,
Yours,
Cybolisium.

After I had read the letter, I got shocked for I could stipulate nothing except the sender’s city name and his personal name, in addition to his wish to legislate a correspondence appositeness with me. Yet, I could not lay my finger upon his address or even his land name. "How am I going to reply him?", I wondered. "Where is the city called Soraburum?", I thought. I looked fixedly at the available data trying to reach any piece of information to help me discern anything, but, all had been fruitless and still it remained a suspense.

Author: AHMED SEIF EL NASR
Posted: July 22, 1998

THE NORMAL CONSEQUENCE

" Don't bother yourself, I know perfectly how to drive and as you need badly to go quickly in order to get in time for your urgent appointment, I will quickly get you there so you don't have to worry." he said.

I didn't want to do what he wanted to, but I had to accept his offer but I later knew how wrong I did to him and myself. We went out of the house and went to the garage where the car was parked safely because there was no one at my uncle's house except for my cousin and me, he took advantage of his parent's absence and decided to drive the car. When we entered the garage, the car had a very lovely shape, and it's green color always gave me a he took the keys out of his pocket and opened it (of course the key wasn't his, for he had stolen the key from his father!) " Why are you looking so pale, there is nothing to fear, in half an hour everything will be alright and you will arrive precisely at the time you want, and to relax you more, this is not the first time for me to drive, I have done it many times before." He tried to calm me for I really looked anxious.

Then we started our unascertained experience, it was indeed marvelous! , As it gave me the feeling of terror and an awful awareness that death was certainly waiting for both of us, naturally, he hadn't the smallest idea about driving, and I started blaming myself for accepting his offer to give me a left.

What was indeed a great feeling of disappointment to me was the balmy state he had, instead of being troubled he was laughing as if he didn't care about anything, the car was going very fast " Can't you stop laughing, and reduce the speed, aren't you afraid of having an accident?' I shouted.

" Of course I am afraid, but what am I supposed to do, do expect me to cry." he said

" I haven't said so, all that I had said is reduce the speed of the car." I uttered these words in an unimaginable way.

" Alright, but please may I ask you a question." he asked

" What, don't you know were is the break that reduces the speed." I said in a scornful way.

" It is exactly what I wanted to inquire about.' he said

Without a doubt I am not going to explain how awe seized me at theta moment " Haven't you told me that you have dried many times before and that you know how to drive well." I said. He hesitated in answering my question for a moment and said " I am sorry, I thought driving a car to be an easy thing."

So I started to thing about how careless he was, it is obvious that all of what had happened was not a result of zero, it was a result of how careless my cousin was and that was due to the way his parents had brought him up.

What followed next was an accident done by my cousin, while he was going very fast, he lost control over the car and stroked a huge tree, I was injured badly in my arm but he paid a higher price for his fault than I had, he had paid his life as a price to both his and my foolishness.