His apartment was empty at last. He received a lot of visitors, sympathizers, journalist, and friends. Now he was one his own.
His apartment was packed out with congratulators accompanied with a good number of intruders to the degree that he was hardly able to see anything. His apartment, that barely accommodated him alone, was really a gathering place few minutes ago.
Noises of all kinds filled it until reality blended with dreams. During his childhood, when noises fill any place, especially the wedding ceremonies he used to attend with his mother, he used to experience a feeling that he was having a dream. He used to almost completely lose his concentration and senses. He used to shake off his head more than once in order not to lose consciousness.
He lived the same feeling that day. This time his happiness was more powerful than any other feeling, so he kept his concentration until the last visitor left. The last visitor was nobody except Aziza Rahma who did not forget to bring him a plate of kikes.
Imprisonment for one year. The execution of which is suspended.
When he remembered the moment the judge uttered the sentence, his heartbeat rate accelerated once again. He was watching the lip of the judge as if in slow motion. When he heard, ‘Imprisonment’, he anticipated the worst. He squeezed the bars of the dock, and when he heard the sentence, ‘The execution of which is suspended’, he saw the face of his lawyer relieving, and he was showing him the sign of victory. After that, the court roared with applaud, so the judge had to threaten he would evacuate it.
The lawyer told Khaled that he was still going to appeal the sentence. Suspending the execution means that if Khaled commits any crime in the coming years, he will have to serve the old punishment in addition to the new one.
Had somebody said that earlier, he would have considered it nonsense as it was impossible to commit a crime. His heart would have rested assured and considered the sentence an acquittal.
But now after the injustice he had gone through, he could not promise anything even to himself. There were things he should understand or settle down with the other people. meanwhile, he could not guarantee what might happen.
Never ask a man defending himself in the face of bandits to be cautious not to commit a crime. These are things out of his hands. He may poke a person who would just fall dead. This was exactly Khaled’s situation.
It was midnight. He knew that sleeping, in spite of his exhaustion and tiredness, would be a farfetched thing. Therefore, he asked his friend Munir in advance to bring him some lavender, and he drank its infusion to his fill.
His cat did not believe it and did not know how to express her happiness. She brushed herself against his feet, licked his fingers rolled up, and mewed in a beautiful voice that was similar to singing. He caressed her lovingly. For the first time since he kept her, he realized that he did not give her a name, yet.
She knew he was addressing her, so she brushed herself against him more. He carried her and lay on the bed he dearly missed after the prison’s bed affected his back and side badly.
He looked at the crack on the wall that he missed, too. All belongings seem valuable when we leave them for some time.
The effect of the lavender infusion started to take hold over him. He felt his nerves relaxing…his breathing took a regular pattern…his eyelids felt heavy. Then everything disappeared.
Gentle knocks on the door.
Would they never leave him to sleep? Was it another enthusiast who wanted to show him his compassion? It was a nice feeling indeed, but all he needed then was rest and only rest.
He opened the door and found his friends Mahdi and Munir.
He did not believe he was so tired that he could not differentiate between the moment of sleeping and waking up. What a temporary death sleep is!
Khaled began his journey from Boulevard street. He watched the walkers, the shops lights, and cars. When he reached Mexico street, he found the peddlers calling out advertising their goods. Khaled stopped near a peddler who was selling some posters. Shock tied his tongue when he looked at one of them. He asked the peddler with trembling voice,
Khaled continued walking in the streets. He never thought that such incidents would catch the interest of the laypeople. He wondered whether the Tangierian finally realized the value of their city and the importance of her antiquities and showpieces. Was the Zahrliza incident like a slap to awaken them up to know the importance of Tangier?
These peddlers were not interested with such kind of goods. In the past, they used to sell posters of Indian or Turkish actors or footballers. For a change, they sometimes sold posters of animals that were so pale because of repeated photo-coping.
He noticed that a lot of passers-by were interestingly gazing at him. Some recognized him and smiled to him, while others were unsure, so they continued gazing and furrowed their brows as if waiting Khaled to say, ‘Yes, it’s me.’
Another peddler called out for him to buy a Zahrliza poster.
Was she really stirring him up?
This time he decided to but a copy to keep it as a memory—the memory of the first day in life.
He went to La Giralda Café contemplating the black, quiet sea. The lights of the port seemed different from that angle, but they maintained their beauty.
He unrolled the poster.
He contemplated her eyes that had always drawn his admiration. He always liked that slight aberration in the black color of her right eye. Was it the invention of the painter James McBey or was Zohra’s eye really like that?
Khaled found it strange that the aberration was not as clear in the poster as it was in the real painting. Was it not a photocopy of the original Zahrliza?
It troubled him a lot, and many fears started haunting him. He went back to Mexico street and examined all copies of all peddlers. All of them contained the same flaw; there was not a clear aberration in the eyes.
Khaled called Mahdi,
Khaled entered an internet café to find an old photo of Zahrliza before the robbery. He googled it, and printed it on a transparent sheet the same size of the poster he had purchased. He went to his apartment and put the transparent sheet on top of the poster. The result appalls him. He is right…there is a huge mistake that nobody has noticed.