Khaled went in the morning to clean the same kitchen where Muadh worked. Peter was happy because Khaled did not cost him a lot as he was working in the so called ‘Nawar’, i.e. the black market where there were no taxes not medical insurance for the workers.
The Bulgarian woman, Carla, was too talkative. She never stopped talking about her rogue husband who abandoned her one day without telling her destination. ‘Men are mean’, she said while smoking her cigarette with shaking fingers.
Khaled agreed with what she was saying. Who could disagree with Carla? Whoever disagree must put aside all his work equipment and listen to Carla’s hissing as she would assault his ears with her story since the first day she met her husband.
When Khaled finished his work, he would go home on foot. The journey took him half an hour which he spent enjoying looking and contemplating on everything that happened to him and planning for the coming. Nietzsche was right when he said that great ideas emerge when people walk.
Every now and then, he saw the shadow of Huda in a car or a shop window. It puzzled him that despite the amount of coincidences, he still did not met Huda anywhere thus far. It was true that she lived in the city of Antwerp, but he learned that the world was as small as the palm of one’s hand.
He took Muadh’s car and passed by Zohra to pick her up from a place that was not far away from her residence. Nosy people were all over the world; had they seen them together, a thousand stories would have emerged about their relationship.
His patient, deliberate plan succeeded in luring Zohra to direct communication after they consumed all blue words. Boredom is the first enemy of virtual relationships. After a while, topics become repetitive and boring and enthusiasm fades away gradually. At this point there are two options—either a face-to-face meeting or ‘delete’.
Tangier did him a huge favor because she was the significant reason that made Zohra agree on meeting him to know more from his information about her. This was what she at least said.
Hesitation was evident on her features when he saw here in the mall where she worked and asked her to meet, but her features and eyes betrayed a latent desire to agree, sohe stroked while the iron was hot, ‘tomorrow is Sunday. It’s holiday. I’ll pick you up at 11 am’.
They sat in La Fontaina Café and she asked him more and more about the history of Tangier. There was calm music coming from somewhere. It was clear she was swallowing up his words, and her interest in Tangier was genuine and not fake.
At the beginning everything for him was feigned. He later found himself enjoying talking about Tangier with Zohra especially that she was on Facebook and in reality spontaneous and funny.
What really caught his attention in her features was a slight aberration in the black color of her left eye.Her eyes were similar to Zahrliza’s in the mirror.
Her eyes were shining with happiness, and they revealed that she was indeed fascinated. Khaled was sure then that Dr. Bernard did not tell her anything about the painting which meant that he either retaining it on sufferance or burying it in a room that only him could access.
That blend of black and brown colors in Zohra’s eye move feeling Khaled has buried deep in his heart. The seed is moving again when Zohra’s eyes are watering it, he is resisting emotions that plunged him earlier in countless troubles, and he does not need to repeat the same experience.
Zohra lowered her eye after she discovered Khaled was able to gaze in them indefinitely. He smiled as he understood her embarrassment.
The last sentence awakened Khaled from a sweet dumbness he was enjoying. ‘You’re here for a specific mission rather than playing the role of a lover. Wake up! Khaled said to himself. Zohra was going to look for Zahrliza and will find everything about it on google including his story and robbing the painting.
It meant that it was better he did it before she could find anything. It was better to tell her the whole story, so she would hear it from him, and he would be able to see her reaction. It would be better than discovering the incident by herself accompanied with all the fears and concerns she would have. Then he would lose everything he came for, and he might lose Zohra, too. It was also something he started to confess to himself he did not need to lose. Everything was over then. He would tell her the truth and be that as it may.