UPDATING THE MYTH
At five, I was at my post, my shortsighted eyes scouring the four directions of possible approach. On and on, looking at my watch. Oh, please hurry up Lizzie. Let us get over this agony today. After about an hour, I started thinking that it was nearly over. It would be another try tomorrow. Something must have happened. It was getting dark. Salah came up to me and asked if I was still waiting for the woman.
I said, 'Yes.'
'Go rest a bit in the car, I'll keep watch.'
I went dejectedly and sat inside. At seven, I came out again. It was completely dark by now and the street lamps were lit. The shops were still open but the circulation of people and vehicles gradually diminished. The appointment was at five. Obviously, she could not leave the house. After yesterday's misadventure, Abdullah probably refused to let her go out. Still, I had to wait a while longer. I could not leave. I walked up to Salah and told him to go to the car. I sat on a ledge and after a while did not even bother to look out for her. I just sat staring vacantly here and there. The plane should be leaving soon. Oh well, one must have patience. Tomorrow or the day after, we would try again. Another boring but anxious day ahead of me.
I heard footsteps running. I heard her voice call, 'Michael.' I sprang up and looked away. I heard her coming closer, still running, and I started walking to the car. Follow me Eurydice. She stopped a few steps behind and then followed me at my pace. We reached the car. We both entered simultaneously.
'To the airport Salah.'
He started the car and we lurched off to a fast, careful drive through sparse traffic. Soon we reached the stretch of desert and Salah gunned the car. I kept thinking all this speed is meaningless. It will not make a difference. We shall either catch the plane or not. The mad rush saved us a few minutes and this time Lizzie knew her moves. She moved away on her own and I rushed inside the building to the Misrair counter to see what the situation was. The plane was late in coming in, had arrived, and would leave in just under an hour. I rushed outside elated and brought in the suitcases with Salah. My heart was delirious, pumping like a machinegun with fear and hope, making it difficult for me to breathe and keep a straight face. We placed the bags on the weighing balance. I fished out Lizzie's passport from my handbag and presented the two passports and two tickets. I asked the man to put us in different rows, not together, and he looked at me puzzled. He assigned our seats and told me we should proceed immediately to customs. I gave Salah two thousand rials and received profuse blessings. I asked him to go give Lizzie her passport and ticket and tell her to follow me from behind. To stress it: from behind. Explain it as best he could, in Arabic, in English and sign language.
'Are you angry with her for being late?'
'Yes.'
'Maalesh ya khawaga.'
'Good bye Salah, look me up in Cairo. And thank you for everything.'
'Aala hefz Allah, to God's protection.'
I walked slowly towards the customs, trying to control my nerves, and waited at the entrance. I felt a hand on my waist.
'I love you, Eurydice.' She laughed.
'I love you too, Orpheus.'
I moved on, she followed me and moved to one side, behind me. I picked the bags and took them to the bench. The customs official asked me to open them and then hardly looked at them and off they went to the airplane. At passport control, I had Lizzie behind me, her hand on my arm. Exchanging vibrations and mute declarations of love. I walked on to the passenger lounge towards a window and Lizzie must have sat in a corner away from me. Come on, come on. I was counting the minutes. Time seemed to have stopped. Then the flight was announced and the passengers surged to the door. I waited and felt her hand in mine. A touch of tenderness. A wave of happiness.
'We're nearly there, Michael.'
'Shush, not yet.'
We reached the gate. Tickets inspected, passports inspected. Onto the bus like a blind man. Having Lizzie next to me, not looking at her was as bad a fate. The bus lurched, she bumped into me, I breathed in a smell I loved and turned my head away. We stopped under the plane. Got off the bus looking ahead. Up the iron steps. Orpheus in front, Eurydice behind. Half way between Hades and Life. For both of us now. A pretty Egyptian airhostess welcomed us, assigned our seat, first mine then Lizzie's.
I entered the airplane first and sat two rows further up, my eyes fixed on the seat in front. Fastened my seat belt. Waited. People still streaming in, searching their seat numbers, arranging bags and packs. An orange juice with an ice cube for the first class, with special smiles and thank you's. Finally, a measure of calm. A quick counting of passengers, a quick inspection of seat belts fastened, the dull thump of the cabin door being shut, the iron staircase wheeled away, the engines fired one by one, propellers whirling, a five minute warm-up, the slow taxiing on the runway, the U-turn and revving up of engines, the lurch forward, picking up speed, picking up speed, picking up speed, the plane vibrating, the noise deafening and then a jump, we're off. I turned around to look at Lizzie. She was weeping. The circle had been squared. I undid my seatbelt and hurried to the empty seat next to her. I hugged her. 'It's over, Lizzie. It's all over. We are alive. You are out of Hades.'
She hugged me too. Laughed with tears, cried with smiles, and kissed me and we were a curious spectacle in the first-class compartment with tears streaming down her cheeks. The plane was groaning, relentlessly gaining height. I held Lizzie's arm and hand and she held me back with strength in her grip. It was the only way to communicate just then. What more could we say with words? Where would we start? I looked at the face that I had loved through a handful of pictures for an eternity of three years. I looked at the smile that stole my heart and was never again mine to dispose.
And the plane kept climbing removing us from fear and oppression and danger towards the promise of happiness. The fasten-your-seat-belt sign went off. I kept looking at that vulnerable, barely cross-eyed look with the green fields of paradise in it. At the smile which would not extinguish.
'Lizzie, please go to the toilet and take off that symbol of oppression you're wearing.'
She undid her seat belt and got up, the smile permanent, joyful, looking at me, squeezing past me. I held her hips and she caressed my hair. My God, was this a new start? She moved to the toilet. Entered an odalisque, emerged a star, radiant with happiness, in a beige pant-suit and a light yellow silk shirt, returning the smiles she received from friendly faces, perking up the atmosphere in the cabin, holding the roll of cloth she had just removed. Moving towards me, making me wonder for the millionth time what lucky star I was born under to have a Goddess thrown in my path. Squeezing past again, ruffling my hair, smiling, smiling, smiling. Sitting down beside me, automatically holding my hand, showing me the rolled up djellaba.
'Oh Michael, I am so fortunate. I have been reborn. You gave me a new life.
You really are my guardian angel. My Orpheus.'
'And you my beloved Eurydice. Together we shattered the myth.'
'In my time of wretchedness, I thought of you. I prayed you were still in love with me. That you would come one of these days to rescue me. That you believed, deep in your heart, that I loved you. It is true, apart from my mother, I thought of no one else. I loved you as a friend but I have also realized the depth of your love. I am awed and grateful and in love.'
'In love with me?'
'Yes. Yes. Do you doubt it? I owe you my life. I am yours. You own me because you gave me my freedom. Not just from Abdullah. But because I am free to leave you, too. You gave me an unconditional freedom. An unconditional love. Always have done. The happiness you see is yours. It is due to you. I do love you Michael. I fell in love with you in Arabia. Isn't it strange? In my utter loneliness. In your physical absence and your constant presence in my thoughts, my dreams and daydreams. I longed for you and I have prayed for this moment and it has finally come true.'
'Oh, Lizzie, give me a moment to digest all this. Give me time to wake up. If I am dreaming.'
The plane attained maximum altitude, cruising at an easy pace, groaning no more, flying over the Red Sea, heading north, in the darkness. An hour had gone by since take off. Dinner was being served. The pretty airhostess brought two trays of food and placed them on the folding rests in front of us. She saw us holding hands and smiled. Lizzie, my lovely Lizzie ate her less than tasty meal with gusto. Left her opulent prison for the bread and salt of freedom. Which reminded me.
'It's ten o'clock, Abdou must be getting frantic.'
'Please my sweet, let me forget my nightmare.'
'You're right. But my goodness, it was so close tonight. Lady Luck was looking after us.'
'If I were not so desperate, I would never have left home. Abdou refused to let me go out when I asked to go for a stroll. He had a dinner to attend at some embassy or other and I waited until he left at around seven. I dressed like a whirlwind and called Abu Zaki, my bodyguard, to follow me. I had to keep up the pretense in case I would have to return home once again. He said the master told him nothing about going out but he could not very well restrain me and so followed me to the shopping district. I knew the time was well past our appointment but I was certain you would still be waiting for me. And I was desperate and reckless; I just could not put it off for tomorrow. I had to give it a try. If only just to see your face. I started some quick maneuvers to confuse Abu Zaki, going in and out of different shops and even went into Abu Hajjar where I had shaken him off yesterday. After that, I finally entered the electric appliance place, went out directly the other side and came running to you. Then everything worked like a charm. Things would have been very grim if they had not. It is unbelievable how that polite and sweet man, who was madly in love with me, little by little became a tyrant that I actually feared.'
'Didn't he know tyrants are shaken off sooner or later?'
'Yes, well, we shook him off. Now let us forget about him. I am completely indifferent to him. I do not even hate him because finally, as you once said, everything is accounted and paid for on this earth and he got what he deserved. He was relieved of some loose change, which is what he called the money and presents he gave me when I offered to return them in exchange for my freedom. And got a resounding slap on the face with my disappearing act. Now let us forget Abdullah El Majrabi ever existed.'
'Alas, he will dog us at every step.'
'Outside his country, we shall manage.'
'Attagirl, Lizzie! But where do we go from here?'
'It all depends on you.'
'Good Lord, you astound me. All of a sudden the decision for the future is mine?'
'It is my sweet. You decide, I follow. And of course, with you I have the luxury of saying no, if I wish. I am rich, Michael. It is my recompense for purgatory. We can do what we like.'
'Calm down. Calm down, Lizzie. I understand your longing to make up for lost time but let us be cool and practical. Shall I outline a first-things-first sort of plan?'
'Yes my sweet. My, how you have grown Michael. I feel I can depend on you. Not anymore the immature college boy with the harebrained schemes for marriage. The one thing that is unchanged is your goodness.'
'Not my goodness. My love for you, Lizzie. It's what makes me good and courageous. Shall we return to our plan?'
'Yes, my love.'
'Please don't say, yes my love.'
'Why not?'
'It takes my breath away.'
'Does it, my love? Better get used to it.'
'I love you, Lisa. I wish there were curtains we could draw around our seats. I want to kiss you so much. For all that endless love I nurture, the pickings in kisses have been wholly disproportional. Not to mention lovemaking, the total number of which is a unit of one.'
'A one in a million, my sweet. Oh, what a heartbreak that was, too. But not to worry, we shall put to right all wrongs. You started the process, we shall continue together. In the last analysis, weren't we terribly, terribly lucky?'
'Oh yes, but Lizzie, let's be a little prosaic and practical just for a moment and then we can resume our dreams. Tomorrow morning, not the day after, tomorrow morning, we shall go to the American Consulate for an entry visa to the States.'
'But I don't need an entry visa. I'm American.'
'No you're not. You're not even you. Officially, according to the passport I forged for you, you are Evangelia M. Makris, the M standing for Michael. You are my wife, a Greek subject and you need an entry visa for the States. It usually takes at least a week for a visa to be issued and we cannot afford to waste time. You must leave Egypt as quickly as possible. Oh, there's no comparison. We are out of danger but not one hundred percent. Abdullah might soon turn up in Egypt looking for you and I'm sure he has solid official connections despite the less than smooth relations between the two governments. Abdel Nasser has been disseminating revolutionary and socialist doctrines in all the principalities and kingdoms of the Gulf. Even so, Abdullah could cause us considerable discomfort. Arab solidarity transcends temporary alliances and adoptions of rival political dogmas. Not to mention the considerable clout of his money. He could hire James Bond himself to kidnap you and bundle you in his private plane.
The rule of law is rather shaky in Egypt. We must not give him the chance to cause us the slightest worry. Our victory must be complete.'
'So I am your wife. That's nice. Perhaps, we should stay married for a while.'
'Nothing is easier to disprove than a false document. In any case, Abdullah will arrive in Cairo with your American passport in hand. No Lizzie, you must leave as soon as possible. With an American visa on your false Greek passport with your false Greek name. Once in Boston, you are back in civilization. In a democracy. You go to a top lawyer and start proceedings to regain your identity and official documents. This way you can get hold of your money and property. And of course start proceedings for a divorce.'
'Aren't you forgetting something?'
'What?'
'Us.'
'Before you leave, we shall interrupt our happiness to talk about us. For now, I cannot even start to think beyond seeing you off to safety.'
Dinner had ended and the smiling hostess collected the trays and handed us blankets in a plastic wrapping. The lights of the cabin were dimmed and the passengers who were not already asleep prepared to give it a try. Two more hours to go. I lifted the hand-rest that separated me from Lizzie and she immediately moved into my embrace. I covered us up with a blanket and in the faint light of the cabin, in the roar of the whirling propellers, in the privacy of the slumber of our neighbors, I kissed my angel and like a drowning man saw my love for Lizzie unroll backwards in my brain, vivid within my closed eyelids, kiss by kiss, to that first one in the windswept bungalow of Maine. Where the seed of love was planted at a whim and flourished like a tree the shadow of which I was never able to escape. I kissed her with the longing and the ache of three long years. I kissed her with the pain and despair of her marriage. I kissed her with the triumph of our escape and the happiness of our freedom. And she kissed me with all the passion of her newfound infatuation. Her unexpected falling in love. Quietly, not uttering a sound, suppressing our moans not wanting to disturb the sleepers and curtail our lovemaking. Lizzie took off her shoes, gathered herself on her seat and lay in my arms, her head on my shoulder.
'I'll try to sleep a little, Michael, though I doubt I shall succeed. I am too happy. It takes a lot of unhappiness to make you this happy. It takes a great deal of despair. On top of that, I'm in love and in the arms of my lover and the security of my guardian angel. You see, it is not only I that am your angel, you are my angel too.'
Quarter of an hour before landing, the lights came on and an announcement was made over the speaker. The passengers started stirring and Lizzie woke up, looked at me, smiled and yawned. Had you ever wondered if a yawn could ever be beautiful, you would have had the answer. But I suppose I was prejudiced. Another yawn, another smile, a search for her shoes, a trip to the toilet, emerging, hair combed, a touch of makeup, drawing the eyes of the passengers, dazzling me, worrying me as well, making me question whether Lizzie finally was for me. Bringing out all my inadequacies. She sat down and reached for my hand. Tender new gestures that produced a thrill, warmed my heart, reassured me. Slightly. Tentatively. Not altogether unquestionably. The fasten-the-seat-belt sign came on.
'Oh Michael, look out the window. Have you ever seen a more welcome sight?'
'Pretty, isn't it? Like a birthday cake.'
'My rebirth day cake.'
'Mine too, my love. Happy rebirth day, then.'
'To you too, my sweet. But not many happy returns of the day. Once in a lifetime is enough.'