Free I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops by Hanan al-Shaykh Page B

discussing politics and the pros and cons of leaving the country in search of work.
    Ingrid felt a peace of mind she had never known before. She was so happy she could have flown. What she had achieved, without being fully aware of what she was doing, had in retrospect taken on an irresistible allure, like a miracle. She had traveled through mists and across seas to this remote spot, following a vision that had come to her one evening. A voice had called, “Ingrid! Get up off your knees! These prayers of yours are no longer enough. Go to the ends of the earth, to a land where they haven’t seen me. Lift the darkness from their eyes. Tell them about me, then let them choose.”
    The night Ingrid had decided to marry Mahyoub she had thrown herself down in front of the picture of the Virgin Mary, telling her what had happened, asking for her advice and confessing that she was in love with Mahyoub too. And lo and behold, the Virgin’s eyes had signaled their agreement.
    The singing and dancing continued while in the kitchen Souad was mixing water with the Pepsi Mahyoub had bought. She was happy because the young woman with blue eyes who saw the world as she saw it with her brown eyes was going to be close at hand forever. Souad was distracted briefly as she wondered if Ingrid remembered the bet, even though it had been made in fun. Souad and the men had realized since the second visit that Ingrid was intending to spread her religion in the area, and the men had decided among themselves not to receive her in case the mere fact of listening to what she had to say interfered with their faith. Souad had nearly gone out of her mind at the thought that the happiness and anticipation she felt at Ingrid’s forthcoming visit might be snatched away, and they far surpassed the excitement generated by any village wedding or funeral. It was as if a breath of air from the world she saw sometimes on her brother’s television had materialized into a living being and prostrated itself before her, ready to do her bidding.
    Souad had therefore taken bets with the men that in theend Ingrid would become one of them, just as she was in the process of doing now in the room next door.
    Nobody apart from Souad believed, or even hoped, that this miracle would come to pass except Mahyoub, and that was because he had been head over heels in love with Ingrid since the moment he first saw her.
    Souad finished making the drinks and decided that she would not remind Ingrid of the bet until she had been married for a while, or perhaps she never would. But she couldn’t forget the occasion when she had first told Ingrid’s fortune in her coffee grounds: “You’ll marry one of us and forget your ideas and your stories.”
    Ingrid had shaken her head, laughing: “Never. I shall never marry and that’s definite.”
    And Souad had taken Ingrid’s hand and said, “You will get married, and you’ll marry a man from this village. I’ll bet my life on it.”

The woman
whom I was used to fleeing with from place to place was lying looking up at me, unable to believe what was happening to me. For the first time since we had met several years before, we knew that our lovemaking would not be abruptly halted, and yet she could feel me freezing on top of her.
    “Did you hear something?”
    Our ears would have to accustom themselves to disregarding what they heard, for together we had become oversensitive to any noise, and I don’t mean my wife causing a commotion, or someone shouting outside, or a car stopping suddenly, or even laughter floating through an open window: we jumped if the breeze lifted the light curtain, or if either of us took an unexpected breath.
    Once we had become tranquil again we would retrieve the feeling of heat that we had left hanging in the air and down around the lower parts of our bodies and become reabsorbed in it, oblivious to everything. Because of the atmosphere of panic and guilt, our bodies were like empty rooms, waiting to be