Khalid Hassanin

hole of the death



 


 





there in the lane of el sheikh Khalil in al-Hussein neighborhood, there was a tacky child,inconsistent dressed, wearing a garment that unfold or reveals his body more than it covers it.it reveals a skinny little scrawny body like a stick of pressed sugar cane, with a little chest whose bone are about to pass into it, and shows the viewers a small stomach like a beveled football, and thin legs like nails. He was sad faced covered by the worries features that impacted him as an old man in the fifties of his age though he is in the prime of his early childhood, its strength,its rouge. He owns an intelligent eyes, hope turned off inside them, that is replaced by hopelessness and helplessness and surrender as a man with a satiation from life who enjoyed its feed, and impatiently waited for his end. Otherwise he is deprived of his most basic rights, this is the matter of sayed abdull azeem or who is referred to her after as sico as entitled by his neighbors in his lane and his companions the boys who works as mechanics and his preceptors as the love and appreciate him why not? He is charge of a family that consists of seven persons after the death of a father, bearing its expenses and its requirements in consideration to his daily work as a mechanic boy. He was a huge responsibility bearer on his shoulders in the age of twelve years old. He launched his misery and fatigue and night sweats as a ladder to raise his brothers to the top, as he turned the dark of his ignorance and illiteracy into a torch that lighten the way to his brothers and guide them to light of learning. He neglected his happiness and his needs to make his family happy. His childhood, his dreams, his wished were completely destroyed as a young child wants to play and run and spend his leisure time for the sake of his family needs. He was self-confident as an old respected lordly man.he was laughing roughly and speaking as an old man, he looks at the world his mind fully busy with these questions that occupies the mind of every old man, n! ot a chi ld in his age who is in charge of a family, thinking about how much he earns, how much he spends? How much he saves? Till the end of these questions that needs much efforts, and reasoning as an old man frequently tried to remove the cloth of childhood with full persistence, like him must not be a child otherwise his family would be destroyed.



in spite of his desperate attempts, that feelings of childhood sometimes overcomes him with its dreams and laughs particularly when sees the boys of his lane in his age playing truants,hopscotch,football and quarrel and joy and seem happy, differently he cannot do like them as the result of his responsibility he is in charge of. Thus he was bitterly looking at them every time he was in his way to work, he tired to format his feeling by the manhood darkened color while giving his opinion ,then he returns back to his nature and to his repressed feelings as a child and forget his rage reality that imposed by his bad circumstances.thus,it was the day when he tired to remove the garment of the old charged man for a family who takes care of it and wears the cloth of childhood to play all the games that children play and made his mind busy scoring some goals? And how many games he played? Till one Friday the ill-fated day,it was a dark, sad morning where the sun was behind the clouds in order to unseen the terrible scene, as air was dry as a man who lost his glittering from the intensity of fear for what will happen to that poor child as if it predicted the blind sheet or expecting for the fate for the fate of sayed? He woke up when his mother called him in a simple tone; wake up sayed it is about ten now, wake up to have breakfast. He reeling woke up as a man who came from a pub,drunk,and said with a fatigue voice, good morning my mother and kissed her hands and washed his face and removed the wrinkles sleep and had his breakfast rapidly.innocently he told his mother,i am going to my darling mother to play with my friends, but his mother was surprised by his words as if she were expecting something wrong would happen to him, and that there will be a disaster would shake her entity for fear of loss for him,please stop playing today, be at home better, much I miss you my son,sayed.all the week in your work,i can t see you, but she retreated when she saw the look of despair in his eyes as it was difficult to see ! him sadl y broken after his work all the week, she begged him to play beside the home and take care of yourself and don t be late and looked at him with a suspecting look as if she would not see him again. She tried to dismiss this bad image away from her thought and forget it.but it is still chasing her all the time she does her home duties and frighten heart and evokes the frightening obsessions.



sayed started playing football, running behind it, scoring goals happily, but he was not aware of the beast beside him opening his mouth to receive the unsuspecting people, that were a deep sink, children were still playing with sayed, but the mother did not stop come and back into the balcony to check for him then back to work inside home, but she tried to hide the matter. The ball thrown away, and he followed it but he did not remark the position of his foot, seconds he dispread shooting a weak cry coming from the depth of the age and fell into a big hole as if the hole was a dark hole that attracts the stars who don t appear again, no sound was heard because of its depth.friends ran towards him, and every one saw the accident from the lane and the coffee visitors rushed to the hole, women cried from the windows and balconies, thus his mother rose up as if a devil touched her body and in fear rapidly said heaven forbid. She ran towards the balcony, saw the people around the hole, not aware of what happened in the street, she was terrified when she did not see her son before her or in the middle of the people playing or running out there. Hysterically she started crying as if she were about to be mad,sayed,sayed,my son sayed, nothing came back except her sound echo anguished for the loss of her child, as a child who was playing with him told her about what happened for her son. She cried with a severe cry denying what she heard about the action happened to sayed, she was rapidly down stairs, not feeling of any thing around as she was wearing an old garment without slippers and jumped the four stairs in one jump for fear of the action. Till she came to the location of the hole, pushing hardly people as she passed into their rows as the light rays pierced through glass till she attained the well, crying with highly screams when she saw the depth of the well, yet she has seen her son sayed as she has into comma, people took her away of the accident location and started recovering her.one of the public said! despera tely how we can get the child out of the hole? Another one surrendering in despair said it is too deep as a bottomless well. The third said in persistence with full strength, we have to try to get him out. The fourth one was puzzled, how come? The fifth said that the case needs a special tools and trained persons.


the sixth suggested that there is nothing to do. but to call the police to have an action. All people agreed on his opinion spontaneously, each of them called the police in the same time then  the mother recovered from her comma and restored her awareness as a dead one whom came to life again, and began to cry for her son again. She said with loud cries,oh,my lovely son;i have no one but you, who care for me,oh,the man of the family its only supporter, neighbors by any means tried to calm her and to make her will recovered, but profitless. They were telling her, the police would come now to take an action, just go upstairs to your home and try to be calm and pleased, but she was fully unaware by the matter just thinking of her son,sayed.a long time later the police came, and the officer came out with his decent suit and starting to ask many questions about the accident to the standing people before him, and people who saw and did not see the action started to answer his questions, then the bereaved cried into the policeman face with angry as if she were objecting on the world and fate that took sayed. She said angrily, it is not its time,i need my son; get him out if he was alive to save him, if he was dead I would bury him. All these questions would not provide him with information. The officer sharply said,i am my sorry old lady for asking all these questions, but it is my duty, but the issue of getting him out or to save him, is neither my charge nor the police too. She said in sarcasm mixed bitterness, who may save my son? He started to explain, you have to precede a record against the sewerage authority in the suburb as the reason of the discard to leave the hole opened to fall it, the authority is in charge of that getting your son out whether he is dead or alive or it may be fire station or the ambulance. She tried to object but the public dissuaded her to do that, as they spoke to her in a naïve negative tone, he will try to help mrs.om sayed, just go with the officer and proceed for a ! record, and by god is will your son they will get him out alive. she went long, but not aware of the matter, but she made a record.

here the officer told her that the issue is in  the justice mortgage and asked  them and my son, he told her in a clear hard tone that the matter is out of his hand, and just you have to call the ambulance or the fire station.already,she called the ambulance that neglected the issue and did nothing as there is no injured person to deal with as the ambulance cannot get him out. Because no tools provided for that and the fire station who save people, only them from the top not from the bottom. Many weeks later from the mother's misery, tears running over face while seeking and there to get her son out of the hole. Dead or alive, and the police summoned one of the sewage authority following the Hussein suburb and told him by the charge of discard, but he denied and threw it onto the  engineer in charge of sewage in the area who did not covered the hole as it is his responsibility.investigation lasted for a long time; the mother did not stop crying, slapping cheeks bitterly repeating one word, my son..as she tried to storm the officer's room to kiss his hand and legs and the sewage authority officer too, as she doesn't need to do a record or questionnaires or anything else, except to know whether her son is dead or alive. The officer strongly cried at her face, be quiet my lady, we try to know the truth to know the idler to punish him to get your right back and ordered the solider to get her out. Helpless with despair said when she tried to avoid the solider is strong hand; I know that will happen, your excellency, my son is thrown in the hole, garbage like, is there anyone who felt his feelings if he is alive or dead in the deep darkness with insects and dust and mice?is there anyone who wiped his tears of fear?if he were your son, would you do the same reaction as if something happened at all and my heart is burning with fire for him? They felt sorry for her and tried to let her to be quiet but nevertheless. investigation lasted but they were not care for her, but ended! by reca lling the engineer in charge of the holes, weeks passed along, but the mother neither is quiet nor can sleep for her continuous crying, multiplied by the diseases until she became as a pale ghost, equally his brothers, the whole neighbors in the suburb that lived in a state of strong sadness as sayed was an important great figure, a son for every house in the lane of el sheikh khalel.people of  in the lane used to see her go and back from the police station till the engineer of the sewage was recalled for investigations for a long time, who claimed that covers of the holes is his charge, but the issue of covering them is the charge of sewage labors and their chief who was also recalled to investigations. But he also denied the charge and throw it on the labors who denied their negligence and the gross wrongs.closed hellish--circuit in which the mother experienced for many months between the police station to know the investigations news  and sewage authority asking but begging to get her son body as it is the only that able to do after the refusal from the all. she says with a sad tone that exudes with bitterness, it is forbidden to leave him as cadaver without a tomb.i know that is dead I commanded my god and I asked award from HIM,but at least I want his body, to bury, to have a known tomb to visit and to speak and to cry and laugh with to blame me and to blame him for his evil-doing actions, to see me and see him putting flowers on his tomb, and let the reciter read a surah from the holy quran.i beg you give a merci for a mother threatened by the diabetic and pressure diseases sorrow for her liver core, he was the family host or its only supporter, the family lost after him,i sold the home furniture and I have got loans for the subsistence of living, she was piffling till her mind was about to gone mad from her severe sorrow for the loss of her son, but nobody care or feel her tragedy. Sewage authority listened to her speech with carelessness with the sympathy words free from any m! eaning o r a value or an attempt to compensate her, but she refused and the sewage authority director was obliged to dismiss her as the result of his annoyance from her speech and cry and persuaded her that the authority is not in charge for what has happened for her son, but it his fate. She told them in simple words, but expreesive,how come for such a fatal accident and you are in charge of leaving the holes without covers. Her speech was at heart, but they carelessly they responded, go and whatever you can do, complain us the courts and never come back again. Even the police did not care about the matter as it cleared the all, the director, the engineer, the labors chief,labors,and the case was closed by one word '' fatalism'' when she heard that, she cried a storming cry like the people hurt by flood to drown,hysterically unbelieving for what she listened, and about to be mad how come? How did this happen?is it possible, to leave the criminals kill my son without care for getting him out to bury?i swear it is forbidden where is the right?...where is the law? The officer was objected by confusion; sorry it is neither in my charge nor the police nor in the law text to have a deterrent punishment for the neglectors and for their neglecting, all are simple sentences that don t exceed more than one or two months, but not enforced or replaced by simple fines starting from ten Egyptian ponds and ends by one thousands Egyptian pounds, thus by proceeding an action before the courts, it permissible to judge for you or not at most after many years. She spoke in a sarcastic mixed with bitterness manner;i had got a compensation for my son... The heart of my liver. The money of the world cannot compensate my son who died without guilt, without tomb, without a reciter to read the holy  Quran, but died as a worthless dog or importance for the men of honor like you and the persons in charge in sewage authority. The officer told her that he is still pity for her, and said you are live and&nb! sp;you n eed this this compensation to get your expenses, he died,i hope my god bless him. She replied, my lord, we are poor people, we are not able to pay neither for lawyers fee nor for courts journey that lasts for many years to get the right, thus if he reached to get it.it may worthy of more and more, but not the least as you tell. She left him and went out muttering secretly with some phrases, tears overlay her eyes'' suffice god, the best of the agents'' the hole is still opening its mouth with a wide smile, looks as an endless deep cave door, which is telling in slag and subtle and with happiness is it more to swallow? 
















All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Khalid Hassanin.
Published on e-Stories.org on 01.03.2016.

 
 

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