The path of the outlawed

By Kirsten Nour Namskau

So, what’s next? I got my divorce, as everybody else, the children was passing the last years of the teen-ages and the smallest one wanted to live with his father. Suddenly, I didn’t have any responsibility, but I had my education as a teacher and still felt young enough to have some years ahead of me.
Is it now I suppose to realize myself?
Well, why not travel a bit? Take a look at the world . . . . what’s out there?
I packed my back-pack and took the train from Norway through Europe and ended up in Greece. I called a friend of mine in Egypt and asked him if it was ok if I came over to Cairo.
I was on the plane the next day . . . . and the following months, I should learn that friends are someone “you never should turn your back to.”
I had met Kenan earlier the same year, on a holiday. When I first met Kenan, it was something in his appearance which brought me to feel sorry for him. His life had taken a u-turn when he lost everything he had during one night in a Casino. Now he had causal work as a joiner on buildings-sites. He was a pity sight with several teeth missing, middle-aged and heavy-assed. But I had learned that he knew a lot of people in correct society. So I hoped he could help me by recommend me to someone who could give me work. And friends are friends, one doesn’t always have to be in an emotional relation to be friends . . .right?
Kenans nephew was personal-manager at Nile Hilton Hotel in Cairo. He had at the time a big flat in Zamalek, (the island in the river Nile.) He said I could take one of the rooms in his flat while I was searching for work and my own flat to rent.
So far everything seamed to go nice.
The following weeks, people started to tell me strange stories about Kenan, but during my life I had learned not to listen to gossip and I thought all this stories was rude gossip. I thought that maybe we could help each-other, if it was so that Kenan had some problems; maybe I had the means to help him in his situation.
But as the weeks passed, I felt more and more drained of energy and thought I was coming up with a cold. More so, every time I went for an interview, I felt something was not correct in the situation, but since I could not point out something special, I thought it only was my imagination. All until one day, I was at an interview in a kindergarten and almost was given the job as KG.1 teacher, when the owner of the kindergarten got a phone-call. She excused herself and took the phone. I started at the same time, because I could hear the voice of Kenan on the other side of the line, (Kenan always spoke very loud) and I thought something had happened to him. But that was not the case. He right out told the woman not to employ me, because he didn’t want me to work.
When I came back home, I asked him what he meant by doing something like that….so this was the reason for that I didn’t get any work????
I explained for him that we was not married, he didn’t have any regular work, so who should pay the bills? Did he believe that I was millionaire, or that my savings lasted for ever?
Again, Kenans cousin, Gelal, told me that it was better if I only left Kenan, for the sake of the both of us. I told him as so fast as I could find a work, I would also look for another place to live.
The coming week I started to feel not all well. As if my head was in a tin and I couldn’t keep my thoughts strait…as if I was about to slip away…..
A friend of mine, Amisa (who actually was Gelal’s ex-wife) told me that I had to leave Kenan very soon.
She told me: “ Nour, it scares me what they are doing with you. You are changing. Don’t you understand that they are poisoning you?”
“Why should they do so?” I asked
“If Kenan is poisoning me, who is there to help him, since his family had deserted him?”
“That’s why we have deserted him, you see.” She said
“He’s dangerous “
When I came home, I got a phone-call from another friend of mine in a city at the Red Sea named Ismaleya. He had just heard that I and Kenan lived at the place of Gelal.
He told me:” Nour, you have to get out of there. Tomorrow, I will come with a friend who has a car. Pack your things and get out in the street at 12pm. We will pick you up and find you another place to live.”
Secretly I packed my bag and put it under the bed, ready to lurk out of the house the next day at 12pm.
But it was too late . . . .
Early that evening I started to feel tired already at 8pm. I went to bed and felt a strange “silent” appear in my body and my head. I couldn’t fell asleep, I could hear everything around me, but it felt as if I couldn’t move or talk.
Whatever it was Kenan had poisoned me with, had send me into coma.
I could hear someone was at the door and Gelal opened it for someone. I could hear the sranger (a man) was asking for me. He was invited in and told that I had gone to bed.
I lost the sense of time, and I was conscious about that fact, because it was as if the same man came several times. I recognized his voice.
Suddenly one day, I could hear him outside my bed-room door. With an angry voice he said:” Is this woman always sleeping? Something must be wrong with her.”
I wanted to shout for help, but I couldn’t move or talk.
I could hear Kenan took a grip on the door-handle to prevent the stranger from coming in.
Then I heared the stranger; it sounded as if it was a fight outside the door and the stranger said, that if he was not allowed to see me, he would call the police, because he could feel that something maybe was wrong with me.
Again it sounded as a fight and suddenly the door blow open with a “bang.” I could feel and hear someone come up to my bed and took my hands. He massaged my hands while he said:” Nour, Nour, you have to wake up” At the same time he shouted out to Gelal to call a doctor.
He continue to massage my hands and feet to make them warm.
I tried to open my eyes, to talk, to move, but it was impossible.
I could hear someone come and the stranger left for a minute. . .
I wanted to call him back. I could feel fear but couldn’t move.
The stranger came back with another man. The new man came up to the bed, took a fast grip around my shoulders, shook me slightly and said:” I don’t know if you can hear me, but I am a doctor. Madam, you have been sleeping for too long time and I have been called to wake you up.”
The doctor continued:” Madam, if you can hear me can you squeeze my hand?”
I could feel that he took my hand in his.
I tried, and tried but didn’t succeed.
I could feel that he opened my eyelid and I understood that he used light to see the reaction in my pupils.
I could hear him talk slowly to the stranger.
“ She is in coma, how has this happened? If I get any reaction in her eyes, I will be able to wake her up. If it is no reaction, then she is gone. “
I could feel that he tried again and again, but it was no reaction and I could hear him tell the stranger:” She is gone, we have to call for an ambulance.”
I wanted to shout; ”No, No, I’m not gone. . . don’t leave me ! ! !”
I tried to use all the power I had to give any signals. The only thing happened, was a slight irregularity in my breathing.
But that was enough to bring the doctor back to the bed. Once more he tried several times to see if it was any reaction in my eyes.
Suddenly he shouted: “ It was a reaction. It was a reaction. It’s small but it was there.”
I could feel his hands take a new grip around my shoulders again when he said:
“ Madam, I am going to give you an injection and try to work with me now. If you have any chance to wake up, this injection will wake you up.”
I could feel that he gave me the injection and minute after minute went.
I could hear him say to the stranger: “ I don’t think it worked, I’m sorry.”
Then I suddenly could feel a heat coming over me and as if million of ants was crawling on me and a sudden anger brought me to put together everything I had of power. . . and then. . . .
I in a high speed sat up in the bed with my eyes wide open. My voice was not clear, but I was able to bring out something like a scream if breath.
The doctor pushed everybody out of the room and came up to the bed.
He let me calm down and then asked me what had happened after first had tested me for my memory of name, age, date and so on.
I told him everything I remembered.
The doctor understood that something criminal had taken place. He told me that he had to report this to the police. To Kenan and Gelal he said: “if anything more happens to that woman, (me) they will be the first the police will catch up with.”
When I first had become conscious, I recovered fast. The stranger, who named Magdy, staid with me in the flat of Gelal, after the doctors request. The doctor told him that it was two options. Either Magdy stayed there with me or I had to stay in a hospital until I had recovered. He didn’t like me to be alone with Kenan and Gelal.
Magdy looked for another place for me to live, and after 1 week, he came and picked me up and drove me to my new home.
. . . . . .