Your time on earth..

By Kirsten Nour Namskau

Someone asked me: “What troubles you the most in Egypt?”
I answered: “The traffic . . . They don’t have any traffic-culture, rules, proper driving-license or traffic signs.”
I came to think about a story someone told me long time ago . . . .

He was doctor and his wife was teacher. Both were successful and well renowned for their work. They had three children who also did well at school and were the most popular among teachers and other children as well. They lived in a like as well renowned, expensive area in Cairo.
This day, they were on their way to a family gathering in Alexandria.
Before they went to Alexandria, they also should go for a short visit to a small, famous village to buy some gifts.
They started early in the morning to reach it all.

In the village some miles outside Cairo, the people had just waked up. Everybody was busy with their morning chores before they got their morning cup of tea.
In one of the families, the mother was about to make tea, when she discovered that she didn’t have more sugar left.

As all this happened in the village, the other family was coming along in good speed with their car, as the children were reading some children’s magazines and the mother humming. They were known to be a happy family with a lot of love to each-other.
At certain point, the road got blocked by some sheep crossing the road. A little later, they went into a water-leak in the middle of the road, so they had to turn and take another way, which delayed them for about ½ hour.
To catch up with the time, the doctor raised the speed.
The wife could sense that his mood changed and that he got stressed by the delay.
She told him that they were not in that hurry, and by the way….it didn’t matter if they came ½ hour late.

In the village, the mother asked her small son who was 6 years old, if he could cross the street to his aunt and borrow some sugar-bits for the tea.
The boy run fast, crossed the street to his aunt to borrow some sugar-bits. His aunt was happy to see him and was holding him for a while to have a chat.

In the car, the children started to argue about the magazines….they all wanted the same magazine and soon they were in a loud-voiced shouting.

Their mother turned around to calm them down. Just at the same time as they reached the little village.

The little boy had just got the sugar-bits, holding them fast in his hand, so he should not drop them as he crossed the street. His feet made small footprints in the sandy road.
In the car, the mother was still looking at her children, trying to calm them down when she suddenly felt her husband made a sharp-stop.
It was as if all the angles in heaven was shouting: “NO, NO, NO, NO”
The next second it became so silent as if the whole universe were holding its breath.
She turned around, not knowing what had happened.
She saw her husband leaning forward towards his hands which was cramped around the steer-wheel, whispering: “ Ohh, nooo”
It took even a few second more, before people started to come out from the houses to see what had happened.
All this happened in front of only 2 minutes.
The wife opened the door of the car, to go out and see what had happened, since she still was not sure.
She went to the people who were gathered in front of the car.
There. . . she saw a little boy, stretched out under the wheels of the car. His face was pressed down in the sandy road, his arms was stretched over his head. One hand open, the other one tight closed.
When they opened the closed hand….. they found the sugar-bits he had saved for his mom’s morning tea.