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The two of them had now left behind the station gate, the crowds fleeing the city, and the stench of sweat and dung of the horses and donkeys in front of the gates. They sat on the first bench they came across in the garden. The sun was up, and the air was fresh, neither cold nor warm. Dimyan realized that the open space above the square was vast and soothing.
“Did you really come to see me, Dimyan?” asked Magd al-Din.
Dimyan did not respond to the question.
“I am afraid of al-Alamein, Sheikh Magd,” was all he said. “I am very frightened.”
He raised the hem of his gallabiya to wipe some tears that had suddenly formed in his eyes. Magd al-Din was quite astonished at his friend, whom no one would believe had the soul of a lonely little child. Dimyan told his dream to Magd al-Din, who in turn was afraid, but for Dimyan himself.
“Where can we go, Dimyan? There’s nothing for us except the preordained, which no one knows. As the Quran says, “No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it will die.”
Dimyan felt sorry as he saw the traces of tears in his friend’s eyes. He really should not have caused him additional worry now, but should now find a way to take his mind away from worries. He said he had learned how to read and write and would buy the newspaper for the first time and read it. Magd al-Din, still sad over his separation from his family, said nothing.
Magd al-Din and Dimyan’s last night was Easter eve, on which Dimyan went with his family to church, as did Khawaga Dimitri, Sitt Maryam, and Yvo
Several events had taken place in the world the last few weeks. Bulgaria joined the Axis, and German troops entered the country to attack Yugoslavia and Greece. Italy lost seven battleships in one maritime battle with British warships in the Eastern Mediterranean, and nine hundred Italian sailors were taken prisoner. Miss Denise Musiri donated bonds at a face value of thirty thousand Egyptian pounds as an endowment to be administered by the Royal Endowment Department for the funding of educational projects. That prompted King Farouk, who had recovered from a long spell of indisposition, to issue a royal decree accepting the endowment and Miss Musiri’s conditions, and conferring upon her the Order of Perfection in order to encourage her and others like her to keep making such donations for scientific and humanitarian projects. Miss Musiri said that she could not forget the kindness of the late King Fuad I toward her father, Elie Musiri, which enabled him to achieve what he had achieved in industry and agriculture in Egypt. At the same time, a branch of the Egyptian ministry of justice a