23. Hourglass
الساعة الرملية
Ilyas the tailor had just 20 minutes available the following Monday to see Sam(a) for measurements. Ghozala and Lilia escorted Sam(a) to Monsieur Edouard’s first thing in the morning only for Ilyas’s helper Hani to turn them away once more, poking his little, moustachioed head through the scarlet velour drapes behind the shop door. The drapes and Hani were meant to hide female forms from the peeping Toms getting off the tram at Sidi Gaber. Hani instructed the girls to return at exactly 2:30 in the afternoon. ‘Not a moment sooner, not a second later,’ he said. ’We are a great deal busier than usual, and we don’t want to keep you waiting,’ Hani explained. And then he vanished behind his scarlet drapes.
On the way to Monsieur Edouard’s, passing the flower shop
