Nahed went back to talking about Egypt. ‘We spent two nights in Sinai next to the St. Catherine monastery. Two of the most beautiful nights of my life. We would lie down on the ground - we’d each climb into our sleeping bag - and wouldn’t shut our eyes until they had been filled with the sight of the sky with all its stars. And we would….’
He interrupted her. ‘You said we. Were you part of a group?’
‘There were only two of us: me and Salma. And in Sinai, I realised for the first time that we city people weren’t just missing out on seeing the moon and the stars, we’ve also lost the ability to listen to silence.’
‘That sounds like poetry,’ he said glibly, since this was all part of an act. He felt a sweeping desire to direct the conversation towards music. ‘I know that, in music, moments
