Ismail, his milk-sibling, saw him approach on his bicycle and hurried into the house to tell his mother. When Na’sa came to the door and recognised her ‘son,’ she ululated with joy. It was his first visit since he left the village. ‘Ismail has been blathering on and I couldn’t make heads nor tails of it. What’s going on, boy? No hope of any sense. And it turns out you’ve come to visit us. A thousand hellos and welcome. My darling, you’ve been away from us for too long.’ She hugged him as she cried. ‘We said it would be two or three weeks and you would come back, then you go and stay for ten years? Isn’t that wrong of you, Medhat? And you stayed in Abu Kabir and didn’t want to come and see us. You’ve had a heart of stone since the day you were born, Medhat.’ As for Ismail, he hid himself aw
