ELEVEN
After leaving Houriya’s flat, you walked towards the seashore. You felt you needed to be alone in an unfamiliar place, where no one would intrude upon your privacy. So you went to walk by the sea, where you had always felt at harmony with its eternal blueness.
You went up the plateau of Sidi al-Sha’ab and chose an isolated spot at the top. You lay down on a stone, which was surrounded by larger boulders whose shadows shielded you from the sun and the people going to the nearby mosque. The worshipers would come from every direction but the sea, which was all you cared about. You gazed out at the blue as far as the horizon. You watched the swaying waves and the coming and going of ships in the port. From a distance, you saw the arc of the sky that encompassed the planet, mixing its
