Was this really what had happened? He could imagine what his brother’s riposte would be. ‘Fabulist! You’re making a movie out of your life! Get real!’ Ramzi would no doubt have retorted.
Suddenly, his mind was brimming with unpleasant scenes: Ramzi describing to him with seeming relish Shagaret El Dorr’s death; Ramzi pinning him to the ground to demonstrate his unquestioned physical superiority; Ramzi yelling at him ‘You’re mad!’ for pursuing an unknown woman at Café Astra on that saddest of days, the day Nasser resigned in acknowledgement of the army’s rout.
‘What’s the matter with me?’ Marwan whispered, his anger dissolving into some inchoate sadness.
He saw no point in getting in touch with Esmeralda; he would prefer not to meet her. He would of course like to remember her forever yo
