The magazine

Institution

The Coordination Department was on the same floor as Shehab's office, the editor-in-chief, and he is now sitting in Noha's office. Mustafa rushed, opened the door, entered, and quickly closed the door behind him. He entered the bathroom, closed the door on himself, and started shouting hysterically and saying incoherent words:
- Did you see.. an article.. I succeeded.. not a failure.. Mama.. I wrote.. I knew.. I..
Then he huddled behind the door and broke into a long cry, his body shaking and he could not control it.
After many minutes, Mustafa stopped crying and managed to control himself. He stood up and looked at himself in the mirror over the sink. He looked at himself as if he was seeing her for the first time. Are these his features? He opened the tap and kept looking at himself in the mirror while smiling and sending kisses to himself in the mirror. He washed his face and stood up arranging his clothes. He exited the bathroom, then Shihab's office. He passed by Noha's office, but decided not to enter. He passed quietly in front of him until he passed him, then left his feet to the wind until He exited the newspaper building.
That was not an escape, Mustafa did not run away from Shihab or Noha, but he hurried to a new battle arena, a confrontation that he must want to engage in, he felt that his mother should know that he wrote his first victories and achieved his first successes, he no longer believes her and does not trust her opinion anymore, He ran out of the magazine building, not knowing in which direction he was going, with a look of determination on his face and not feeling the midday crowd in the streets of Cairo around him. He kept running until his throat dried up, stopping to catch his breath, noticing that his shoelaces were not tied.
He put one foot on the sidewalk, bent down and tied his shoelaces, then changed his foot to the other and tied the laces. He found himself in front of a small grocery store. Mustafa entered and bought a small bottle of water. He stood in front of the shop, opened the bottle and drank half of it. He closed the bottle tightly and wanted to go to the opposite side of the street where the shade is. He heard a continuous, uninterrupted car horn while he was crossing. He was alarmed. He stopped where he was in the middle of the road. He found a microbus coming towards him quickly. He heard the sound of its tires rubbing on the asphalt. He did not know himself as he jumped forward. The microbus almost hit him. His breath quickened and he sweated profusely. He heard a voice calling him, laughing:
- Ride sir.. aren't you going?
Mustafa looked at the sound emanating from those sitting behind the steering wheel of the microbus, and Hermas found him with a yellow towel tied to his head and a cigarette behind his ear as he motioned for him to turn around to board the microbus. Mustafa breathed a sigh of relief and carried out what Hermas asked of him, before taking his inner step inside the microbus remembering Hermas' license who pulled him and turned to him, he wanted to back off but Hermas boy pulled him inside and closed the door of the microbus and Hermas took off with him.
Mustafa found himself sitting on the seat behind the driver between two passengers, and Hermas looking at him in the interior mirror, smiling.
Hermas turned to Mustafa and said, smiling kindly and gently hitting his chest with his hand:
- Thank you, sir, for the duty you have done for us.
Mustafa did not understand what Hermas was saying and thought he was mocking him. He asked him seriously:
- What is your duty?
- The duty, sir, is what you did in passing because of the license.
Mustafa wanted to correct the information for him, but Hermas, as usual, did not give him a chance, and he completed his words quickly, saying:
- Indeed, whoever has a back in this country does not get hit on his stomach.. I violated walking in the opposite direction.. No, and where?! On the October Bridge, which means at least five thousand pounds in fines.. I went to find the officer after you spoke to him. He gave her a seatbelt, I mean one hundred and fifty pounds.. I paid them and got the license.. May God not deprive you, Mustafa sir, my fate.
Hermas finished his speech while his boy put his head out of the window, shouting at the passers-by and those standing on the side of the street:
- institution.. institution.. institution..
Mustafa's sweat began to dry from the air rushing towards him from the window. He breathed slowly, then bowed and decided to confront Hermas first before his mother. If he could not confront Hermas, and he is just an old schoolmate in middle school, how could he face his mother? He patted Hermas on the shoulder to draw his attention. But Hermas did not turn to him and said:
- It's a shame, sir.. I have to get a divorce, and I'm getting paid.. Are you insulting me or what?
- Are you married, Hermas?
- No, not yet.. but I'm looking for a good girl.
- Well, look, Hermas.. I did not speak to anyone in traffic, nor did I do anything for you.
Hermas interrupted him, smiling.
- You understand, sir, by God.. I am a donkey, I mean.. I will not get a biography of course.. I know important people like you who don't want anyone to know anything about them.
- Do you believe in God?
- There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
- You really are an ass.
Hermas laughed and honked the car horn as if in a wedding procession and said to Mustafa:
- May God forgive you, sir.. May God forgive you.. But I have to divorce my love.
Hermas maneuvered between the cars and passed many of them as he pressed the horn until one of the passengers asked to get off. He swerved to the right quickly and stopped the microbus without any introduction. The horns of the cars behind him blared in disapproval of what he had done. He did not care about them and said while looking at the passengers who wanted to get off:
- Come on, colleague.. quickly, I get to this area, and it is forbidden to stand in it..
Then he looked at Hermas and said:
- My love.. I have to divorce my love..
Then he wanted to look at the passenger and shouted at him while gesturing with his hand to speed up:
- Don't hurry uncle.. There is no time.. Hope, come on.
Before the passenger who disembarked closed the door of the microbus, he sped off quickly and then hit the brakes in a sudden way. The door slid and closed. Hermas resumed his maneuvers between the cars. After nearly an hour he reached the end of the line, Mustafa got down with the rest of the passengers from the microbus. He waved goodbye to Hermas. Hermas smiled at him and said aloud:
- My love.. I have to divorce my love.
Mustafa smiled and said to himself: "A donkey... I have to divorce a donkey." Then he turned and headed towards his house.
***
A short phone call calls Shawkat to the Red Sea Governorate. The head of the Shalatin City Council will work there, but he has to go through a training course first in Cairo. They specified the place and time for him in detail. After passing that course, he has no choice but to travel there and practice his work, but how will he justify Shweikar for periods Being in that semi-daily training course, he found only Nabil his son consulting him. He knocked on the door of his room. Nabil did not expect anyone to come to his room, as this had never happened before. Shawkat entered the room. Nabil stood welcoming his father. Shawkat greeted him and asked him about his condition. Nabil told him everything related to Karama and her newborn, and that the club was waiting for a visit from him to sign her private papers and give her a name. Shawkat assigned his son that task, leaving him the freedom to choose the name. Shawkat recanted before saying:
- I want to tell you a story before I take your opinion on a topic..
- I prefer you.
- There was a doctor who was appointed to the hospital for the insane.. He was still a fresh graduate.. The director of the hospital was introducing him to the patients' wards and wards, and they were around. There was a madman working hysterically banging his brains in the back of his head.. The new doctor asked the director: "What is this for him?" The director replied to him and said: "He has been here for twenty years.. He was in love with a woman and did not marry her, so he went crazy." The doctor asked the director: "So, who did I marry her to?" The manager said, "He's in the room next to him."
Nabil laughed bitterly, looked at his father and patted his shoulder and said:
- What is the topic that you want to take my opinion on?Edit Feedback