Mentally Occupied

15

- I was curious about that town, what does it look like? What's going on with it? How are humans? How does it feel when you think you are the guard or when you are the prisoner? Perhaps because the girl in that drawing knows very well what the opposite feeling is like. Look, these bars were placed to capture that world away from her, this world is a prisoner, not her! The world - imprisoned outside the bars and true freedom behind it, seems to be the one outside.

Fouad clapped for Malika and said:

- You have a wide imagination that enables you not only to draw but also to write novels, but from a woefully sad perspective, can't you draw something that will cheer up your room? Wherever you look, you will find these miserable stories in front of your eyes.

Malika smiled at Fouad's punches, but this does not mean at all that they became friends. She said to him while pointing outside the walls of the clinic through the window:

- In fact, this makes me happy! The more you feel the ugliness of this world of ours and how bad it is ethics. Humans and their hatred, then look at it. Those drawings and I rest assured that fortunately I did not exist in a world like this.

Malika suddenly felt a little pain in her head, so she started talking, saying:

- I think that's enough for today, I want to get some sleep.

- Well, I'll leave you now, thank you very much for that sharing with me your drawings and those little stories hidden behind them Which I would not have known without you. I'm really glad our relationship is improving.

Malika smiled and said:

- And me too.

Fouad got up and left Malika's room, smiling involuntarily, while the nurse Ashjan entered the room to give Malika the medicine. Immediately, she took the medicine again, and then returned to her bed and the more she tried to sleep, the more that pain in her head increased sharpness.

***

Malik walked heading towards Hana that she was standing with Rufayda directed his speech to Hana alone saying:

- I want to talk to you for a while. Can you come with me

Hana looked at him strangely and surprised but had nothing to say while Rufaida looked at him in feigned pride saying:

- Am I invisible? Why don't you answer me?!

- This is a well known question and the answer is clear.

- So what is his answer?

- Because I don't want to answer. I don't want to talk to you. It is simple. right?!

Rufaida ignored Malik's sarcasm and continued her conversation with him in the same way:

- Malik what we need is to talk!

Malik indicated to her, which means that only she wants to talk, while he does not want to. Then he looked at Hana, saying:

- can you come with me

Malik said it while pointing towards Hana. Hana looked at him saying:

- Go now, let's talk later, I'll wait for you.

Malek nodded at Hana and then went with Rufaida outside to talk to her alone after Hana asked him to do so and insisted on her request.

Rufaida said, admonishing Malik:

- If you want to get away, tell me! Don't walk away alone and let me keep looking for you.

Malik smiled sarcastically and said:

- Why do you approach me if you see in my eyes, in my ignoring your communications, and in my running away from meeting you, the desire to stay away from you?!

Rufayda paused before answering him. Rufayda sighed and said in a muffled voice that was filled with anger:

- Because you don't tell me the reason for this distance and that's what drives me crazy! To leave me without telling me the reasons and leave me thinking I'm not good enough!

Malik stopped walking, and accordingly Rufaida also stopped and looked at me while he was saying:

- The problem isn't really you, it's me.

No matter how much Malik talks and tries to explain to Rufayda, she will not understand him, she will not believe that he is talking to the dead, she will lie to him and even call him crazy, and at that time his secret will be revealed and everyone will know about it and they will link the events to each other and explain Malik's strange behavior sometimes and they will confirm Rufayda's point of view that he really has a paradise, and at that time his future career will be lost professional, but also social and financial.

- But I don't see any problems with you!

Malik sighed impatiently as he tried to explain to her:

- I'm not really fit for love, Rufaida, try. I tried more than once, but I failed every moment I spent with you, and my mind and soul were elsewhere.. I know that you will interpret my words in a way other than what I mean.. But this is the truth.

Rufaida grabbed Malik's hand and looked at him sadly, saying:

- We can go together to that place where your mind and soul are.

Malik moved his hand gently from her hand saying:

- This the place where no one can be but me!

- Why?! Why don't you give me a chance to share with you? I don't want to abandon you so easily. Don't you see the urgency to stay by your side despite my dignity? A waste? Doesn't that mean anything to you?!

Malik hit his head on the ground and said while slowly raising his head towards Rufaida's face:

- Because it is an imaginary place that does not exist in the first place! You can't join me because you can't walk with me and you'll run when you see the way to go.. It is a path from which there is no return.. Believe me, you will not bear it.

Of course Rufaida will not understand all this nonsense and will only think about one thing, she said, as she pronounced the letters of the words quickly:

- Is there another girl in your life?

Malik blew in a muffled rage and said imploringly:

- Rufaida Please don't try to put effort into something hopeless and useless, please leave and don't come back again.. that is better for you.

Rufayda repeated her question again insistently:

- Is there another girl?

She said it this time while stressing every letter of her sentence. Malik waved his hand in protest and said:

- There is no hope in our relationship.

- Why don't you answer me then?

- Because it will give you hope to come back again. I don't want you to come back or that you have any hope of returning.. Do you understand?

Rufayda smiled bitterly and sadly as she walked away. She said pointing to him with her index finger in a circular motion:

- I'll come back.

She left, leaving Malik with a lump in her heart, she loved him despite his strangeness, he had not spent a long time in that coastal city when they met for the first time, it was only the years of study and the beginning of his work in that company in which he occupied a prominent position now, since their first meeting at that party while he Occupying her despite his simplicity, he was not of the kind of young men that Rufaida got used to, she knew them through her frequent and usual visits to the club, to the extent that it was rumored that she resides in it, since she wakes up from her sleep, eats her breakfast quickly, drives her modern car, and goes to the club, doing her usual activities There, swimming for some time with her friends and young friends, perhaps holding some competitions between them, in which she often wins not by merit, but the youth approach her, let her win, and celebrate her victory with her.

After the first meeting with Malik and before the relationship between them was solidified, she met him on her way to the club one day. He was crossing the road and Rufaida happened to pass her car. He was not paying attention to the road. He looked behind him and made strange signs with his hand as if he was talking to someone on the sidewalk behind him. Rufaida looked at the sidewalk and found no one. She beeped her car, alerted Malik of a car approaching him, he hurried to cross the street, but the car approached him and stopped next to him, she opened the car window and smiled at him while wearing large sunglasses on her face, which he did not recognize at first, but the glasses left him recognizing her immediately, they had met Once after the party, he smiled at her apologizing for crossing the road in this way. She did not pay much attention to his words. She was not in a good mood that day. She agreed with the club's friends on a trip to Ain Sukhna, which they would spend in one of their chalet. She loves such trips that do not take more than a day. They travel together in a car or two at most, early in the morning, they head to their destination, they arrive before eight o'clock, she moves and behaves Rufaida more liberally those times, she gets drunk, dances in a bikini to the blaring music by the pool, only gets up on the way when they return and starts the return trip around midnight.

She was supposed to go with them that day, but she did not wake up as agreed, she woke up late in the afternoon as usual and found her phone turned off, it needs charging since last night and she forgot to charge it, she ate her breakfast and decided to go to the club, hoping to find someone like her who missed the trip, but she found your money on her way, an opportunity to get to know more about this eccentric young man.