Mentally Occupied

25

Her face, which became pale again. Her lips were white. Her body was as cold as a sheet of ice. Ashjan hurried towards Malika quickly. She grabbed her by her shoulders. She shook her gently, and asked her upset:

- Malika, Are you fine?

Submissive Malika in the hands of Ashjan. She looked at her with a perverted look, her mouth half open and her eyes half closed. Malika extended her hand to take from Ashjan a plastic cup filled halfway with water. She tossed the pills into her mouth on once. She swallowed it with more than half of the water falling on her clothes because of her shaking hand. She moved again in the room without a clear goal, running her hand through the locks of her hair, holding her head tightly and groaning.

- Today is the monthly date for the inspection committee's visit. They will grieve again to see you in that state!

Ashjan said while smacking her lips. Malika kept hallucinating incomprehensible words. She wanders erratically around the room. Ashjan came out of her room and let her calm down on her own.

She went to speak with doctor Naim. It was at the same time With Dr. Fouad arrival at the sanatorium in the morning. He asked to meet him upon his arrival directly, and before he made his morning round to his patients. Fouad sat in the chair in front of Naim's office. Naim took a short sip from his cup of coffee and looked at Fouad. He told him to inform him of something new to him as a new doctor in the clinic:

- I think you don't know that today the examination committee will come. I spoke with the rest of the doctors before you came and everything was arranged. I wanted to ask you too; how's it going?

Fouad sighed before answering, saying:

- Everything is alright. Rooms 4 and 5 also had two cases that weren't as it should. They attacked each other yesterday while they were eating their lunch, but we could separate them and give them sedatives. I spoke and discussed with Dr. Naglaa about the type of medicine that we offer, and she suggested other modern types that are more effective and have fewer side effects. We can use them as an alternative starting from next week. This is a list of those suggested medicines.

Fouad took out a piece of paper from the pocket of his white coat and gave it to Doctor Naim, a list of alternative medicines. Doctor Naim read it quickly. He folded the paper and places it in front of him on the desk. After that, a smile spread across his face.

- Really cool. I've been thinking about this for a while, because the medication we used to find it difficult to find it from the pharmacy in the big main hospital.

Naim continued:

- Finally, the chief pharmacist there told me that it no longer existed after stopping the import of some medicines based on orders from the government.

He looked at him straight in the eyes with excessive confidence.

- Those types that I told you about and are written on this piece of paper are now available in the hospital pharmacy and in large quantities because it is locally manufactured. I will send them a request. They allocate a share for us as soon as we finish our conversation.

Naim stood up and went towards Fouad with quiet steps. He approached him. Fouad wanted to stand up, but Naim gently prevented him by fondling on Fouad's shoulder, encouraging him, he said:

- Good. Now tell me; How is Malika doing?

- I haven't seen her for a few days because she was sleeping most of the time. Whenever I went to her, I found her asleep. I thought there was something wrong with her. Something related to her vital signs. I checked her temperature, blood pressure and pulse and everything was fine. It is information that I know of course, but I did not think about it, so I wanted to offer an alternative to the drug because in fact I had not used this type with patients before and I could not guarantee its side effects, but the last time I sat with Malika she was very well and her face was bright and she spoke normally even she shared with me the stories of her drawings.

Doctor Naim smiled proudly and encouraged Fouad, saying:

- I am very glad that you have made progress in her treatment, and even more so that you have proved yourself in the sanatorium since the first day that I came here, and I promise you that we will celebrate together at the end of the day if it goes well.

Fouad smiled and said:

- I am also glad I made the decision to come here, it is a unique and different experience and I am happy to go through it.

Doctor Fouad stood up. He picked up the folded paper on Naim's desk. He left the office to send the list to the supervisor. After he waved farewell to Naim from afar without extending his hand to shake his hand, Naim was surprised at that, because when Fouad entered, he greeted him while he was standing at the door, then sat directly without shaking his hand.

In the corridor leading to the doctors' rest room, Fouad met Naglaa, bowed his head, and saluted her. He stopped to talk with her a little bit and tells her the conversation that took place between him and the doctor, Naim.

The director of the sanatorium prepared for this well and received Doctor Naim and the team of doctors the competent committee with pleasure. They were checking the infirmary corner by corner, one by one, and taking a look at the hospital rooms, bathrooms, kitchen. pharmacy, restaurant and the garden. While some of them went to inspect the walls of the sanatorium from the inside and outside, they did not leave a place in it except that they took a close look at it and asked and inquired about what they wanted to know from the responsible specialist. They care a lot in their research about hygiene, the health of patients, and the quality of food that is served to them and the environment around them.

***

Nagla does not care much about the inspection committees. She knows that Naim can settle matters with them in his own way, as he settles his affairs with her in his own way. He got rid of her on the day of Eid, provided that they talk in the sanatorium, and she is always busy, and if she finished her work, he got busy, so she went to her room where She entered the window overlooking the pomegranate tree, she entered, everyone was busy with or with the committee, she opened the window, looked at the tree, sat down and took out the picture of her mother, placed it in front of her, contemplating her in silence, why did a beautiful young woman in a respected and prestigious position, a doctor with a future ahead of her, agree to establish a relationship with another doctor other than her religion? All this because he promised her a husband? Did she give herself up to him just because of a promise she didn't know if he would fulfill it or not? There must be something else more important and more dangerous than that. He could not have raped her, for example. You know him very well. He is cowarder than this. She must have fallen in love with him. Perhaps now his appearance and appearance do not suggest that he is fit for love, but in his youth it was something else. Lots of pictures of him, he was really handsome, his hair was black at the back of his neck, nothing was left of it

Did her mother really love him? And did she die at birth, as her grandfather told her when she was young, and her uncle assured her of that after his death, or did they get rid of her so that they could bury their shame with her? If they had wanted this, they would not have kept her baby girl. She died during childbirth, but another question usually appeared and danced before her eyes. Why did her father escape and disavow her mother when she needed him most, and despite that, when her uncle died, he left her a letter informing her of the truth about her father. Indeed, her father was present at the funeral and funeral ceremonies and introduced her himself when the opportunity came for him on the same day. I knew from this letter of her uncle that her father He sends her a large amount of money as her monthly allowance. Things are confusing and she cannot find an explanation for her. He supports her with his money and runs away from her mother when she gives birth. It must have been on the day he met her grandfather and uncle and confessed to them what happened and did not deny it. Perhaps he is the one who sought that, and at the same time he does not give her its name.

The position of her grandfather and uncle is also confusing. Perhaps you understand that her father may have offered them to take his daughter to raise her, and that they refused that so that she would follow their religion and that of her mother, but at the same time they were not forced to truly confess his daughter, perhaps they wanted to cover her mother and not expose her.

She lit a cigarette and, as usual, contemplated her smoke, kissed her mother's picture and put it back in her place, finished her cigarette and left her cramped room after saluting the consciousness on the pomegranate tree. She returned to work to see what the inspection committee was doing, but she did not know that someone was watching her thoughts and listening to her well.

***

Rufaida woke up from her intermittent sleep tired, she didn't find anything to do, she didn't want to call or talk to Wissam, she was going to tell her bad news that she didn't want to hear, she didn't want to think about Malik even though he occupied her heart, she sat in her bed not knowing what to do, she couldn't go back to sleep, She had no desire to wake up, an idea occurred to her mind for a while and always kills her when she appears in front of her, to go to the club, it does not matter that you meet her old group, the club is spacious and it is possible to sit far from the swimming pool where they gather at this time of the day, she lazily got up On her bed, she went to her bathroom, put herself under the shower after adjusting the temperature of the water, washed well and went out, dried her hair and started to wear her clothes, sat in front of her mirror and adorned herself, sprayed showers of perfume, picked up her bag, phone and car keys and left.