Samara's voice tried to draw out Sana's voice, but it did not utter a word. Ragab's voice said: "Tell me your primary concern!"
And Sana's voice said: "No"; but the voice of a kiss whispered, indistinct and blurred. As for the voice of Khalid, it said: "My first concern is . . . anarchy!"
Laughter rang out. Then a silence reigned, like an interval for rest, and the void had complete dominion.
Amm Abduh approached. "A woman has just fallen from the eighth floor of the Suya Company building," he said.
Anis regarded him anxiously. "How did you find out?"
"I hurried over when I heard the scream. It was a shocking sight."
Ali's voice: "Luckily we're far from the street--we can't hear anything."
"Did the woman commit suicide or was she murdered?"
"God only knows," replied the old man. Then he hurried out to the street.
Ali suggested going out to see what was going on, but this was rejected by the company. The shock of the news had returned the atoms to their original formation, and people were themselves again. Anis was glad that he had escaped from his wearisome solitude. The company of madmen was better than being alone. It was Mustafa's turn to speak now, but Ali wanted to avenge himself first.
"He's a lawyer," Ali began, "who lost some of his best clients when the constituencies were reorganized, and who lives now off the misdeeds of ordinary people. His first concern, after getting an advance on his fees, is the Absolute; and this even though he is ruthless when it comes to getting the balance of the fees!"
"So you're devout!" said Samara.
"God forbid!"
"But what is the Absolute?"
It was Ali who replied. "Sometimes he looks at the sky, and sometimes he retreats into his shell--and sometimes he is sure that he is close to it, but there are no words to describe it. Khalid has advised him to go to a gland specialist."
"But he is one of the serious people at any rate?"
"Not at all. His Absolute is absurd."
"Could you describe him as a philosopher?"
"In the modern sense of philosophy, if you wished; that is, the philosophy that combines theft and imprisonment and sexual perversion à la Jean Genet."
Anis recalled his last meeting with Nero. No, he was not the monster people said he was. He had said that when he found that he was emperor he killed his mother; and then when he became a god, he burned Rome to the ground. Before all that, he was just an ordinary human being--one who loved art. And this was why he now enjoyed the bliss of paradise. Anis laughed aloud--to find all eyes turned upon him, and Samara addressing him. "Your turn now, master of ceremonies; what is the most important thing for you?"
Anis answered without a second thought. "To be your lover," he said.
Everybody roared with laughter--and Ragab burst out: "But . . ." before remembering himself. Everyone laughed all the more, and in spite of the embarrassment, Samara persisted in getting a reply. Ahmad answered for him. "To kill the Director General."
Samara laughed. "At last I have found somebody serious," she said.
"But he only thinks about that when he is clearheaded."
"Even so!"
Amm Abduh returned. He stood by the screen in front of the door. "The woman committed suicide," he said. "After a quarrel with her lover."
There was a short silence, broken by Khalid. "She did the right thing," he said. "Change the water in the pipe, Amm Abduh."
"So there is still love after all," murmured Samara.
Khalid spoke again. "The woman most likely killed herself when she was serious. We, on the other hand, will not."
Ahmad said that every living creature was serious, and built its life upon that foundation; and that absurdity did not usually occur to the mind. One might find a killer without a motive in a novel such as _L'Etranger_, but in real life? Beckett himself was the first to take swift legal action against any publisher who broke the contract on his absurdist works!
Samara was not convinced. She maintained that what was in the mind must somehow influence behavior--or, at the very least, feelings. Take, for example, the nihilism everywhere, the immorality, the spiritual suicides! But human beings are still human beings, and they must rebel against it, even if only once a year! . . .
Ragab suggested that she stay until dawn, to watch the sun come up over the acacias.
She declined the invitation, and at midnight took her leave. When they suggested one of them drive her home, she thanked them but refused.
After she had gone, there was a silence like that of rest after toil. Fatigue threatened to overtake them all. Anis decided to tell them about his atomic experiment, but he was forced by his own lassitude to abandon the idea.
"What is behind this strange and fascinating woman?" Ahmad wondered aloud.
Ali's large eyes were red now, and his great nose looked almost bulbous. "She wants to know everything," he said. "And she wants to make a friend of everyone worthy of friendship."
