Runaway Kid E-Book

Afaf Tobala

• Herausgeber: Nahdet Misr
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 107

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

الهروب لا يولد إلا هروبًا.. فقط المواجهة هي التي تطرح حلولًا.. هكذا يردد بطل الرواية الذى هرب من البيت بسبب الخلافات الاسرية، وبعد محاولات كثيرة للعيش بعيدًا عن أسرته، قرر العودة وتحمل مسئولية دعم الترابط الأسري، سواء تحت مظلة الزواج أو بعد الانفصال.

Leseprobe

Runaway Kid

A novel for young adults

Written by: Affaf Tobbala

Translated by: Amal Mostafa

Author: Affaf Tobbala

Inner illustrations: Maryam Hani

Translated by: Amal Mostafa

General Supervision: Dalia M. Ibrahim

Copyright © All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN:978-977-14-6201-9

Legal Deposit No.:13253 /2019

Jan. 2019

Established By Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim-1938

21 Ahmed Orabi St., Mohandseen, Giza, Egypt.

Tel.:[phone]

Fax: [phone]

Customer Service:16766

Website: www.nahdetmisr.com

E-mail: [email protected]

Prologue

He heard his mother’s voice calling, so he froze still. The sound came from the living room, which stood closer to the front door of the apartment than the bedrooms. In his planning, he had forgotten that two days earlier she began sleeping there. He knew she was a light sleeper. Ever since he was small and up until now, she would wake up at the hint of any sound from his bedroom to make sure he was well.

He stayed still till he felt that things were once more stable and secure. He tiptoed to the door of the apartment. He turned the knob, and quietly pulled the door open. He was afraid it would let him down and creak as usual, though he had sprayed its hinges yesterday with insecticide, like he had seen his father do with his bedroom door before.

He slipped through the door, taking out of his pocket the apartment key that his mother had given him to use in days he returned from school before her return from work. She advised him to take good care of it, as losing it would be risky and could put them in harm’s way. He withdrew the latch with the key and pulled the door towards him until it closed. He then took the key out, returning the latch to its previous position without a sound. He bent down and pushed the key under the door back into the apartment.

He left himself no way to go back inside without their knowledge if he decides to return.

He didn’t call the elevator to avoid the sounds it stirred. He descended the four flights of stairs quietly on foot. As soon as he came out of the gate of the building, with his bag hanging on his back, he took flight.

Mokattam

From a distance, he could see the square lit by some lanterns. It was completely empty, no passers-by in sight. He looked around in search for Yasser, but to no avail. He was sure he came at exactly the agreed time. Did Yasser let him down and go back on their agreement? In the last messages they exchanged, he had confirmed their agreed meeting time. That was before he turned off his phone and hid it in the closet among his clothes. He preferred to leave it behind, to prevent it being used to track him down.

Each of them, Yasser and himself, had a different problem to deal with, but they agreed that the solution of which lied in running away from home. His friend Yasser was the first to bring the idea up, but it was him that pushed to accelerate the date of its implementation. Yasser would have preferred to postpone the project until the beginning of the school year. He hated school and studying due to the great pressure his father put on him; no going out with friends, no playing football, and no mobile games except within the limits that the father set out. He scolded him for every moment in which he wasn’t studying, even on the annual school vacation. Yasser expected the matter to become more acute in the new stage of school. After the exam results came out, he did not leave him an opportunity to rejoice his good results, and began saying: “We entered the serious stage... What passed so far was only child’s play.” He reminded him that middle school would determine his future, leaving no room for complacency.

As for him, the motive was different from that of Yasser, and cannot be postponed.

He walked around the square, hoping that Yasser would arrive and join him. Suddenly a thought crossed his mind that made him look around anxiously and then run off: What if Yasser had confessed to his parents about his intention? Perhaps they were trying to contact his family to inform them. He must leave the place as soon as possible and go as far away as possible.

He sprinted in a straight line like an arrow, staying in main streets that were illuminated and avoiding dark side streets. He moved from one square to another until his feet led him to a square he had never seen before, with a public bus terminal, where some busses were standing by for the start of the morning service. The station was totally empty, except for a beggar with long disheveled hair, a thick beard, and dirty shabby clothes, sleeping on the floor in a secluded corner.

He sat down on one of the benches of the station, taking his bag off his back, placing it on his lap and resting his chin on it. Having Yasser with him would have made things easier. He was the master mind of their project. He had solutions to many difficulties, making things seem easy and possible. For overnight stay -the most difficult of all problems- he planned that they stay in an apartment his father recently bought in a new neighborhood. The apartment was still being constructed and not yet ready to inhabit. The other apartments in the building were all uninhabited, and no one will notice their presence. Getting a copy of the key from his father’s drawer was not difficult!

Now he must decide alone what to do and where to go. His familiarity with the streets was limited to the scope of his neighborhood, as his movement was confined between his school, club, and the rare outings that his mother allowed him lately, in which he went with his friends to a cinema outside the neighborhood. His mother restricts his freedom of movement out of concern for his safety, and if he complains she says: “What would I say to your father if something wrong happens to you!”

He reviewed the signs indicating the destinations and routes of the buses. All he wants is to go as far as possible. A sign saying “Mokattam” attracted his attention. He recalled a conversation that took place between his parents, in which his mother rejected the proposal to buy an apartment in Mokattam because it was far from their neighborhood, and most of her relatives and friends who live in it.

So, let his destination be Mokattam.

The light of day started to subdue the light of the street lanterns, making it look pale. Movement began in the square. Some passers-by showed up with traces of sleep still apparent on their faces. A cart selling beans for breakfast came in and some people soon gathered around it. As two men got on the bus bound for Mokattam, he found some courage and got on too. He sat on a seat in the middle of the bus by the window. It didn’t take long for the conductor to climb through the front door. He went to the person sitting at the front seat of the bus. The man extended his hand to him with money while saying: “end of the line.” When the conductor came up to him, asking him “where to?”, he felt he was looking at him suspiciously. He took out a five-pound note from the pocket in which he had put small coins, extending his hand with it, saying with fake confidence: “end of the line.”

The driver got up, holding a steaming cup of tea in his hand. He placed it in front of him and asked the conductor in a loud voice: “What time is it?” He replied from his seat at the end of the bus: “Half past five. Let us go with Trust in God.” As soon as the bus moved, he sensed sleep overcoming him. He did not know how long it would take the bus to reach that “end of the line” stop, so he feared if he fell asleep, he would miss it and find himself returning to the same terminal once more. He kept fighting sleep: sometimes rubbing his eyelids to defeat it, and sometimes sleep prevailing, only to wake up at the rocking of a bump, the sound of a horn, or the cry of the conductor calling out the names of the stops, and each time finding himself in a new place.

On one occasion he paid attention to the voice of the conductor calling: “end of the line.” He was standing next to him as if he was directing his words to him. He stood up, carrying his backpack and drowsily swaying his way out. As soon as he got off the bus, he confronted the terrifying question: “What will he do now?”. If it were up to him, he would lay down on the ground like the beggar he saw in the bus station and sleep: He had not slept all of last night.

* * *

The “end of the line” was on the outskirts of an inhabited area and close to an empty expanse of land dotted with buildings under construction. The view of the buildings reminded him of an incident that happened to him when he was six years old. He was playing hide-and-seek with some of his friends when he decided to climb the stairs and hide inside a building under construction. He was pleased to hear the voices of his friends looking for him and calling on him without ever being able to find him. He enjoyed their bewilderment and extended his stay in his

hideout until he, inadvertently, fell asleep. He woke up to find himself shivering from and immersed in the darkness of the night. He started crying and calling for his father. He never forgot the image of his father coming towards him and hugging him and starting to cry, as he, to the contrary, started laughing. At that time, his father had not yet gone abroad for work.

He found himself standing in front of the farthest building, which was ten stories high. The first two floors were without any walls. Only the third and fourth floors had walls. He considered going up to the fourth floor, thinking it was the safest as it was the farthest, but he felt tired and settled for the third floor instead. He entered one of the five apartments on that floor and chose an inner room for better concealment. He threw his bag and dropped on the ground. He was about to lie down, but he changed his mind. He took out the money he had distributed among the many pockets of his pants, which was all what he had saved in his money box. He opened the bag, then closed it again. Then, an idea came to him, that he could not remember if he had seen in a movie he watched or read in a detective story from those he regularly devoured. He took off his sneakers and removed its insole, stacking the big banknotes carefully in each shoe then putting back the insoles on top of them. He put his shoes on and tied their straps as tightly as the doors of a safe merits.

This way he could feel that his money was safe, because if a thief tried to mug him, he would look in the bag or in his pockets, in which he only left small change. It would not occur to him to search the shoes. He laid down, putting his head on his backpack. As he was about to give into sleep, he heard the faint sound of movement in the upper floor, but his condition did not allow him to resist, and he was swept away into a deep sea of slumber.

* * *