Viva part Three (564 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: fiction
Rating: 2 on 8 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Corn Nugget (View user info) at 2005-01-27 20:58:47 EST
(continued from here http://www.ubersite.com/m/57002 )
It's an odd thing seeing yourself. My hair needed to be cut, my face was riddled with acne, and my eyes had tiny crusts forming in the corners. I was too skinny, and my clothes hung loosely off of my wiry frame. I made many mental notes as to adjustments I'd make once I regained my own body.
I had pulled us through the busy Cairene streets, and into this smoke laden cafe. We sat across from each other, my eyes unseeing, my face slack, seemingly lifeless. Shifting around in my chair, I tried to make eye contact with myself.
Standing just to the left of my chair and slouching just a bit provided the only vantage point in which to establish eye contact with my old body.
I squinted my eyes and waited for the lightning strike.
I thought, "Go in there!"
I prayed to Allah.
I cursed Allah.
Yet, I sat there, continuously unresponsive.
Around us, the other patrons of the dingy cafe started to take notice of our strange behavior. They rested their coffees and cigarettes, and made no attempt to hide their amusement.
So I aquiessed. I gave up, actually. The thought that I was stuck in Yasirs body sickened me more than the knowledge that my own body was catatonic.
Truth be told, there wasn't much to be desired in my original form. At least I'd moved up in the evolutionary world- I was no longer an akward, lanky teen- Now I was a man with glistening black hair, a fit body, and a charismatic air.
***
Of course there was the problem of me. I couldn't just leave myself at the cafe. The obvious solution was to take him home.
We left the smoke filled cafe, and started down the pedestrian filled streets. When we reached the apartment building that housed my family, I set myself down on the steps, and walked away.
I was careful not to draw attention to myself. I didn't want me (as Yasir) to have any connection to my soulless body on the stairs.
Watching from the shoe shop across the street, I saw that it took less than ten minutes for the doorman to notice the familiar face on the steps. After much hubbub, my old akward body was escorted inside, and out of my sight.
***
I couldn't go home to sleep, they wouldn't know who I was. I couldn't bare to go back to Yasirs house to sleep. Although I would be known and welcome, I still harbored a deep guilt over how I had treated Zeinab.
Many years ago, the mixture of Muslim faith and Egypts deep-seated pagan roots inspired a tradition: small homes were built over graves, and each year the family of the deceased would live above the dead for forty days, mourning their loss. The aftermath of such a tradition was a sprawling, ramshackle city, with no inhabitants.
It didn't take long for the economic crisis in Egypt to change these cemeteries. Peasants fled the poverty of the countryside, hoping to prosper in the city, upon reaching Cairo, they often found nowhere to live, no jobs to be had, and out of desperation, they settled in the City of the Dead.
Out of quite a different style of desperation, I too, settled among the graves.
Having been raised in an opulent household, I had nothing but fear and disdain for the place I was now forced to live in. The crime of the city all originated here, the thieves, murderers, rapists and godless people hid in this deathly city.
User Reviews
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-01-28 12:29:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Durae (user info) at 2005-01-28 11:11:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
this is a cool series
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-01-28 08:28:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
More!
Submitted by Wiggles (user info) at 2005-01-28 04:51:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Commment
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-01-28 03:17:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'd type a clever comment but my fingers are too sticky.
Errr...it's not what you think.
Submitted by Saxon (user info) at 2005-01-28 01:23:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I love reading your stuff.
Submitted by shitfuck (user info) at 2005-01-27 23:39:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I totally want you to suck my dick
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-01-27 23:03:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I wish for a turkey sandwich on rye bread with lettuce and mustard. And
-- and I don't want any zombie turkeys, I don't want to turn into a turkey
myself, and I don't want any other weird surprises -- you got it?
-- Homer Simpson
Treehouse of Horror II