The Time and the Place Read Online Free Page B

empty-handed—no beans and no oil.”
    “Linseed oil? Vegetable oil? Olive oil? Why didn’t you tell me?” I said angrily.
    “Beans with oil means beans with linseed oil.”
    “How should I know?”
    “You’re a good-for-nothing, and he’s a tiresome man—tell him beans with linseed oil.”
    I went off quickly and called out to the man while still some yards from his shop, “Beans with linseed oil, mister.”
    “Put the piaster on the counter,” he said, plunging the ladle into the pot.
    I put my hand into my pocket but did not find the piaster. I searched for it anxiously. I turned my pocket inside out but found no trace of it. The man withdrew the ladle empty, saying with disgust, “You’ve lost the piaster—you’re not a boy to be depended on.”
    “I haven’t lost it,” I said, looking under my feet and round about me. “It was in my pocket all the time.”
    “Make way for someone else and stop bothering me.”
    I returned to my mother with an empty dish.
    “Good grief, are you an idiot, boy?”
    “The piaster…”
    “What of it?”
    “It’s not in my pocket.”
    “Did you buy sweets with it?”
    “I swear I didn’t.”
    “How did you lose it?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Do you swear by the Koran you didn’t buy anything with it?”
    “I swear.”
    “Is there a hole in your pocket?”
    “No, there isn’t.”
    “Maybe you gave it to the man the first time or the second.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Are you sure of nothing?”
    “I’m hungry.”
    She clapped her hands together in a gesture of resignation.
    “Never mind,” she said. “I’ll give you another piaster but I’ll take it out of your money-box, and if you come back with an empty dish, I’ll break your head.”
    I went off at a run, dreaming of a delicious breakfast. At the turning leading to the alleyway where the bean seller was, I saw a crowd of children and heard merry, festive sounds. My feet dragged as my heart was pulled toward them. At least let me have a fleeting glance. I slipped in among them and found the conjurer looking straight at me. A stupefying joy overwhelmed me; I was completely taken out of myself. With the whole of my being I became involved in the tricks of the rabbits and the eggs, and the snakes and the ropes. When the man came up to collect money, I drew back mumbling, “I haven’t got any money.”
    He rushed at me savagely, and I escaped only with difficulty. I ran off, my back almost broken by his blow, and yet I was utterly happy as I made my way to the seller of beans.
    “Beans with linseed oil for a piaster, mister,” I said.
    He went on looking at me without moving, so I repeated my request.
    “Give me the dish,” he demanded angrily.
    The dish! Where was the dish? Had I dropped it while running? Had the conjurer made off with it?
    “Boy, you’re out of your mind!”
    I retraced my steps, searching along the way for the lost dish. The place where the conjurer had been, I found empty, but the voices of children led me to him in a nearby lane. I moved around the circle. When the conjurer spotted me, he shouted out threateningly, “Pay up or you’d better scram.”
    “The dish!” I called out despairingly.
    “What dish, you little devil?”
    “Give me back the dish.”
    “Scram or I’ll make you into food for snakes.”
    He had stolen the dish, yet fearfully I moved away out of sight and wept in grief. Whenever a passerby asked me why I was crying, I would reply, “The conjurer made off with the dish.”
    Through my misery I became aware of a voice saying, “Come along and watch!”
    I looked behind me and saw a peep show had been set up. I saw dozens of children hurrying toward it and taking it in turns to stand in front of the peepholes, while the man began his tantalizing commentary to the pictures.
    “There you’ve got the gallant knight and the most beautiful of all ladies, Zainat al-Banat.”
    My tears dried up, and I gazed in fascination at the box, completely forgetting