The Cairo House. Samia Serageldin

in his favor, she thought; Tamer’s antics didn’t seem to disconcert him.

      

      ‘Well?’ Mama asked impatiently on the phone late that afternoon, after Yussef had left. ‘What did you talk about?’

      ‘Oh, nothing special. We went for a walk on the beach. You know, he was wearing espadrilles all the time.’

      ‘Espadrilles?’ Mama sounded puzzled. ‘Darling, have you made up your mind yet?’

      ‘Not yet, Mama. But I will by the time I come home tomorrow, I promise.’

      Gigi decided to take Domino for a walk on the beach; he had been cooped up a good part of the day to keep him out of Yussef’s way. She changed out of her dress and put on a pair of comfortable Bermudas.

      The sun was setting and the beach was deserted. In the distance she saw a windsurfer skimming the water, headed for shore. A lonely swimmer bobbed in the foreground.

      Gigi turned and headed away from the chalets, splashing calf-deep in the surf, looking away from the blood-orange horizon periodically to check the sand under her feet for the dread jellyfish. She knew she had been gone long enough for Madame Hélène to fret, but she was reluctant to head back.

      Mama would expect an answer about the marriage proposal when she arrived in Cairo. Gigi tried to concentrate. She realized it was the first time she had had to make a real decision in her life, and it would be the most important decision she would ever make. It frightened her to feel as detached from the outcome as if it concerned someone else.

      The idea of marriage seemed unreal, somehow. Whether she said yes or no, Yussef would go back to England and life would go on as usual for her. Even if she said yes, she would have a year to change her mind.

      Years later, many years later, Tamer was to ask her: ‘Why did you marry Yussef? I always wondered about that.’ It would be years later, on a balcony overlooking the Nile, overlooking a by-pass bridge like a gigantic Ferris wheel spanning the city; a bridge that would not be built for another decade, and would be named after a war that was yet to take place: the Sixth of October Bridge. Years later Tamer would ask her that question, long after they had both crossed over to adulthood; when they had changed as unrecognizably as the transformed vista over the familiar old river; when they were trying to reach across the distance the years had stretched between them. He would ask her that question then, and for the first time, even to herself, she would have an answer.

      But the girl walking her dog on the beach that day had no answer. Except perhaps that she was tired of waiting for life to begin.

       5 The Wedding

      The month before the wedding went by in a whirl. Gigi tried to concentrate on her final exams, but she was distracted by the sessions at the dressmaker’s and other preparations. She left the details to Mama, even the styles and colors of the embroidered satin negligées for her trousseau. But the choice of a stone for the solitaire engagement ring was to be entrusted to the Pasha, by family tradition. He was considered as much a connoisseur of jewelry as he was of period furniture.

      Rather than pick a ring, Yussef’s parents had presented Gigi with an equivalent sum of money, discreetly concealed in a navy Sèvres bonbonnière. She called her uncle.

      ‘Of course, dear, I’ll call my jeweler right away. Do you have any preference as to cut? No? All right then, I’ll tell him what your budget is and he’ll pick a few stones for us to choose from. You can pick them up from the shop in town tomorrow morning and bring them right over. It’s the Sirgani jeweler downtown, but make sure you ask to speak to Sirgani Senior himself. Just tell him you’re my niece, he’ll be waiting for you.’

      Gigi had driven downtown to the busy square and circled a couple of times, not looking so much for a parking space, which was near impossible at this time of day, but for a minadi, one of the self-appointed parking attendants who offered to watch your car when you triple-parked. In exchange for a small tip, they staved off the roving policemen so you did not get a ticket or your car towed. She finally caught the eye of a minadi