Part 1: Our Date in Another Time
Loading...
Part 1
She suddenly appeared in front of my car like a phantom emerging from nowhere, so I had to take her to the hospital, and there, when she woke up from her pain-laden slumber, she looked at me with dazed eyes, and said in a trembling voice: You are my husband who passed away a long time ago... and she called me by his name!"
While Hamza was driving his car back home on a dark night, a girl suddenly appeared in front of him like a ghost wandering in the night. He hit her unconsciously, turning the moment of stillness into a resounding scream in his mind. He rushed out of his car in panic, only to find the girl lying on the ground, her head bleeding as if it were a spring of pain. People gathered around him, and Hamza began desperately trying to wake the girl, but his eyes were fixed on her pale face.
Then he screamed at the top of his voice:
"Call an ambulance!"
The ambulance arrived quickly, from which three doctors stepped out and carried the girl to the hospital.
At the hospital
Hamza was pacing back and forth, recalling what happened in his memory, burdened with remorse. The doctor came out, so Hamza rushed to him in fear, saying:
"Is she okay, doctor?"
The doctor reassured him, saying:
"Rest assured, thank God, she is fine. You can go in to see her, she is about to wake up from the anesthesia."
Hamza entered the room to see a frail girl sleeping on the bed, her head covered in bandages, and her face looking pale and exhausted. He sat on the chair next to her, recalling his painful memories, as if the pain of the past was renewing in his chest. He put his hands on his face in distress, feelings of anxiety and regret conflicting within him. Suddenly, he heard her groaning, like a faint moan coming from the depths of pain. He took his hands off his face and looked at her with eyes full of concern, saying in a hoarse voice:
"Are you okay... are you in pain?"
When the girl looked at Hamza, she burst into tears, as if her tears carried the weight of the entire world. With overwhelming anxiety, Hamza said:
"Why are you crying... does it hurt? Should I call the doctor?"
The girl slowly sat up on the bed, her eyes full of astonishment and wonder. She was staring at him as if trying to comprehend an unbelievable truth, and said in deep disbelief:
"You are Khaled... You are Khaled, right? You are Khaled!!"
Hamza looked at her with surprise and amazement when he heard the name she uttered. Suddenly, she threw herself into his arms and hugged him tightly, saying while crying with a mix of longing and pain:
"Khaled, my love... I missed you so much... I knew you were alive... my feelings never disappoint me... I missed you so, so much, Khaled."
Hamza was surprised, stunned by her overwhelming emotional reaction. He felt extremely confused while trying to decode this mysterious situation, and took a step back, saying with confusion and a tremor in his voice:
"Who is Khaled?"
The girl began to touch his face with extreme sensitivity, and confirmed his identity in her eyes.
"You are Khaled... I am sure."
Hamza considered the girl crazy and slowly backed away from her, but she quickly got out of bed and ran towards him before he could leave the room, hugging him tightly again, expressing her intense fear of losing him once more:
"No, no I won't let you leave again, Khaled... it's unfair to be absent all this time, and when I find you, you leave... but this time I can't let you walk away..."
Hamza pulled away from her and faced her with anger at her excessive touching:
"Listen... about the accident, I am sorry and I will cover all your medical expenses, but I don't know who this Khaled you are talking about is... and whoever he is, I am not him... my name is Hamza... alright?"
He finished his sentence with a loud voice, and suddenly the girl fainted and fell into his arms. Hamza carried her very carefully and placed her back on the bed, finding himself unable to comprehend who this girl was, what her story was, and who Khaled that she was talking about was. He left the room feeling tense, seriously trying to catch his breath and explain everything that had happened.
Hamza met the doctor who examined the girl, and said seriously:
"Doctor, can we talk?"
The doctor stood ready and answered:
"Of course, go ahead."
Hamza asked questioningly:
"Did you find out about this girl's family, what her name is, and where she lives?"
The doctor answered in detail:
"Her name is Samar Ayman El-Shafei, an orphan girl with no mother or father, she was married in this town and her husband passed away a while ago."
Hamza said with suspicion and surprise, "Wait a second... is her husband's name Khaled?"
The doctor answered affirmatively:
"Yes, exactly... but how did you know, do you know her?"
Hamza replied quickly, denying it strongly:
"No, I don't know her, but she mentioned him so much to the point that she thought I was him."
The doctor was surprised and expressed his astonishment, "Maybe her subconscious made her remember the husband she lost, consider that he is in front of her, and imagined you were him."
Hamza's facial expressions changed to astonishment, and he said in disbelief:
"Imagined I was him!! How is that even possible?"
The doctor answered clearly:
"How that works, I don't know. I am a surgeon. You can contact Dr. Nour, she is right over there, you can explain what happened to her, and she will diagnose the patient's condition."
Hamza seemed confused, trying to understand how and why the girl thought he was Khaled, and began to think about the possibility of his unexpected presence in her life.
Hamza looked towards Dr. Nour with eyes reflecting bewilderment, overcome by doubts and questions about what was happening around him. He calmly approached her, as if stepping into mazes he didn't fully understand, and told her the whole story.
Nour listened attentively, then answered in a calm voice:
"You are saying that as soon as she saw you, she called you by someone else's name... and you said it was her deceased husband?"
Hamza exhaled and then answered irritably:
"Yes."
Nour explained her suspicion knowledgeably based on her experience in this field, saying gently with dismay embodied in her eyes:
"The girl is suffering from a delusional disorder. She assumed that her late husband is you... and if you suddenly disappeared from her life, it could cause her to break down, and who knows, if she lost her husband again, she might do something to herself that could lead to her suicide."
Hamza was surprised and proceeded to reply with suppressed anger, "What? What does this mean? I don't know her, what would make me stay in her life!"
Nour looked at him with patient understanding:
"Can I see this girl."
Hamza directed his gaze towards Samar's room, then the doctor went out to the room to delve deeper into understanding Samar's condition accurately, trying to reach the roots of the problem and provide appropriate treatment for her.
Hamza heard his phone ringing, so he took it out of his pants pocket and answered the call. It was his friend "Samir" asking him:
"Where are you, why didn't you attend the meeting?"
Hamza replied briefly:
"I got into a bit of a problem... I hit a girl with my car."
Samir shouted in surprise:
"Oh my god, did she die?"
Hamza replied quickly:
"No, die what, pray upon the Prophet, Samir, she's fine, don't worry, it was a minor hit and she is in the hospital, but let's see how this ends, she considers me her dead husband."
Samir calmed down a bit and asked in confusion:
"God, what is this situation now?!"
Hamza said complainingly:
"I swear I don't know, she keeps saying you are Khaled, you are Khaled, and I tell her lady it's not me, I swear it's not me, until she fainted again."
His friend joked, laughing:
"If I were you, I would make myself Khaled if she is pretty."
Hamza exhaled angrily:
"Oh God, hang up man, I don't need this from you right now."
After Hamza finished his call, Dr. Nour came out of the room, her facial features expressing worry and deep thought. She said in a calm, deliberate voice:
"As I said... a delusional disorder."
Hamza asked with tension and anxiety in his voice: "And what is its treatment?"
Nour answered:
"It goes away with time, with accepting the truth step by step. She has been subjected to nervous shock since the death of her husband, and she imagined that you are him, or she was deluded that you are the Khaled standing in front of her. The truth is her condition is very difficult... So, did you manage to reach her family??"
Hamza ran his hand through his hair, exhaling in distress, answering:
"Unfortunately no... she is an orphan, and she had no one other than her husband in this town."
Nour said regretfully:
"She currently doesn't know anyone but you."
Hamza replied with indifference and a hidden anxiety in his tone:
"Other than Khaled... what does that have to do with me?"
Nour said with clear simplicity: "The decision is yours, sir... The matter is humanitarian, nothing more. You can stay with her during this period until she gets better... and if you tell her the truth again, she might suffer another nervous shock and enter a severe fit in which she might die. She still hasn't recovered from what happened, and this makes her delusional, and it could even lead to hallucinations. Her subconscious is making her believe that Khaled is alive and that she is still with him."
Then Nour left to continue her work in the hospital, while Hamza sat thinking deeply about her words. He was looking for solutions and contemplating the girl's situation, and what might happen if he agreed to stay with her and take responsibility for her. Then he stood up slowly and headed towards the hospital exit door, and got into his car, grumbling about the recent events he had gone through.
And while he was driving his car, he took out his phone to make a call to his friend Samir:
"I'm coming to the company."
Samir asked with curiosity:
"And what did you do about the girl?"
Hamza replied with hesitation, a feeling of remorse overwhelming him but he acted indifferent:
"I left and walked away... she's mentally ill, man... and has a delusional disorder about her dead husband and thinks I'm him... when I heal my own psychology first, then I can go heal other people."
_______________
In another place, specifically at the police station
Officer "Hassan" exclaimed, saying:
"He won't remember you, Rahaf, and he might kill you, he's a criminal!"
Rahaf shouted forcefully, rejecting his words:
"Noah is not a criminal... Noah is a captain who was absent for four years, and when you find him, you arrest him! Is this instead of returning him to his wife and daughter?"
With intense anger, Hassan replied:
"Because we didn't find him snacking on seeds, he was a spy against the country and was trying to take archaeological information... and besides, Noah lived for four years with criminals, he definitely acquired their nature... Rahaf, Noah will treat you the same way he treats everyone, he sees you as a stranger in front of him and he might exploit your sympathy for him."
Rahaf replied with insistence: "I don't care about all of this. What matters to me right now is that there is a wall between me and my love after a four-year separation. Do you imagine these reasons are enough to prevent me from even seeing him?"
Hassan surrendered to her will and signaled for some officers to go in with her, but Rahaf stopped them, saying:
"I don't want anyone to go in with me, I will meet him alone."
Hassan shouted:
"That won't work, Rahaf... the one inside is..."
Rahaf interrupted him pleadingly:
"Please, let me go in alone, I will know how to act."
Hassan agreed curtly and moved the officers away, gesturing for them to leave.
Rahaf entered the place with steps hesitating like crashing waves, carrying in her heart the burden of hope and despair that she wrestled with over the past four years. Her heartbeats were fighting time, racing between shattered hope and deep-rooted doubt. The moment she entered, she thought for a second that she was dreaming, until her eyes locked with Noah, her husband and soulmate. Her tears began to fall silently, for she had lived on his separation for long years.
Noah was sitting on the floor, pulling his knees tightly towards his chest, his suppressed face between his arms shackled with strong iron chains preventing him from escaping at all.
Noah raised his head slowly when he heard footsteps approaching in the room, where the details froze in his tired eyes. Rahaf couldn't control her emotions, so she ran towards him with quick steps, her eyes shedding tears unable to believe she was seeing her love alive after all those years. And when Noah stood on his feet, there were seconds like eras in his embrace, where Rahaf rushed to hug him tightly, crying with broad burning, her feelings intersecting between immense joy and deep sorrow, and the fire of longing increasing inside her.
Noah repeatedly tried to pull away, but she tightened her grip on his back fiercely, clinging between his hands with all her strength, desiring never to move away. Noah finally managed to pull away from her with difficulty, and said in a grim voice:
"Get away from me, girl, are you crazy?"
Get away from me, girl, are you crazy?
His words came out harshly, expressing a mix of anger and confusion. Amidst the clamor of emotions flowing between them, Rahaf pulled back and looked at him in surprise, saying:
"Why are you talking like this?"
Noah answered her:
"What are you saying, I am not understand you"
What are you saying, I don't understand you.
Noah was amazed at himself, because he understood Rahaf perfectly well even though he only spoke English. However, he said the opposite.
Rahaf added in shock:
"Look, I could believe anything other than believing that four years made you forget your country's language. Noah, you understand me."
Noah said in surprise:
"Noah!! it's not my real name and it's not my language"
Noah! This is not my real name and this is not my language.
Rahaf knew he understood every letter she uttered, so she yelled at him:
"As long as you understand me, you must answer me in Arabic."
Noah said angrily:
"Are you mentally ill or stupid and don't understand?"
Noah was surprised at himself because he pronounced the Arabic language easily, especially the Egyptian dialect which is not easy to master so fluently. Rahaf smiled while listening to his language and this dialect, as she adored his masculine voice ringing clearly in her ears that she would never forget.
Her eyes shed tears continuously, and she said in a trembling voice:
"Noah, you don't remember me, I am Rahaf..."
Noah replied dismissively:
"They sent you to me so you could find something out, but dream on."
Then he approached her with heavy steps, his eyes shooting sparks, and looked at her strictly, saying:
"Believe me, even if they kill me, I will never utter a single word about where my gang's headquarters is... none of us utter a letter even at the expense of his death."
Rahaf said with concern from his frightening manner:
"Noah, you are leading yourself into a disaster. Do you even know who you are and what you used to do?? Didn't you try to search for yourself, you are smarter than this, Noah.... what happened to you and what gang are you talking about??"
Noah answered her calmly, his eyes still fixed on her:
"First of all, my name is Peter, and I am not waiting for some little girl to come and tell me about my past because I remember it very well."
Rahaf shouted angrily, her voice starting to rise:
"No, you don't remember it, because if you did, you wouldn't have forgotten me. If you truly remembered, you would have looked for me everywhere. I contained your heart. You and I loved each other and got married out of love. We have an eight-year-old daughter, 'Logy'.. What?? Did you forget her too?"
Noah pulled away from her to take a few steps back, turning his back and saying in annoyance:
"Walk away from here."
Whereupon Rahaf advanced towards him to stand in front of him angrily, taking off her necklace which had a small heart shape. She opened the heart of the necklace so Noah could see a picture bringing the three of them together: him, his daughter, and Rahaf!
Rahaf said, trying to make him remember them, and grabbed his arm tightly:
"This is our family... here you are, me, and our daughter.... this is your past, Noah.. look at our daughter... don't you remember Logy, look at the picture, you were so devoted to her."
Noah looked at the picture and his heart fluttered when he saw the little girl, but his anger increased when he heard her screaming and saw her grabbing his arm violently. Without thinking, he pushed her away harshly, then in a moment of rage, grabbed her by the neck and started choking her severely, lifting her off the ground easily relying on his strength, and his hand was gripping her neck cruelly and mercilessly.
"Who are you talking about?" he said with escalating anger. "Look, I am not in the mood for you. If they sent you, sweetie, then you should walk away like a good girl, go mind your own business, and this strange man you're talking about, this Noah of yours, go look for him far away from me."
Rahaf was about to choke, so she said in a broken voice:
"No..ah... I'm d..y..ing... "
Your expectations♥
Don't forget to pray upon the Prophet
There is no power nor strength except by God
Stay safe
Mariam El-Shahawy