The wretched

The wretched

Two men, both at the beginning of their thirties, occupied a dark, enclosed room with just one door and one small window. One was laying on a lumpy cold couch next to the door way. His name is Shafeeq. The other man, Muhsin, was looking out the window, watching the dark objects pass by.

Muhsin: It looks like the power outage is going to last as long as the water outage.
Shafeeq: It seems so. Both will last in this neighbourhood. Just As long as I will be trapped in this room, and as long as you wait for a lady to flirt with.
Muhsin: (sighs): What a life! (With an edge of resentment): Everytime I think about it, it hits me that we are in our thirties, and I begin to ask myself "what have we done so far, and what we are going to do?" I cannot find an answer. I am disgusted with myself. I hate what I am.
Shafeeq: We agree on so many things. However, the truth is that it is too late for anything now, you might as well kill yourself.

(The sound of a TV is heard, along with sound of the children cheering from outside; the power is back on)

Muhsin: The Power is back on! (Walks towards the light switch to turn it on).
Shafeeq: Don not turn the light on. Leave it alone. It seems that we can see ourselves much better in the dark.
Muhsin: (sits on a wooden chair and stretches): I am going to kill myself.
Shafeeq: (laughs sarcastically): Believe me, you will be a pathetic loser in the afterlife as well.
Muhsin: Maybe this pitiful existence is what will get us into heaven. Maybe God will have mercy on us since life did not.
(There is a knock, the door opens, dim light streams through from the lights in the hallway. Shafeeq's mother enters with a tea tray. Muhsin sits up from his stretched out position).
Shafeeq's mother: Here is some tea. Shall I bring dinner before you drink it?
Muhsin: No, thank you.
(Shafeeq's mother exists. The door closes behind her)
Shafeeq: Turn on the lights. Light is better than darkness anyway.
Muhsin: A few minutes ago you were able to see yourself better in the dark!
Shafeeq: I don't know. When I see my mother, or think of her, all of my problems go away and I find hope again.
Muhsin: Shall I remind you that you are in your thirties, you big baby? You should be ashamed of yourself.
Shafeeq: I wish I would become a baby again, and stay that way forever.
Muhsin: I fear that our hope will perish before we know it.
Shafeeq: If that happens, I will die. Hope is what has kept us alive. It is keeping us going. It is what we are living for.
Muhsin: Then how are we going to die?
Shafeeq: You cannot die, if you did not live.
Muhsin: So we are not alive nor dead.
Shafeeq: We are living on this filthy earth where no-one lives but us or we are dead in our graves, getting tortured.
Muhsin: I am going out.
Shafeeq: Where are you going?
Muhsin: I don't know. But I am not going home.
Shafeeq: Wait, I will come with you.
Muhsin: (in grief): No, it is okay. I want to walk alone by myself. (He lowers his head).
Shafeeq: (sarcastically): What are you saying, Muhsin? We have known eachother for twenty years!
Muhsin: Yes, yes we have. (He walks out the door. Shafeeq watches him leave with a confused look).

(Shafeeq walks towards his couch, his worry remains. He throws himself on the couch, and buries his face in his hands. He then falls asleep for a half an hour. Later, he wakes up abruptly from a distressing nightmare).

Shafeeq: O God, even in my sleep! Have mercy on me!

(He gets up, changes, and then exists the room. He runs into his mother in the hall outside)

Shafeeq's mother: (worried): Where are you headed, dear?
Shafeeq: I am going to see Muhsin.
Shafeeq's mother: Well,where is he?
Shafeeq: I do not know, but I will find him.

(he walks to the exit door, his mother behind him)
(He walks down the street, and sees a crowd of people huddling around something. He pushes through the crowd to find Muhsin's unconscious body lying in the middle, covered with blood. His own blood.)
(A frantic terror rises in him. His head starts spinning. He cannot take it. He cannot believe the fact that, Muhsin, his friend is...)
(His limbs go numb, his colors fade out, and faints. He gets carried home)
(A few hours later, he wakes up and rushes out the house, his eyes are full of tears)
(His mother comes to check up on him, but does not find him. In a burst of terror, she goes out looking for him along with some of his relatives...until they found him dead, with a blood-scrawled message on his chest: "I lived a dead life and died tormented").
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Written By(in Arabic): Mohammed Ahmed Elshawaf
Translated By: Nadine Chalaila