Chapter 6

Life always gives you opportunities, opportunities to earn a job that you did not expect, opportunities for the life you always wished to go to, opportunities to start over, opportunities to relive a past life or a love that you missed from immemorial time, and may be opportunities for a special feeling that you missed a lot or opportunities to discover the value of what you got and live now indignantly.

The sound of Mahmoud's apartment bell marked his transfer to a time he missed a lot, something from the past that was outdated until it erased all traces and memories, memories he could not imagine to return.

Mahmoud went out to open the door for the coming guest, and his wife, Huda, followed him after her tears dried and temporarily forgot her tragedy with her husband until the exams of her children Hadi and Toka are over, Mahmoud opened the door to find someone he did not know standing right in front of him and saying:

- Good afternoon, Mr. Mahmoud.

- Good afternoon, Who are you?!

- I know you, Mr. Mahmoud, I am Hamdi Fayad, you don't know me of course, but I think you know that lady.

Hamdy pointed to a lady standing three meters away from him that Mahmoud didn't see her until Hamdi referred him to her.

Hamdi was a strong man, with white hair, dressed in an elegant outfit, accompanied by a beautiful lady who looks in her late thirties, hiding her eyes with relatively large black glasses, which she had to take off to be recognized by Mahmoud, before she said quietly:

 - Don't you remember me, Mahmoud?!

Mahmoud focused on her voice and face to recognize her and said:

- You are... I know you, you don't look strange, neither you nor your voice, but your name!! I can't remember.

- I'm Nahla Gamil... Amira's friend, Amira Olwan's friend, Do you remember her?!

Mahmoud thought for awhile remembering his past days with Amira before Hamdi takes him out of all of this saying:

- Before you think about that, I'm Amira Olwan's husband, can we get in?!

It is as if Mahmoud's mind traveled to the nineties of the last century, traveled more than twenty-five years back, traveled to the world of Amira, a hidden world between reality and fiction.

Huda was alerted to her husband's disorientation and temporary absence of his mind without understanding the reason, so she welcomed the guests and asked them to enter then closed the door, then she prepared coffee for them as they requested and kindly presented it to them saying:

- Please have your coffees.

- Thanks.

- Thank you, Mrs Huda.

- You are welcome.

Shortly after Mahmoud thought about some old memories, He asked Mr.Hamdi Fayad:

- Excuse me, Mr. Hamdi, How can I help you?!

Hamdi put his cup of coffee down at the table then said:

- At first, I came to your address through Madam Nahla, a friend of my wife Amira who is the mother of my daughters Sarah and Zina, we arrived to Egypt two days ago, I have been working as a petroleum engineer in Australia for about 30 years and almost I have not been in Egypt for a very long time, within two days Madam Nahla made a great effort to come to your address at my request, of course....

- Welcome to Egypt, engineer Hamdi and we are honored to see you in our humble home. But I can't understand why are you searching for my address!!

Hamdi sighed then take a little while to say:

- It's all about Amira, Mr. Mahmoud.

Mahmoud felt a chill that hit his body like an electric shock that shook his entire body, and he began to release his mind, which collected all the memories he had with Amira for almost thirty years, he did not wake up from his memories this time only when Hamdi returned to direct the conversation to him again, saying:

- And this is the second and the most important thing that I came for, I'm her because of my wife, Amira, who is having a strange disorder.

- What?! What do you mean by this?!

- Amira was subjected to psychological and nervous trauma for no particular reasons, the crisis caused her a condition that psychiatrists call "nostalgia for the past", she began to forget many things of her life together with her daughters and me, almost remembering our names and the reason for our existence in her life, but a large part of her memory was subjected to certain damage or an incomprehensible deformation, she is living in an age that's very young compared to her actual age, which is the twenties stage, and of course, as you know, she is 47 years old.

Huda felt some sadness and sorrow for this Amira, whom she had never known, before she piteously said:

- May our GOD helps her and she gets better soon.

Mahmoud hardly overcame his tears, but he paid attention to the presence of his wife Huda as well as the husband of his former lover, and perhaps his first and only love, so he tried to make patience and fortitude and then said:

- And what is her condition now?!

- Her daughters and I never leave her alone and take care of her and her medication and do whatever it takes to help her get better.

Huda noticed the matter from another angle and said inquiringly:

- May our Lord heal her, of course, but how Mahmoud can help your wife in this case.

Hamdi looked embarrassed and sorry that he laid down his head before raising it again saying:

- I am very embarrassed for me, and certainly for you, Mrs. Huda, but the time when Amira is living or stuck is mostly connected to your husband and he is the only one who can get her out of the shock and the situation she is having.

- What?! Huda felt shocked again that she had nothing to do with women related to her husband.

Mahmoud was overcome by many different feelings while listening to Hamdi Fayad's words, he had beautiful feelings for Amira, but they are also old feelings and no longer belong to this reality that exists now, so he turned to Huda with sad eyes and said:

- Mr. Hamdi is Amira's husband, Huda, and you're my wife, this is our actual life that won't change for any reason. Amira needs my help and I will give my help to anyone who needs it. Where is Amira now, Mr. Hamdi?

Nahla who was listening to this argument replied quickly:

- She is staying in my chalet at Alexandria, Mahmoud.

Mrs. Nahla gave her chalet address in Alexandria to Mahmoud, then the two guests asked permission to go out after they finished what they came to say to Mahmoud, and when they left, Huda was thinking about what her husband would do to help his ex-girlfriend to return to her normal condition and heal from her strange illness that she had never heard of before, which is nostalgia, she could not accept the existence of this rare disease and did not understand whether her husband would really help her or he would like her presence in this twenty – year - old era where she was attached to him and loved him exclusively until she had to obey the desire of her family to marry her to engineer Hamdi, she no longer trusts her husband-Mahmoud-who wanted to marry another woman only two hours ago, she preferred to postpone his second marriage and it seems that this is what will really happen, especially after this crisis, the disorder of Amira Olwan, but she feels jealous of her husband's presence with Amira even though her husband and her daughters will be there, but she wanted more reassurance, so she went to Mahmoud to find out what he would do now, she anxiously said:

- May I know what are you going to do with Amira?!

- I'm traveling to Alexandria tomorrow, Huda.

- Obviously, all of your decisions are quick and individual, Mahmoud.

- What do you mean, Huda?

- Two hours ago, you just informed me of your decision to get married to that woman, and now you have decided to travel to Alexandria to help your beloved....

- Amira is a married woman, she is not a thing to me, Huda. If any one, not her, needed me, I will help him. Do you understand this?

Mahmoud's voice became louder that Huda asked him to be quiet before she gets calm and asks him:

- Would you postpone your marriage then?!

- Yes, just one month till the end of the exams of our children.

- Fine, but there is another thing you should accept.

- What is it?!

- Omar must travel with you to Alexandria.

- Omar?! Why?!

Huda looked at him and tried to prevent her big smile from appearing on her face while Mahmoud waited her to justify her demand then she said:

- I just... relief my heart and mind, If there were no exams, I would travel with you my self, but I accept Omar to replace me in this trip.

- But Omar has his work and he doesn't....

- You also have a work to do and you are leaving it for this urgent rescue operation for Mrs. Amira!!

- OK, Huda. Tell him to get ready. we're moving at 8 a.m.

Huda smiled and said calmly:

- Just take care of him, there are two Australian girls in Alexandria and they may tamper his mind which is almost empty.

Huda's calmness was typical for Mahmoud, but in such cases she should not be with this suspicious emotional stability, in just two hours she was subjected to two strong shocks, any woman whose husband marries another woman almost goes crazy and does not know peace or calm at all, and she would like them to abandon her and this poor husband so that she could kill him; Did the arrival of Hamdi and Nahla save him?! Did she sympathize with the case of Amira?! Is she planning something? Is she postponing her reaction until Hadi and Toka finish and pass their exams? This is not the time to think about Huda or Aaliyah; it's Amira's time, only Amira, that's what Mahmoud realized then.