Afterward, he returned to the city streets, wandering aimlessly, contemplating how he would survive a year in this cursed land.
He asked himself, "A year?!" He couldn't even manage one day.
His mind drifted to the broader perspective, "What if a year passed, and he became poorer than anyone in the city? What if he became the dumbest?"
In a voice filled with disbelief, he muttered to himself, "And Grandpa? Could he survive a year without me? I was thinking of staying for a day or two and then returning to him. A year?! Living here for a year?!"
Lost in his thoughts, he was jolted awake when a horse pulling a rich carriage - Assil's carriage - struck him. The carriage stopped, and Assil immediately got out to check on him, but he left hastily.
Despite her repeated calls, he continued walking without looking back. She returned to her carriage, pondering, "If it were anyone else, they'd demand compensation for that." Then she instructed the driver to move on.
Hours passed, and Khaled continued wandering the city, his mind unable to stop pondering. Until he found himself nearing a vast lake.
He hastened to it, tasting its water and finding it refreshing. He drank deeply, then leaned against a tree beside it, laughing at the thought of Mona's father coming to this city and swearing he would be slaughtered on the spot.
Even if Mona came, she'd be slaughtered too. He remembered his friends, realizing they possessed no intelligence and would all be slaughtered.
He laughed again, sarcastically telling himself, "Two units of intelligence for a meal!" Then he laughed again, recalling one of his friends, who was excessively overweight and ate a lot.
If he were in Zikula, he'd lose all his wealth just to eat.
Then he spoke to himself, "You're laughing, Khaled. A true Egyptian, son of an Egyptian. We laugh in the most dire times."
Then he asked himself, "What will you do, Khaled?"
Answering himself as if he were someone else, he said, "I'll live here like everyone else. Do you have another solution?"
He replied to himself as the first person again, "No."
Then he smiled and in a loud voice said, "Then you have to adapt to the situation. Welcome to Zikula."
Afterwards, he looked up at the sky, shrouded in darkness, and noticed peculiar fireworks adorning it, different from what he was accustomed to. He smiled, "Zikula Day..."
Then, after a brief pause, he continued, "It'll all be over soon... and I'll see Zikula in its natural state."
He glanced at the lake and its shore, finding no one but himself. He saw it as an opportunity to bathe. As he stripped off his clothes, almost completely naked, he felt a strange movement. He heard whispers and giggles, so he turned and found two girls looking at him. He immediately dressed and hurried back to the tree, leaning against it once more.
"No... I think I'll sleep instead."
The night passed, and the sun rose. Khaled slept beside the tree by the lake shore until he was awakened by screams.
Looking around, he saw a woman screaming that her son was drowning in the lake.
He rushed into the water fully clothed, aiming to reach the boy, who was some distance away.
He didn't imagine the lake could be so deep until he approached the boy, pulled him towards himself, and brought him back to the shore.
The boy had lost consciousness, and his mother continued to scream. Khaled laid him on his back and began performing CPR, pressing on his chest to revive him. After a few compressions, he breathed into the boy's mouth, then resumed chest compressions.
A crowd gathered around, including Assil, who urged Khaled to step away, but he didn't look at her, his focus solely on the boy.
He continued his efforts until the boy gasped for breath. Feeling his pulse when he placed his fingers on his neck, Khaled thanked God, then looked at the mother, saying, "Thank God... he's okay."
The mother looked at him, crying, and hugged her son.
"Thank you," she said, then asked him, "How much do you want for this?"
He replied, "I don't want anything. Anyone in my place would have done the same. Just take care of him from now on."
People looked at him strangely. Even Assil asked him, "How did you do that?! And why didn't you let me help you?"
Khaled lifted his head and looked at her for the first time since he hadn't taken his eyes off the boy when he was resuscitating him. He was surprised to see that she was the one who had asked him to stop. His heart raced when he realized how close she was to him.
They were only a few steps apart. He thought to himself, "She's incredibly beautiful," as he gazed at her long black hair, narrow eyes, long dark lashes, and especially her delicate lips.
He remembered her laughter when she threw the flowers, how her eyes narrowed when she laughed, making her even more beautiful, especially with her thin lips.
Then, he whispered, "Assil!"
She, too, was surprised that he had ignored her and continued when her carriage almost killed him.
She asked him, "How did you do that?"
He laughed, "It's the first time I felt like I learned something useful... It's a first aid course I took in Cairo."
Then he hurried, pulling out a rose from his damp clothes, one he had picked the previous day, and looked at it with a smile.
"This is your rose. I kept it for you."
She ignored his gesture towards the flower and asked, "Why does your accent sound strange? And where is this Cairo you speak of?"
He smiled, "That's a very strange story, and I'm sure you won't know Cairo. I'm not from Zikwala."
Then, wanting to speak to her in her dialect, he continued, "I'm not from Zikula. I entered Zikula just the day before yesterday, and I didn't know its gate would close."
Assil fell silent as if recalling something, then looked at him and said, "I think we have something in common!!"