The Street by Boodie Shawky (little readers .TXT) 📕

As he disappeared in Dina’s flat he thought he managed to escape undetected, but unfortunately someone saw him.

His eldest sister, Hanan, saw him, she was dusting the carpet, nagged by her mom and after a screaming match succumbed, stole herself away from the computer and came out to dust the carpet on the stairs. She’s been at it for quite sometime and was just about to get back inside, when she heard footsteps and saw her brother.

She smiled to herself, she knew what her brother was doing, jumping over the balcony of the neighbors late at night, when he thinks all the family has gone to bed and are fast asleep. But she heard him several times and she knew what was going on, but did not care to tell him, not now anyhow, maybe when she needs to blackmail him in the future.

"I can make his life really hard" she smiled to herself as she closed the door.

Hanan was twenty three years old, still not married. Right after the faculty of arts, her father managed to get her a job in the company he was working in. It was a nice job and she got to meet new people, and she was allowed to keep one third of her small salary. She loved her father and knew how hard he worked for their family, but she was slightly ashamed of him, she did not mention the fact that he was her father unless it was absolutely necessary.

She did not want others to know where she came from, that old poor quarter of Cairo, she always wore tight jeans and the nicest blouses she could afford, tight and slightly revealing her fully developed breasts. Of course she wore a scarf over them when she left home, to escape the scrutiny of her mother’s eyes, but as soon as she was inside the company bus, she shoved the scarf in her bag. She spend most of her money on makeup and she went to the small hairdresser shop two streets away from their house, she always died her hair blond, she felt it was more attractive … Egyptians love blonds, just because Egyptians are not blond by nature, she heard somewhere that on the contrary, Europeans and Americans love dark people, because they are surrounded by beautiful blond people, you get sick of seeing the same thing every day.

Hanan hopes she can find a husband soon, someone to take her away from their poor crowded house.

She tries to find someone from work, and she has nagged her father until he agreed to bring them an old used computer. She used a part of her salary to buy one of those new internet sticks and she spent all her nights on the internet, mostly in the chatting rooms.

That is how young people find each other nowadays, Hanan had known her share of boys over the chatting rooms.

It was quite sometime before she summoned the courage to actually meet them, now it was ordinary, and she doesn’t wait for the boy anymore, sometimes she’s the one who suggests it. She knows that most of the relationships won’t last, maybe one day one of them will … but for now, it was just fun.

When the first time a boy tried to touch her she pushed him away, he took her home silently and the next day he blocked her. After that she decided to let them touch her little, a kiss won’t hurt, she told herself.  She was not prepared to the feelings that thundered all over her body when the next boy crushed her lips, he coaxed her mouth open and slid his tongue inside, she moaned and threw herself at him as he massaged her tongue with his and nibbled at her lower lips.

Kisses became hotter, and the next thing she knew is that she was allowing them to touch her breasts, nudge her blouse down and rub her. Their mouths descended ... it was absolute pleasure … she could not resist and with each time she wanted more.

Soon, hands were rubbing the crotch of her jeans, she could hear a zipper and she was aching for more.

She learnt to wear a skirt when she goes on dates, it was always easier this way. And finger were replaced by something, but they would never dare to go further. Because she has to stay a virgin for her husband, and no man would ever bare the responsibility of taking her virginity away. She didn’t mind much, she heard about those doctors who can always patch you back, that is if you have the money, well she always figured if a man wanted her so bad, he should get the money for the doctor later on.

One of them offered to take her from behind, but she refused, she heard it hurt so much, and maybe she was just not ready to go so far.

She was chatting with a new boy, while listening to the newest song, the singer was talking about his lover and her two beautiful ?? … she was oblivious to the world around her, a world that she was so anxious to escape … without knowing what she was escaping to … out of the frying pan into the fire.

Life is hard.

Rasha, Injy and Mahmoud are the three younger children, aged ten, seven and three … the two girls were glued to a movie on the television, the two leads were engaged in a passionate kiss and the girls were hanging on every scene, arousing their imaginations and putting ideas in their minds.

Mahmoud was too young to understand, he was playing with an old torn car, passed down to him from his older brother, it was missing a wheel and the colour was peeled off, but he is still too young to notice and is happily mimicking car sounds as he lies on the floor, all innocent and angelic. How long will it last, how soon will he be corrupted by a world swimming in a sea of poverty, profanity and pornography.

Where are we heading, with parents so occupied with feeding their children that they leave them to a world of immorality and waste, whose fault is it?

Life is hard, but we are the ones who made it hard ...

Publication Date: 08-11-2014

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