Raïhanyat,
Moroccan Writer
Mohamed Saïd Raïhani’s Website
WAITING FOR
THE MORNING
(A Collection of Short Stories)
(Stories versus Songs)
TEXT 14:
I'm free
like a river
Flowing freely to infinity
I'm free to be sure of what
I am and who I need not be
I'm much freer
like the
meaning of the word "free"
that crazy men define
Free, like the vision that
The mind of only you are ever going to see
Free, like the river
My life
goes on and on through infinity
"Free", a song by Stevie Wonder
This may happen to you mainly in a cinema when you step too late into
the dark space to find the film already playing and the actors moving to and fro
and raving over things which have taken place in your absence...
Now, the hammer is pounding on the stand to order silence from the
crowding public in a space like that of courts of law. Your great surprise will
flare up when you realize that the hammer-man is addressing himself
exclusively to you:
“You are among today’s group, expecting a pre-condemnation for your
probable tendency to commit future crimes, which is, as you know, a preventive,
local and normal measure just like circumcision... As you know, the local
character of our legislature aims at preventing the danger of waking up the
sleeping riot in people’s heads by pre-condemning them so that everyone should
be aware of the limits of his roles”.
Suddenly, you realize that you are both the film and the darkness which
melts the public’s individualities into one receiver:
“Let the eyewitnesses
come up to the witness-box and give their evidence, please!”
The astrologer’s witness :
I
swear to tell nothing but truth.
Would Your Excellency kindly have a look at the main lines on the
suspect’s palm? Will you have the kindness to look at the head line? It starts
outside life-line and goes so terribly downwards predicting a future
resurrection of a criminal tendency which has been so far under control.
Moreover, the convict will lead such a long life as the life-line on his
palm is too long, too clear and without the slightest break. Will Your
Excellency have the goodness to imagine a human on whose palm there is no trace
of heart line: an absolute coldness, an utter weirdness…
Additionally, the suspect’s first name shows very clearly his
astrological sign. It is the zodiac of notorious criminals. The characteristics
of this zodiac births are the following: Ambiguity, obstinacy and inclination
to wild loneliness.
The father’s witness:
I
swear to tell nothing but truth.
The suspect is my son. However, our relationship has never been as
natural as the one enjoyed by other fathers with their sons. He hates him from
his early childhood. He considers me a wall standing against his freedom at
home. That is the main reason why he shuts himself in a room where walls are
stained with entangled colours and meaningless lines hiding in some parts under
animal posters scissored out of multi-coloured
magazines.
The childhood friend’s witness:
I
swear to tell nothing but truth .
The suspect was a primary school-fellow of mine. I can remember that he
was the only pupil in the class-room to wear a white blouse opposing the official
school-blouse colour: black. he also would so
obstinately refuse copying down the writing or drawing models which the primary
school-teacher used to outline on the blackboard and that is why his marks were
always drawn out for him out of the bottom of the marking scale.
The optician’s witness:
I
swear to tell nothing but truth.
Let us make things clear to Your Excellency. White colour which the
suspect is crazy about is not a simple colour as it may seem. Its signification
is greater. White is the result of resistance performed by Mass
to keep away the light rays shed on it. White, Excellency, is the colour of Resistance,
the colour of Refusal, and when a man selects a particular colour,
He chooses a visual language to express his own feelings and desires. The
present suspect is introducing himself to us through the colour of Resistance.
The traffic police-agent’s witness:
I
swear to tell nothing but truth.
The suspect is a common face to me. I can see him everyday passing by.
He is always that lonely and quiet silhouette walking by, indifferent to
whatever around him focussing on his internal rhythm: two-four-two-four, which
is the initial breathing exercise in a spiritual sport the aim of which is to
enable man to master himself and control the world....
The municipal- library
officer’s witness:
I
swear to tell nothing but truth.
I
have brought with me to put at Your Excellency’s command a list of books which
the suspect has borrowed from the municipal library shelves during this month.
In the first week of the month, he has read a book on philosophy and another on
religion. In the second week, a book on science and another
one on mythology. In the third week, a collection of poems and some
political documents…
I have tried to imagine a human who can read in the same time prophets
and atheists, despots and outcasts, poems and pamphlets... I have tried and
tried but I could imagine nothing.
The boss’s witness:
I
swear to tell nothing but truth.
As far as I am concerned, neither his breathing nor his calmness can
deceive me… That is why I am constantly refusing his application to work in my
company. The letters of the words in all his applications are complete without
crosses and with a dominant, inky trait filled with exaggerated
self-confidence. Yet, the letters lack the necessary roundness and flexibility:
They are mere triangles and squares with sharp angles reflecting his inflexible
character. However, his care after letter-writing shows his fear to lose
control over things which may unveil him. Surely he is hiding something
mischievous but what this thing is, that is the evidence I cannot give to Your
Excellency.
The photographer’s witness:
I
swear to tell nothing but truth.
In all the photos which I have taken for him, Your Excellency will find
the same décor: a bed and a small table surrounded by walls stained with
colours, lines and photos of wolves in different sizes devouring bleeding
sheep. A wolf here and a wolf there.... He considers himself a lonely, wild
wolf. That is the key that I can hand to Your Excellency to have access to the
virtual urges of his devouring sociability in herd life.
The condemnation :
In
accordance with the eye- witnesses’ declaration
And
following the laws of the acts in force....
And...
The suspect, among today’s group, is
supposed guilty by instinct and is pre-condemned for life with a stay of
execution. The session is over.
CONTENTS
HOMEPAGE CULTURAL LINKS ONOMASTICS SHORTSTORY ANTHOLOGY
WEBMASTER CRITICISM FRANCAIS ARABIC
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RIGHTS RESERVED
e-mail: said_raihani@yahoo.com
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