Much Ado in Tangier
A Short Story on Friendships in the Competitive World of Achievement.
Much Ado In Tangier
CHAPTER ONE:
“
“AVERAGE”.
Always just above the average. They had to be just an inch above the average for a little extra love, validation, and to bask in a temporary feeling of security that vanished within the next few months of yet another stretch of constant angst and anxiety. Until one day, they decided to break the cycle and they set on an adventure without a deadline. They had the plan, they had the means, and they had the dreams.
Nothing could go wrong.
Their hideaway was in a modest neighborhood in Meknes, in northern Morocco, and after lasting nearly a year away from home, the three runaways were slowly feeling confident again. The first 3 months were an agony, aside from Lina, Hajar and Fatima took turns to drive Hajar’s uncle car, a DACIA that has been used for 10 years and that somehow endured the 7 hours drive and strenuous road from Rabat to Oujda, their first stopover, and from there to Marrakesh where they’ve spent one month at Lina’s aunt’s elegant Riyad. Bless her, she not only didn’t tell their parents, but she also helped them secure another stopover and gave them so much ‘Tangiya’’that lasted them for the first two weeks from their departure.
But now, they were back on their own again, and things were starting to look different.
“Fatima!” screamed Lina from the kitchen reeking of last night’s undone dishes.
Fatima, who insisted on completing her bachelor’s out of the two girls, has just pulled another all-nighter to submit the last paper for her final project. She came out of the room with bold dark rings under her eyes and a ghostly silhouette that looked as if it has been starved for weeks. Normally, Lina would tell her off for her extreme habits but this was an emergency.
She was interrupted by Hajar’s alarming sharp voice that sounded from the door of their rented small flat. Her coat was dripping with the rain that suddenly started merrily pouring during her grocery run.
“What is this smell?” She grimaced.
Fatima attempted to sniff the air, but her senses haven’t sobered yet when Hajar made two confident strides towards the kitchen. She knit her eyebrows at the sight before her eyes, and with a tone that was familiar to both girls, she remarked:
“What is wrong with the fridge?” The realization dawned on her when Fatima echoed her thoughts...
“It is not working?” she murmured, calmly watching Hajar’s restless attempts at flicking the switch. Eventually, her shoulders slopped.
“Oh my God! The power is off!” Lina gasped.
Hajar hastened her steps downstairs and her legs failed her tall stance at the sight of the ominous, red paper that she thought she saw in their mailbox earlier. That cursed red-letter meant nothing but troubles they could no longer afford, and a reality they could no longer avoid.
That reality was red. A disturbing, and devastating, loud red.
And it was their last straw. The rent was due in a week and both hers and Lina’s job contracts have been terminated without their month’s pay yet. With a silent thud, her body slipped on the cold floor and her head fall between her hands. Amidst the darkness of the building, Hajar barely shuddered at the coldness that emitted from the stairs. Cold didn’t faze her, letting her friends down did. But she got up, and she batted the tears, shaking away the lingering memory of the excitement when they’d come here.
They have been putting everything into this venture. Now, all of that work was going in vain with one red paper. Realizing that the next step was to deliver the news of a guaranteed eviction, she held onto the paper and slowly started making her way upstairs. An expectant Lina was the first to find her at the door of the apartment:
“Is it the whole street? Or is it just us?”
Hajar shut her eyes, holding back the tears that she never shed even when her boss refused her plea to hand hers and Lina’s paychecks. How could Lina be so dense? She, too, knew it would come to this, but she has been the most hung onto playing pretend between all of them.
“I can see the electricity bill. It is red”, Fatima stated as a matter of fact from the back.
Lina’s face fell finally, and her shoulders slopped down. Then, a long and heavy silence lingered as each thought of her family, and pictured their faces when they come back defeated by the world…”
CHAPTER TWO
“
1 year later, in May….
The glorious sun rose ever so subtly, spreading its glamorous tentacles-like rays teasingly on the rooftops, gently waking up the birds, nourishing the radiant springy leaves, and glamming up the salty waters of the Mediterranean seas with fresh morning glitter.
This city was yet to wake up.
It was a slow Monday morning for this delicate city, Tangier, but not for Fatima. The clock read 8 am, and the smell of well-brewed coffee wafted through the room where she was already awake. She has been waiting for this day for so long. She beamed to herself at the mirror thinking of today’s interview when her phone went off.
“Good morning, Mama”
“You remember our deal right? I’m only letting you do this because you promised to re-apply for your Master’s degree!”
“I know, I know. Even if I pass the trial period and get the job, I shall decline”
From the other line, her mother sighed in a relief Fatima could hardly digest.
“That is what I like to hear. Best of luck with your interview, darling! Call me right away when you’re done”
Her mother was the first to hang up, leaving Fatima staring blankly with a bitter pang of guilt at the black screen. She hated lying to her mother, and she wasn’t that good at it either. Unlike herself, her mother knew right away when Fatima was not telling the truth. Last Mawlid, when she made honey pancakes for the family, Fatima forgot to hide the crumbs on her mouth! And, that was only one of the least dramatic times when she got blatantly caught.
Yet, this time she couldn’t falter at this possibility — certainty. If she gets through, she was ready to keep lying to her mother until she could prove that she didn’t need the grand plan that she has set for her future. It was not that Fatima hated learning, she was just tired. Really tired. Tired of losing herself to the race for grades. Tired of working so hard only to keep her head above the threshold of ‘failure’, and she was especially tired of doing so much and so little without a finish line in the pursuit of ‘academic excellence; That utopian peak that everyone chased, but only a few were said to reach. This was the reality, and that was the ultimate truth that her mother needed to accept no matter what the cost may be for Fatima, her mother’s daughter.
One glance at the time and she was running to catch the elevator to meet breakfast time at the hotel. She has been here for the weekend and she was dreading the thought of finding the plate of those fresh-baked blueberry muffins empty, again. A familiar gasp met her at the elevator, and in an attempt of finding out, some man’s hard glares halted her instead. Before she knew it, she gave up and her eye remained glued forwards to the rest of the trip downstairs.
Once she was out of sight, a petite girl came out from behind the big-boned tall gentleman.
“Oh. My. God. What is she doing here?” Lina said, disgruntled, adding a little extra note to her naturally high-pitched voice that was complimented for suiting her petite shape.
She flipped a strand of hair that was getting in the way of her eyes, and the tall gentleman smiled softly. This was her bodyguard, a seemingly intimidating guy with a heart of gold. His name was Nabil. The man who only did his job right, and who doted on his boss’s daughter. Though, Fatima wouldn’t know that.
“Do you know her?” He inquired while leading them to the breakfast buffet.
“Sort of?” she shrugged.
“The girl I knew could never afford this place anyways.” she refrained herself from adding.
Lina’s hand dived into the blueberry muffins plate to put it all in her basket. Nabil stood there jaw-dropped.
“Not again!”
Lina pouted. “Don’t you feel bad for my Lucy? She would do anything for these treats”
“I don’t believe you. Dogs don’t eat blueberry… Do they?”
A staff worker from the hotel led them to their special guest's room with his professional host facade. The floor was a squeaky marble, the walls were adorned with paintings of the buildings of the city, and the room smelled like Oud. Nevertheless, Lina sighed and looked out at the blue pool outside.
“Was she your friend?” Nabil prompted, referring to Fatima.
“That classless girl. Why would I know someone like her?” she grumbled, munching on a muffin, and watching Fatima from the one-sided glassy window.
“I guess not.” Nabil shrugged nonchalantly.
The ride to the interview was an excursion inside her new car. Lina swayed her head to the rhythm of the tunes that played on repeat on her headphones until the driver, a quiet and much disciplined young man they hired a month ago, informed her that they have arrived. Yet, she refused to get out.
“Gah! I don’t even want this job.” She leaned against the comfortable chair, with a theatrical sigh.
“Dancing. That is what I do.” She added with more conviction, sounding as though she was greatly wronged by the cosmos. “Do I look like someone who can be abandoned on a desk? Or even be ordered around?” She pointed to her well-manicured nails and her designer top that she has just bought from the Mall. Only a few of her many, many purchases.
“I’d be wasted.” She sighed, despair in her voice, nostrils up in the air as though she was a flaring dragon.
Next to her, Nabil watched her and shrugged when he caught the driver’s eyes from the front mirror whose face looked redder than Lina’s. No matter how much this car cost, staying inside a confined space was getting to him, let alone the spoiled ‘demoiselle’ behind him.
“Should we go back to the hotel, mademoiselle?” he intervened, in fake concern.
“No,” she affirmed, her lips pursed. “I made a promise to my dad, and I’m willing to keep it-” she halted, realizing she said too much.
Nabil and the driver were both staring at her with expectant eyes but she was already outside the car, her legs wobbled slightly as her high peaky heels touched the hard earth. Lina was finally out of her air-conditioned cocoon and out into the real world. It was cold and windy, her hair flew to the wind that blew from the misty sea nearby, and at first, it was pleasant.
Lina advanced to the building entrance bare and vulnerable. This time, she didn’t have her father’s arms to catch her when she falls, and unless she owned wearing high heels when climbing up to the 10th floor of a skyrocket building with a broken elevator for the interview, making it barefoot was going to be her first lesson.”
The next two chapters are scheduled for next Friday!
-Imane Ben
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Story Profile
- Title: Much Ado in Tangier
- Author: Imane Ben (My Penname)
- Genre: Comedy-Drama-Romance
- Story Synopsis: A story about 3 millennials hacking their way into success. When they cross paths again after a year of losing touch, their friendship is put to test in the competitive race to accomplishment. Who makes it? Who has fallen behind? Who got left out? And, is it too late to start over?
