Car 4

139
Mr Hisham Badhuri

Outward appearance

Indian movie star? Handsome, broad shouldered. Blue jeans, trainers, brown leather jacket with an American oil company logo.

Inside information

Graduate business student on a trainee placement with British Telecom. First degree from Ein Shamsh University in Cairo. Taught himself English as a part time tourist guide. Learned other things from them as well. A Muslim fundamentalist dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Poster in his bedsit shows the hand of Islam smashing the star of David against the dome of the rock.

What he is doing or thinking

His memories swim like fish in a pool. He sees the old man on the bus many years ago back home. He sees his English girlfriend Karen. He sees his mother in their flat in Mansura, reeds on the floor to repair chairs. He sees the many photographs of himself, handsome in a gelabiya.

He sees Karen's father, big, pink faced, crumpled, white haired, in the showers after tennis. Karen's father's hand on his thigh. Karen's father lying face down on the bed. Karen saying, "My father really, really likes you, he keeps asking after you."

He sees the rowboatmen in Mansura. "You are an Egyptian, why are you taking the side of these foreigners?" And he himself saying, "It doesn't give you the right to cheat them." He cheats them himself. He loves them.

He supports a group that aims rifles at them because Islam stands up to Mubarak and his corruption.

What stands up to his own corruption? He stands, and his many selves swim like fish, on from Waterloo..

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