Author: Samir Hittawy
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A miserable, depressed old man lies in a deep hole. I approach his face trying to identify him. He looks very much like me. He bears all my features, except that some wrinkles fill his face. I look into his tearful eyes and ask him gently: “Why so much regret?!”
He tries to move from the abominable hole, but it constricts him and presses on his ribs, so he is unable to move, he tries hard to speak, but the words seem unwilling to come out, so he tricks them into obeying him, and says in anger: “Look at yourself.”
I look at him incomprehensibly and ask him in astonishment: “What do I have to do with you?”
The old man shuts up and turns his face away, so I am overwhelmed with confusion, I tremble and be astonished, so I quickly turn the matter over in my mind, looking for a link between us.
Did I know him before? Have I met him one day? Did I promise him a promise and break it? Did I bump into him on the road one day and didn’t apologize to him? What is my relationship with this depressed old man?!
I did not find a logical answer.. So I turned to the other side to face him and look into his eyes again while I asked him sharply: “What is my relationship with you, man?! answer me»
He smiled carefreely and spoke in a tone of frustration, begging me: “Because you don’t ask my opinion about anything you do”
What is this intrusion? How can he impose himself on me with such insolence? Shall I stand at the corner of every road and ask him if he agrees with my going or if he has any objections? What is this man who hardly realizes that I am independent of him and that I have free will?!
Discontent appeared clearly on my features, so the old man realized what I was thinking, and added in a choking voice: “You are the reason for what I am in, you are the one who determines my fate.”
His strange expression shocked me, and I found my body shrinking from the shock, fading part by part, and dissipating in the air as if it had turned into vapor, then it flowed over the body of the old man and settled in it.