Author: Samir Hittawy
The first flash
[1]
Wednesday 9/8/2023
A wonderful chalet directly on the sea near “Ajiba” plateau in Matrouh, the waves hits its iron door sometimes; chalet suffers from loneliness and isolation somewhat, there are only a few chalets under construction beside it.
In front of this chalet, five young people at the end of their thirties stood; They were friends at university but separated by the waves of life and days, then reconnected due to the new social networking sites.
They decided to spend some of their summer days in Sharm el-Sheikh, but one of them insisted on replacing it with Matrouh, an idea that was accepted by everyone, especially when he made them feel a yearning for Rommel and Alamein museums, plus Cleopatra’s bath.
Clear blue waters, no one will disturb them in this place for sure; it is the psychological tranquility they are looking for.
The view of the chalet awed them! Why? they did not know; maybe its strange pyramidal shape is the reason; or perhaps its stones; A stone Wriggling like a snake, a stone about to flee like a panicked mouse, and a stone like a lion gaping its mouth as if it was about to devour them!
These strange stones caught the attention of “Ibrahim” more than others, as he is naturally scrupulous, and fear has ignited in him, but he he did not appear it to his companions, as he cannot appear afraid at all, so how can he be afraid while he believes that fear was made by man? As he always says, “Fear is the greatest historical prank that man has done to himself”, so how can he be afraid if he dose not believe in fear? He doesn’t believe in anything at all, or in other words, he believes in nothing!
His friends describe him as an “atheist”; a description he doesn’t like, but he accustomed it anyway.
Shake off the fear of his head and smile at the lion who was about to swallow him as he entered the chalet with some bags.
The chalet has two floors; three rooms below, and two above.
They brought their bags and belongings one by one.
Ibrahim and Wael inspected the chalet, and they appeared like if they are comparing its reality with the pictures they had seen on the internet before booking it with difficulty.
Dissatisfaction and apprehension appeared on their faces.
Nader, Mahmoud and Youssef sat chatting in the basement living room.
Wael went upstairs, while Ibrahim found a door closed at the end of the basement from the opposite side of the main chalet door from which they entered, which directly overlooks the sea, and in the center of this door there is a handle in the form of a lion very similar to the lion he saw in the front of the chalet, golden color and shiny eyes!
His curiosity prompted him to try to open this door, he tried more than once in vain until he became bored, so he knocked on the door with his hand in frustration and despair.
His successive blows on the door stirred up a lot of dust that seemed to have accumulated for a long time, he dusted off his hand as if he was clapping, he knocked again as if he was having fun, and the door began to open on his own.
Ibrahim stood stunned by what had happened, and at the moment of the first takeoff of the door, his hinges issued a moan, which fell into Ibrahim’s ear like the sound of a knife blade, Ibrahim doubted whether the sound came from the door or from the inside, Ibrahim was suspected that there was someone sharpening the blade of a knife inside, he was very afraid;
“Aren’t we alone in this chalet? Who is behind this door?!”
Ibrahim used to analyze everything, leaving nothing to pass without putting his intellectual mark on it, he began to overcome his fear, and began to enter through the door, as soon as he put his left foot behind the door, he felt a great emptiness, and it seemed to him that what was behind the door was a deep chasm, and he thought that if he entered, he would fall from a high place, but he wondered to himself:
“Where am I going to fall? We are in a chalet, the worst that can be found here is a hole.”
Then he smiled wryly as he spoke to himself:
“It may be a burial pit for the dead, assuming that the chalet is nothing but a den of criminals who resemble the legend of Reya and Sakina, luring their victims into it, then killing them and robbing them of their valuables!”
He suddenly entered this place, and instead of falling as he thought, he felt that he was flying in the air, or swimming, with nothing but a dark void around him, he tried to walk and found his feet disabled, or could not carry him, and then he discovered that he did not need his feet anymore.
He felt his lightness and ability to move smoothly, moving from one place to another without exerting effort or draining energy. He began to explore the place around him. He was surprised when he found one of those stars that he had seen in the sky passing by him; Rather, he found himself in the sky itself in all its details; The moon is below him, and the planets of the entire solar system surround him. He began to ascend until he emerged from the Milky Way galaxy in the blink of an eye.
his feelings conflicted; Tranquility and peace, fear and anticipation, tranquility contested by grave anxiety. He remembered some of his previous experiences and information, so he realized that in the sense of the earth, he might now be called dead, but is this really death? Did he fall into a deep hole and dead on the spot?! Or was that unknown person who was sharpening his knife blade the reason?! He feels everything, everything is more real than reality itself; He is sure that he is in the sky, but he is not sure if he is alive or dead?!