Love in the Kingdom of Oil by Nawal El Saadawi Read Free Book Online

them apart from that black line that appeared on the horizon like an arc.
    She moved her eyes towards the man. He took an axe and began to beat the ground. He was filling the jars one after the other. His back was towards her. She crept away on tiptoe. She could distance herself little by little and run away. Perhaps she would succeed in running away before he turned towards her.
    She noticed the loaf of bread on the wooden board and suddenly felt pangs of hunger. She took the bag off her shoulder and stretched out her arm. She took a nibble of bread between her teeth, then another, then another. The man saw her eating. ‘How can you eat my food and then refuse to obey me?’
    ‘Is it your food?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘I’m not eating of the sweat of your brow. I sweat as well, like you.’
    ‘Like me?’
    ‘Yes. For example, don’t I carry the jar to the company each day?’
    ‘The company!?’
    The word rang strangely in her ears. A mysterious word. The company. What is it? Who are the partners in this company? To whom do they sell the jars? How much do they pay for them each day? Does the man take a wage? From the day she had come, she had received nothing. She had never held any money in her hands.
    The world became blurred before her eyes. She moved her head towards the man. He began to beat the ground with the axe, blow after blow. A slow heavy movement. Then he threw the axe aside. He yawned. He wiped off the sweat with the sleeve of his
jallaba
. He filled the basket up to the brim. He raised it slowly with a ponderous movement, then emptied it into the jar. The jar cracked with a loud noise.
    ‘It’s not right for a woman to work for money.’
    ‘Then why should she work?’
    ‘For a greater goal.’
    The words seemed logical. There was another goal to her life. For the sake of the greater goal, she could submit herself to a smaller goal. She felt at rest with this thought.
    She raised the jar with one hand, and placed it on her head. The muscles of her neck bent under the load. But it steadied itself once more. The congealed oil was very sticky. It shook in the belly of the jar and from its mouth arose something like steam.
    She moved on her way towards the company. Her shadow was reflected on the surface of the lake. With the jar on her head, she appeared like the goddess Hathur carrying the disk of the sun between her horns.
    She tensed the muscles of her neck as if with pride. Heat emanated from the base of the jar like the sun. She moved with firm steps, without giving heed to anything.
    From a distance the company appeared like a black stain on an expanse that was even blacker. A piece of land rising into the sky like a chimney. It threw out flames and black particles that appeared to be red under the sun.
    Perhaps she had been born here and she didn’t have another life. She twisted her neck with a sudden movement and the jar almost fell. She raised her arm and grasped it with a swift movement.
    The company seemed more distant as she moved nearer to it. The sun disappeared and night began to creep over the land. It laid itself down on the land suddenly, as if it was going to sleep.
    Since her childhood she could not stand anything on her head. She took the jar off and carried it on her back. Perhaps this would be a better position. If the heat flowed into her back, all that there was there was bone. Heat on the head dissolved the brain.
    ‘Is this why donkeys carry things on their backs and not on their heads?’
    The thought astonished her. Her mind became more active. The donkey seemed to her to be more intelligent than women. She also realised why men refuse to carry things on their heads. She moved the jar to the lower part of her back and it became lighter. A refreshing wind slowly entered her chest. Her head was liberated from the weight and a new thought came to her. Her astonishment increased the more she developed the thought. Her body began to tremble. A wave of rebellion swept over her