The riddle of a new morning

Translated from the Arabic by Alice Guthrie

And what will happen on the morning when—with the assistance of the hotel receptionist—the door to the room is opened, and you find your blood-soaked wife on the bed, two huge wounds visible on her back and her total organ count down two kidneys, enough hours having passed since the person who hired you and your car as his driver for the last two days left for him to be out of the country already, he who went up to the room with a woman you yourself procured for him (“Guaranteed,” as you said to him with a wink) so that he could spend “a fun night in her company, and at a good price,” as he said to you with a wink, her being this same woman who is lying there drenched in her own blood on the bed?

فكّ اشتباك

هشام البستاني 

أُقفلت أبوابُ السيّارةِ رباعيّة الدّفع على الأطفال المحشورين في المقعد الخلفيّ داخل الصّيف القائظ، فانعجن بعضهم ببعض وظلّوا يتنازعون المساحة الضيّقة التي انضغطوا فيها إلى أن فضّ اختصامهم طبيبُ المشرحة، وشيّعهم بتوقيعٍ من الأمّ.