This night was special. For the first time, Saïd felt hatred towards the blond lady.
While peeing, ******he pondered the factory where all the ladies were trapped: why were they stuck there in the first place? And why were the tourists complicit in keeping them?
His uncle's gibberish wasn't supposed to make sense.
Saïd returned to his bed, but sleep eluded him. He lay down, turning his head towards where his uncle Nacer used to sleep, and reminisced about their last time together.
He always thought Nacer was trying to sow chaos in the household, and his father, Ali, hated him for it, leading to numerous arguments where Nacer claimed superiority over Ali, who considered all his mumbling as pointless attempts to seem smarter.
Unlike those of his generation, Nacer had attended city schools and always felt he was meant for more than village life. A few years after moving to the city, he cut off contact with his family and friends. His mother clung to the irrational belief something had happened to him, refusing to accept that her son no longer wanted to deal with her.
Eighteen years had passed since then, and Nacer returned to the village to find both his parents and older brothers dead, with only one sibling left, his sister, who was married and had one son: Saïd.