Cairo is a Small City

Adil Salim is an engineer who becomes infatuated with a young woman that passes by his home with her mother and their flock of sheep often. As a means to get the beautiful woman’s attention he offers her and her mother bread for her sheep. Adil becomes convinced that the young woman named Salma is attracted to him as well. One day he is invited to meet her family at her camp in an oasis outside of town. The oasis is the last beautiful thing he sees because he is convicted of murdering someone that belongs to the girl’s clan. Adil’s throat is cut and he is left to die. I think the message of this story is that beauty can be deceiving. Maybe the girl Salma knew that Adil was wanted for murder, maybe she used her looks as a means to lure Adil to her home. Perhaps she kept looking at Adil in a frightened manner because she had heard what a dangerous man Adil was, since he had killed a man before. The story also shows how quickly one’s life can be taken from them. Adil was only thinking about his building that he was working on and wooing the beautiful Salma, I don’t think that he even thought about possibly being in danger when he was going to Salma’s home.