– The trick is that when he came to me, I was alone. I don’t have cupboards. I’m not going out. You can’t hide it in the toilet. So they think that they either dropped it somewhere along the way, or lost it while in a hurry. Fuck them. The main thing is that you don’t get caught.
Nazakyat sat with her head down and listened in silence. The prospect of spending the remaining short years of her life as a mole, only not blind, but deaf, depressed her. But the trouble started. A person, as you know, gets used to a lot. Yes, and the all-powerful female curiosity took up…
To her credit, she quickly mastered the techniques of diving under the bed. Helped, slim build and skills developed while still working as a secretary, patience. And I had to work in this way only 2—3 days a week. The rest of the time she cleaned the store. She didn’t particularly like to remember, but some episodes brought her to tears with laughter.
As a rule, many people settled with Leila, that was the name of a neighbor, and now a business partner, right away, having agreed on the street. The amounts were often very meager.
Some even offered to just eat and fruit in addition. For example, watermelon or melon. So, Leila bargained with an old man from Kuwait. Small, puny, looking like an old man Hottabych, he waved his hands furiously when Leila asked him for 500 dirhams ($ 140).
– La, la, la (no, no, no Arabic.)
She slightly lowered the price to 450 dirhams. In response, again violent waving. Neither 300 nor 200 dirhams suited him. He turned out to be extremely stingy. Enraged, Leila walked away from him, wagging her hips and swaying her lush breasts as she walked. Old Hottabych hobbled after her, muttering something to himself. On the way, he bought 2 melons. And when Layla was about to turn the corner, he called out to her. We agreed on 100 dirhams, and for dessert – melons. After explaining in Arabic to the miser (Deila spoke several dialects tolerably well) where to go up, she quickly entered the room, kicked the bed with her foot (signal). Nazakat, who had almost fallen asleep, tensed up and began to wait. At the same time, she prayed tirelessly and read surahs from the Koran in a low voice.
.All she remembered was some kind of grunting and muttering. The «massage» lasted quite a long time. Little by little, Nazakat began to fall asleep. She woke up when banknotes flew into her face – Kuwaiti dinars. She quickly began to fold them. The groaning old man Hottabych, slowly crawled out of bed, she could see his skinny ankles, also grumbling, dressed his gondura and hobbled out of their dwelling. But after a few minutes, she and Leila heard his senile screeching. Apparently, on the street, he discovered the loss of 20,000 Kuwaiti dinars.
«Serves him right,» Leila responded calmly, looking down from the window. – A miser pays twice. I wanted to get off with a melon. Shoe cover (stingy) wood.
Nazakat had already crawled out from under her shelter and, looking at Leila counting bills, was silent. She felt sorry for the hapless old man Hottabych.
«Probably the same as me – a pensioner; children, grandchildren, wife at home»…
Leila somehow read her thoughts.
– Feel sorry for yourself. The Emir of Kuwait gives him money from birth until his death. And our Aliev shows you big and fat. It’s not a horseradish to climb around Dubai and stare at women, it’s your own fault.
Nazakyat sighed and then laughed. It is visible not only to her alone in her old age, Shaitan got into her brains, but also to old Hottabych, gray in his beard, a demon in his rib.
«I wonder what he was doing in Dubai?» she asked Leila.
_ I don’t know. Probably came to the shopping festival, to collect gifts for children and grandchildren.
She counted the bills – there were 20 pieces of thousands of dinars. Half was given to Nazakyat.
– Here you go. 10,000 is yours. This is 100,000 dirhams. 27,000 dollars.
– How much?, – Nazakyat couldn’t believe her ears.
– Yes, yes, as much as I’ve heard. Cool money, cool country, cool emir,» Leila summed up with satisfaction. – Eh, there would always be such grandfathers. I would have bought a pink villa in Baku a long time ago.
But it was very rare for combinators to be so «lucky». In other cases, the «catch» was very insignificant. Sometimes there were customers with bank cards. Then Leila quickly withdrew sums from their account. Also small.
And surprisingly, she was right. Almost no one returned after discovering the loss. «Sleight of hand and no cheating,» Leila joked.
But one day there was a misfire. On one of the usual evenings, Nazakyat, as usual, settled down at her «workplace» and was just getting ready to say a prayer when the door to the hallway slammed and someone hurriedly entered the room. He stopped, lay low. Leila was in the toilet at the time. The alien plopped down heavily on the bed and waited for the hostess. Apparently, he weighed decently. The bunk sagged a little under him. Thinking that he was alone, without hesitation, he began to emit miasma and fart loudly. Nazakat plugged her nose. So about 10 minutes passed.
Leila came in in a short silk robe and sat down on the edge of the bed. Nazakyat heard some scuffling, and then, quite unexpectedly, a round head overgrown with hair and beard hung down. Simultaneously, both the Nazakat and the head uttered an exclamation of surprise. But if she knew about the presence of the owner of the head in the room, then the latter was completely at a loss.
– Astafyrla, shaitan, – the head instantly shouted. Quickly jumping off the bed, pulling on his pants and outerwear, the owner of the head disappeared, slamming the door. Crawling out from under the bed, Nazakat found Leila sitting cross-legged on the bed. She looked at Nazakyat and was silent.
«Oh, what’s wrong with him,» she asked Leila uncertainly.
– Fuck knows. He began to crawl on the bed like a fat worm. Did he see you or something?
– Yes, in my opinion. What if he brings the police?, – Nazakyat was scared.
– Hardly. To be afraid. It will also be closed. And what will he tell them. You’re leaving now. Me too. We’ll close the door. Let’s sleep better,» Layla yawned and turned off the light.
And the terrified Nazakyat could not sleep until the morning. I was still afraid of the shaggy head with bulging eyes.
…Time flew by imperceptibly. Month after month. Year after year. In the UAE, in general, time seems to stop. It’s always the same. The scorching sun and a bunch of people crowding and hurrying everywhere and everywhere. Sometimes she flew home. The collected money was enough to purchase a 2-room apartment. An apartment for a grandson and rent a beauty salon that brings a small income. He and Leila often changed apartments.
They «worked» mainly with Arabs. Sometimes there were tourists from the CIS. One of them put an end to their collaboration with Leila.
2 ....................................Brother and sister went to Hajj
It was the time of the Hajj. One day Leila brought a man home, they were talking in Russian. Nazakat was wary. The Russian-speaking «clientele» was usually rude and ridiculed Leylin’s tricks. This one was calm. As it turned out, neither massage nor sex were necessary for him. He shared a room with his aunt. They had come for shopping, that’s how he explained to Leila. The constant fuss of his aunt with junk, did not allow him to sleep normally. In 2 days they were going to Saudi Arabia to make a pilgrimage. Therefore, he needs to gain strength. Hajj is not an easy matter.
He paid for the night and as soon as he touched the pillow, he began to snore carelessly. Nazakat realized that nothing like this was expected, so she slowly crawled out of her hole and seeing that Leila was not in the room, also cautiously went outside. The night was stuffy, as usual in Dubai. There were no stars in the sky at all. She slowly wandered towards the store where she and Layla were trading. Opening the door with her key, she went into a small nook, unfolded the mattress that stood in the corner, lay down on it, groaned and fell asleep in a serene sleep. She was awakened by the voice of unfamiliar men speaking Arabic. They turned out to be police officers brought by the owner of the store. It turned out that Leila had not paid rent for him for several months. And now the guards were sorting out what was going on.
However, the procedure did not take much time. Leila, who was standing with sleepy eyes and sluggishly reacting to the arguments of the owner, calmly signed some papers, and began to get ready for the police station. Nazakyat, shaking with fear, did not move. At that time, Leila loudly in Azerbaijani, told her not to go out. But one of the policemen was alerted when he heard someone else’s speech and began to walk around the shop, where he naturally discovered that when he saw an elderly woman sitting in the fetal position on a mattress in the corner, he ordered her in English to get up and follow him. She obeyed. That’s how they ended up at the police station together with Leila. Another shock awaited Nazakat here. Packed to bursting with women of different nationalities and skin color, it resembled an anthill. Multilingual speech was heard, it stank disgusting.
The polystation was windowless, the air seemed stale with sweat and the devil knows what else. All the recumbent seats were occupied. Dirty mattresses were lying on the floor, on them, who slept, who sat and combed out lice (mostly they were immigrants from Bangladesh and India). African women were heavily smeared with some bleaching agents, specifically stinking. From all this, Nazakat felt dizzy and he sank to the floor, squatting down. Leila went to look for empty seats. After a while, she called out to Nazakat and began waving her hand. She barely got up and slowly began to move, holding on to the wall with her hands. The room Leila found was next to the toilet. There were 6 women sleeping on bunks and one lying on a mattress on the floor. She invited Leila and Nazakyat. Her name was Rumiya. She was originally from Kyrgyzstan.
Calm, taciturn, spent most of the night in prayer, I slept during the day, covering my eyes with a blindfold and plugging my ears. Leila and Nazakyat shared the same mattress. I rested in turn. When asked what awaits them, Leila just shrugged her shoulders and said:
– Allah alone knows what they will come up with. I think they won’t give you more than 3—4 months.
– oh, it’s bad! – Nazakyat wailed, – I can’t stand this hell!
– You can handle it. She was lying under the bed. And here it’s even better, the ceiling is visible. Chat with Rumia. You know the Koran as well as she does. It’s time to atone for sins,» Leila joked.
So they sat for about 2 months. They weren’t called anywhere. The police shrugged their shoulders at their questions, saying we don’t know.. hygiene items were not issued here. Everything had to be bought by ourselves.
The toilet, located half a meter from their room, stank unbearably and loud noises from the outgoing gases, the effects of drinking Pepsi-Cola and dry food consumed by the prisoners were heard every now and then.
The neighbors in the cell turned out to be 2 African women. When asked why they were imprisoned, they flashed the whites of their eyes menacingly and answered threateningly: «Not your fucking business». Although Nazakat did not understand English well, she understood this one. She was sent far away. With the rest, they were natives of India. They were constantly sitting on their bunks and cleaning each other’s heads like Indian banderlogs. And they also say that humans did not descend from monkeys.
Rumia complained.
«These Arabs are heartless. Almost without understanding, they grab and go to prison. For example, I didn’t steal any money. I just wanted to take 40 dirhams from the urn placed at the mosque for alms. To buy food and water. And they attacked me with shouts: «Harami! (the thief)». Without understanding, they dragged me here. And I’m not a thief at all. I’m a victim. I was robbed of $3,000.
– What are you? – Nazakyat was surprised.
– yes. My nephew and I were going to go to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. We flew from Bishkek here to Dubai to buy something and then fly to Saudi Arabia. I had $3,000 with me. For round-trip tickets and hotel accommodation. I went to see the goods at the bazaar, and left the money to my nephew. I came back, he was gone, I went to bed. I woke up in the morning, waiting for him. I had to fly out in the evening. He came back late. He ’s kind of nervous. I ask what ’s the matter. He says he lost money. And he doesn ’t raise his eyes.
I was speechless from shock, it was our last money. Hajj disappeared and we couldn ’t fly home either. There was no money for tickets. I ask where? He says he doesn ’t remember contacting the police. They told us there that they could not help us in any way. 2 bottoms wandered around Dubai hungry. There are mosques at every step here. There are urns everywhere, people come up and put sadaqa (alms). A lot of money. After the prayer, I saw some men coming up and taking money from them. I thought that every Muslim in need can come up and take a little bit.
But as soon as I took out 2 bills, Arabs in white clothes jumped out of nowhere, grabbed me and started yelling «Harami, harami!». I was scared. I wanted to escape. They wouldn’t let me and dragged me here. Well, I sang to call my nephew, tell him where I am. He is poor, also without money. I got a job with the Pakistanis in a supermarket, as a loader. But they don’t pay him any money. They just feed you and give you a place to sleep. I came once and brought food. But he was told that you can only bring things and money. He promised that he would collect something and come back next time. And he came. Nazakyat will remember that day for the rest of his life. She was still asleep when a terrified Layla jumped up to her place and began to slow her down.
