Chapter XXII. Correspondence Marriage

A section of an Egyptian newspaper devoted to communication where young people can post brief messages along with their postal addresses for those who enjoy corresponding and making new friends.

While reading the dating section of the newspaper, Sardar spotted a conventional dating ad that he would never have overlooked.

“My name is Alara, I’m 19 years old, 170 centimeters tall, 65 kilograms heavy, graceful, beautiful, with brown eyes and long, smooth hair. My mother is Egyptian and my father is Egyptian with Turkish-Ottoman origin.”

Her Turkish origins attracted him, and his imagination ran wild in describing this beauty, Turkish-Egyptian, a mixture of the Ottomans and the Pharaohs. He grabbed a paper and a pen and began writing.

“Greetings, Alara. I am Sardar, an Iraqi Turkmen from the Kirkuk Governorate, also of Turkish descent, and I am 26 years old. I work in the clothing industry, and I am currently in Libya.  I noticed that you were similar to me in that you also sprung from Turkish immigrants to the Arab world. I am also tall, and good-looking. It’s my pleasure to be friends with you.”

He sent the letter by mail the same day, and two weeks later he received her reply. Through their correspondence, they grew close, and he knew about their family history, including that of their grandfather Ismail and her father, a stunning young woman from an aristocratic family with Turkish-Ottoman ancestry who also suffered at the hands of the putschist military, as had happened with him.

Soon, the messages began to carry something of passion, feelings, and their relationship turned into love by correspondence, and what a love this is, when one is associated with an ideal mental image that his mind draws of his lover.

With his kind words, Sardar enchanted her, wrote poetry with her, enthralled her, and carried her off into the world of dreams.

He sent her pictures of him successively, without sending him any picture of her, despite his request, but she refuses.

There are always excuses to make, and since women don’t like to dump their papers all at once, it’s possible that her purpose is to create a little suspense.

She eagerly awaits the postman who knocks on their door carrying a new letter, takes it, enters her room, closes the door, spreads the bed on her stomach, plays with her feet in the air, and begins reading a new poem with passion and longing. They spent an entire year falling in love through correspondence; he loved her words, and she loved what he wrote.

Sometimes, he went over the line because even though he hadn’t actually seen her, not even in a picture, he was still able to describe her body, her breasts, her waist, and her hair as if she were sitting in front of him through the use of a poetic poem that carried many connotations that soothed the feminine spirit within her.

She replied with feigned anger, “do not send such messages again, do not cross your limits, I am correspondent with you, because one day I wanted to try this new fashion, acquaintance through newspapers and mails, I published that advertisement, and I received many messages. I only responded to you, when I saw that there was a rapprochement between us, but this does not mean that you exceed what is permitted in what you write to me. If you repeat it again, I will not send to you again.”

She put the letter in the mailbox, then waited for two whole weeks, afraid.

“Damn me, I lost him, I shouldn’t have responded like that!”

The postman knocked on the door one morning. She recognizes his knock and occasionally rushes to the door before he arrives since she can hear his footsteps on the stairs.

She opened for him, in his hands a new letter, a poem of apology, and a promise not to repeat this mistake.

He shared many of his thoughts with her since he is well-educated, brilliant, knowledgeable, and book and science magazine obsessed.

What a parallel!  Furthermore, Alara’s family owns a library. When Sardar found out about it, he was ecstatic. He believed that he had been guided to his destination by fate. They share many characteristics and even little aspects.

Zainab is not satisfied with this correspondence.

-We do not want this Turkmen. You must marry a pharaonic Egyptian man, for the pharaonic blood takes precedence over everything.

Alara, who is independent-minded and obstinate, persisted in carrying up the correspondence nonetheless, and she still has a great deal of passion for Sardar. She enjoyed the thought of being in a relationship with a young man of Turkish descent who, in addition to being gorgeous, and wealthy, was similar to her in many other ways. He was a complex mix of nationalities and origins; a Jordanian national, and a Turkmen from Iraq.

As for Hatshepsut, she is at a loss, let us wait and see. If he was polite, beautiful, rich, as he claims, then there are only a few qualities left that must be verified, good-heartedness, chivalry, magnanimity, we will not accept Alara’s attachment to him unless he possesses them, as she can control him, as Zainab controlled Hassan, except that the indications are good, as he is a poet, emotional, just like Hassan, and things seem to be going well, so far.

Alara invited him, in some correspondence, to visit Egypt, a veiled invitation to take this relationship to an advanced stage, at least face-to-face acquaintance.

In an incomprehensible way, Sardar began to evade with unjustified excuses, exhausting her psychologically. If he was serious about this relationship, why would he not take a step forward? Are we going to spend all our time, our lives perhaps, waiting for the postman?!

He occupied her mind and thinking, he has become difficult to reach, as easy as abstaining, letters go and others come, but this young man who is sensitive, poetic, emotional, and affectionate, refusing to take a serious step to meet.

She wished to hear a poem directly from his mouth, in a cafe on the banks of the Nile, with his sweet voice that she had not heard yet.
She flew with her dreams, waiting, and repeated the invitation more than once, but to no avail.

For him, marriage to this family is an honor and a pride, but one thing worries him, Alara herself, her true nature, her outward appearance, he was afraid to go and meet her; To discover that she is not the beautiful woman he imagined, or even that her whole story is a figment of imagination, not a reality, which will be a shock to him and her. Since he is a noble, chivalrous man, if he goes to meet her, it is almost always over, he will not back down. He was hesitating in confusion.

He also wanted some evidence. He asked her for a picture of her family members, which she did not send. He asked for pictures of the library, which she did not send either. He asked for the names of relatives or acquaintances of them in Libya, even if Egypt, in the hope that he would somehow verify the truth of what she said to him, which she did not give.

His concern was increased by stories that people started circulating about the dangers of dating by correspondence, as a number of people were lured with fake love stories, only to quickly discover that they had fallen victim to an organized blackmail gang.

One of them is about a young man who went to meet his beloved by correspondence for the first time, traveled to Egypt, and there, they kidnapped him and tortured him, until the young man’s family transferred huge sums of money to them.

In the last message, he decided to settle the issue.

“Alara, you must send me your picture. I would like to come and visit you, but I would like to see you first.”

A brief message, and a decisive decision

Nothing will be sent after that

Until he sees her at least…