Читать книгу Flying in the cloud - Агриппина Битар - Страница 7

It’s been a few days. Nina once went online to check her page and saw a new friend request. It was someone under the name of Yasser Abdullah from Algeria.

She paid attention to the profile. There were no personal photos, just a picture of a white galloping horse without a rider, the same photo that she sent the boy. In their conversations it was a photo of a girl-rider that represented the “girl-rider” sex-pose.

The background of the profile was a photo of a key-wallet with pendants in shapes of a man and a woman, but the female one was missing. There were no personal photos, only some of nature and some romantic pictures with flowers, candles, kissing couples…

A red bulb with a “Caution!” sing immediately appeared in Nina’s mind. She accepted the request and remained waiting for something to happen. It started off with tender, romantic messages. This Yasser was an interesting person, and they had discussed plenty of themes. They had talked about politics and religion, art, fashion, perfumes, colours.

He surrounded Nina with a cloud of love and adoration. He sent her beautiful songs in Arabic and French. He wished her a good day each morning and good night each evening. He sent her romantic pictures and photographs.

He only wouldn’t send his photos. Moreover, had never called her. He explained that he wanted to be Mr. Incognito for Nina, as it would be so mystical and romantic! Nina long had an idea of who Yasser Abdullah was, but pretended to trust everything he wrote.

She was also intrigued by the game, especially since the profile of Ismael was closed to her. She told Yasser her love story with the boy, and that they broke up.

Yasser showed deep understanding and psychologically went through the whole situation. He tried to comfort her. For Nina, it was consoling and explained her what had happened.

They kept on talking every day about some very intimate things. In addition, although he wrote very differently, in a different manner and style, in other words, but Nina still noticed from time to time that he used some familiar figures of speech. He even sometimes touched the issues that they had discussed with the boy only, and that no one else could have known. All that convinced Nina about the truth her guesses. So one day, she forced him to reveal himself.

They have been chatting, as always. He suddenly asked: “What is the colour of your underwear right now?”

“Try to guess!” answered Nina.

“Black, white, pink…” he started guessing.

“it’s pink,” said Nina.

“Really? I won’t believe until I see it myself! Send me a photo of your pink panties!” Yasser asked.

“Don’t you even dream about it!” wrote Nina and sent a laughing smiley.

“Please, please, please!” he started to beg.

“You know, if you were Ishmael, I would’ve sent you this photo,” wrote Nina. And immediately added: “Ismael, I know it’s you! Ismaeeel!”

That was followed by silence, apparently these words surprised him. Then he wrote:

“Yes, it’s me. Now we’re together again!”

Nina was overjoyed, her heart was madly beating and she asked him a lot of questions about why he was doing it, blocking her from his profile and writing under another name. He told her that his account wasn’t working, but he missed her a lot, so he wanted to be with her. He suddenly suggested:

“I want to meet you in real life. Let’s meet, for example, in Turkey or Tunisia, and we’ll have a week of happiness!”

“Why not in Egypt?” Nina was surprised, “or are you afraid that we’ll come across any of your friends?!”

“No, I’m not afraid,” he said, “I just want to meet you in another country.”

“OK, but how will it happen?” Nina asked. She didn’t expect such a twist.

“Pick a hotel, buy a tour for yourself, and I, too, will come to this hotel at the same time…”

They were texting all night and couldn’t keep their hands off each other. They were imagining the meeting. Nina had thousands of questions. What would he tell his parents? Could he book himself a room? After all, considering the law of Egypt and some other countries, he was still underage! Where would he get the money from, since he was not yet working?

He reassured her and said that he would solve everything! For example, he could come with an adult friend. And they would meet officially as friends, and at nights he would secretly come to her room. He would tell his parents that he would go on a vacation with friends. His friends would support him and serve as a cover-up for his parents. Concerning the money, he could borrow it from his friends or his father.

“Yes, you can borrow some, and when we meet, I’ll give you the money, so that you can return it back to them!” suggested Nina.

They had never talked about money until this moment. Nina had heard that many men ask women for money on the Internet, feeding them with different sad stories. She was always attentive to this issue and would never send money to a stranger on the Internet.

However, her boy was an exception. He had never asked her money before. Although she wasn’t aware of the level of prosperity of his family, she thought: “How can a child have money?”. She was ready for everything for him!

“What are you gonna tell your husband?” he asked her in response.

“I don’t know,” Nina replied, “I’ll deal with it. Perhaps, I can tell him I’m visiting my daughter…”

What she would tell her husband was the last thing that bothered Nina, she preferred not to look that far ahead and solve problems on the go. Nina began searching for a hotel enthusiastically and started sending him the options. They had finally finished their conversation in the morning, sending each other a string of hearts and emoticons with kisses. However, the next day everything changed.

When they started chatting again and Nina began to address him by the name Ismael, he started denying everything and insisted that he wasn’t Ismael, he was Yasser. He said that what made him call himself Ismael was his strong love for Nina and the desire to get her intimate photos behind this disguise.

Nina got angry and stopped responding. Everything mixed up in her mind and she didn’t understand her boy. Why would he play this game, if they felt so good with each other? Why would he impersonate someone else?

Nina didn’t respond to his messages for five days. She just kept on reading them with no response, but didn’t block his profile. She wanted to figure out what he wanted and why he played this way. Meanwhile, Yasser, to prove that he wasn’t Ismael, had sent her a photo of his passport.

Indeed, in it there was the name of Yasser Abdullah, the country was Algeria, and he was forty years old. In the photo she saw a handsome thin man with dark hair, white face and European features.

It wasn’t Ismael. Nina read on the Internet that some part of the Algerian population comes from the Berber nation, a unique nation with a European genotype.

Such metamorphosis disappointed Nina very much, and she retreated into silence. Yasser, however, didn’t stop sending her sweet messages and romantic pictures. He told her a little about himself: that he had a small business, a little grocery shop.

He also sent Nina a few of his photos. He soon began to talk about their meeting. Yasser tried to convince Nina that they would spend a perfect romantic holiday, filled with love and tenderness.

Nina thought day and night about what it meant and who had wrote it. Maybe, that was her boy, who continued to play hide and seek with her? She began to respond, at first with short and emotionless messages, and then decided to continue the game and to expose him again. They continued to discuss the meeting and choose the country.

Nina hadn’t been by the sea for a long time and, actually, was already planning on going somewhere to relax in near future. She already had been to Turkey, but never to Tunisia.

She found some information about Tunisia and decided that this country should be very interesting to visit. Firstly, being in North Arica, it was warmer than Turkey and secondly, there was a very diverse nature there: the sea and the Sahara Desert, where you can go on Safari.

Its culture was also very intriguing. In addition, Tunisia is a former French colony, where people from France and Germany love to spend their vacations, which was much better than the dominance of Nina’s compatriots on Turkish resorts.

So, Nina opted for Tunisia and reported it to Yasser. He was very happy and wrote that he would fly even to Mars with her! And again, a red “Caution!” sign appeared in her mind. They spoke with the boy about Mars at the beginning of their relationship.

Nina once told him that an international expedition to Mars was gathering, however, it was only planned to go one way. Those who would go would never return to Earth.

They would have to build a colony on the red planet, to live there for the rest of their lives and die in this far alien world. Most applications from those wishing to participate in this expedition came from the United States, plenty

from India, there were volunteers from China and even some people from Russia. No one from Egypt.

Nina asked Ismael, if he would like to go to Mars forever. He immediately responded: “No! No way! I love my country, my Egypt!” Then he thought, and wrote: “With you I would fly even to Mars!”

Now, after reading that message from Yasser, Nina became convinced that was him, her boy. Then Nina suddenly realized, she suddenly saw the whole situation. Yes, of course, that was him, Ismael, writing on behalf of Yasser.

He wanted to meet her, but secretly. He was protecting their conversations from possible hacking, so he found a way which doesn’t raise any suspicions. He might come with this Yasser. After all, if he was underage, then it would be easier to arrange the trip and hotel accommodation with an adult friend.

“I have revealed your secret plan!” thought Nina and started chatting with Yasser, pretending to believe him, however, she was happy inside, knowing that there was her beloved boy underneath that mask.

She vividly imagined their meeting in the hotel in Tunisia and how she would depict the joyful surprise at first, and then would tell him that she had already figured out everything long ago!

They set up their meeting for mid-September.

Nina bought a package tour for that time in the city of Sousse, in a four-star hotel on the beach. She sent all the info about the hotel to Yasser.

He wrote that he would wait for her on her arrival day in the lobby of the hotel, since he would be coming from Algeria directly to the hotel by car, as his country is bordering Tunisia.

“What about Ismael?” thought Nina, “will he fly from Cairo by plane?… But, in the end, that’s his problem!” she finally concluded. Whatever happens, the main thing is that they, Ismael and Nina, will meet, because they both want this so desperately!

There was not much time before the trip, a little more than three weeks. Nina was nervous that she didn’t have time to do anything before leaving, as her job was a full time trouble.

Then there was the boy, or rather, Yasser, who was sending his messages actively. They had once again discussed the meeting at the hotel: where to meet, what to say to each other, what Nina and Yasser would be wearing.

Yasser asked Nina to send her photos in all the outfits that she planned to take with her. Nina had a photo session in front of the mirror, as if for a fashion show, and sent the photos to Yasser.

He chose a black shirt with an orange long skirt. He said that that outfit fits a very stylish and sophisticated lady, and he wanted to see her for the first time in these particular clothes.

He sent his photo in a white Adidas t-shirt and blue jeans. That, again, was a photo of man from Algeria, whose passport Nina had seen before. She felt annoyed again and she wrote:

“Don’t worry; I’ll recognize you because of your special feature, even if you’re going to wear different clothes!” (Nina was referring to the mole on his upper lip, but didn’t explain anything in order to pretend that she had not found out his disguise!) He responded with a cunning smiley, and Nina calmed down. Everything was going as planned.