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HASSAN NAJMI wars and long-standing clan feuds. He had also brought a number of utensils and containers for making and drinking tea, including a beautiful silver kettle, a palm-leaf basket, and a set of small decorated tea glasses, colourful silk fabrics and embroidered doilies for tables and desks. In addition, he had brought a carpet, made with such skill that anyone with an appreciation for such objects of beauty would have a hard time leaving it on the floor. He then took out a number of the spices that give Moroccan cuisine its special charm, some bottled perfumes, and other small items that inspire wonderment and demand respect and appreciation. Everyone in the house received a share of his cache. But, as one might have expected, most of them, particularly the most beautiful and costly, went to Gertrude. They were all grateful. In the meantime Alice continued talking, revelling in the mention of this or that maid: “There are always good maids, but even they have their faults.” “They wouldn’t work for you in the first place, Alice,” Gertrude interjected, “if they didn’t have any faults!” Then, turning to Mohammed as if the topic of maids were of relevance to him, she said: “Actually, Mohammed, there’s nothing worse than having a maid come into your house, and, consequently, into your life, then having her suddenly leave you one day for no reason!” Mohammed surrendered to Alice’s copious flow of memories and reflections about the maids who had been employed at 27 Rue de Fleurus. Within moments, and thanks to her luminous memory for such things, Mohammed saw that the house had transformed over the years into a crossroads for many a maid and her saga. There was Célestina, a Swiss-Italian woman brought by her maternal aunt, who worked as the concièrge for the building next door. She had left due to her lack of cooking experience and particularly her inability to make an omelette, which was an indispensable part of Gertrude’s daily repast. Alice said to Mohammed: “You know Gertrude! The only thing she ever asks a new maid about is her daily favourite: ‘Do you know how to make a good omelette?’ After Célestina came another maid, Maria Lasgourges. But she was getting on in years, and wasn’t able to take proper care of the large house. Then another Maria came. She was Swiss, too. Maria Entz. Do you remember her, Gertrude? 98 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES
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HASSAN NAJMI She barely spent any time with us and resigned because she was getting married.” The two women laughed together as they reminisced about the maid with the glass eye. Gertrude said she had called her “Muggie Moll” in one of her short stories. Her husband had been a gendarme who moved from one region to another without taking his family with him. Alice also talked about a stylish maid, Jeanne: “You remember her well, don’t you, Gertrude?” Gertrude looked especially pained over this Jeanne, who had been obliged to leave. She had been emotionally disturbed and was obsessed with clouds and marriage. As Mohammed listened, the conversation then turned to another Jeanne who had quit for no reason.When the two women went out looking for her, the local tyre repairman, who had first brought her to them, explained that she had begun suffering from severe depression. She had been the mother of a baby boy. “She was delicate and sweet, and used to tie her hair in the most amazing way.” Commenting on what Alice had said, Gertrude added: “But she was a good cook. After all, what is a woman without her ability to cook?” Looking over at Mohammed, she went on to say: “The most important thing about her was her voice. O my Goodness, what a soft, gentle, rich voice she had! It used to go right through me without my knowing how, even though she barely spoke!” Then, after a moment of silence or reverie, she added: “You can’t imagine how long I kept trying to get her to come back or, at least, to get that divine voice back. And in fact, I managed to bring her back once, a second and third time too. But she would quit of her own accord over and over again. Later she agreed to come back and work for us even after we had hired another maid. The poor thing suffered terribly from her emotional problems.” So, here she was, right in front of him, after he had given everything up in order to join her. He was seeing her now as he had seen her for the first time in Tangiers: dreamy, with sleepy eyes, on her lips a smile that bespoke equanimity, expansiveness and passion. “Never in my life have I met a man that looks at me the way you do, Mohammed. Or, let me say, never have I met anyone who says different words to me, like the words you spoke to me in Tangiers!” Alice got up, announcing that she was going up to the attic with BANIPAL 43 – SPRING 2012 99

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HASSAN NAJMI

wars and long-standing clan feuds. He had also brought a number of utensils and containers for making and drinking tea, including a beautiful silver kettle, a palm-leaf basket, and a set of small decorated tea glasses, colourful silk fabrics and embroidered doilies for tables and desks. In addition, he had brought a carpet, made with such skill that anyone with an appreciation for such objects of beauty would have a hard time leaving it on the floor. He then took out a number of the spices that give Moroccan cuisine its special charm, some bottled perfumes, and other small items that inspire wonderment and demand respect and appreciation. Everyone in the house received a share of his cache. But, as one might have expected, most of them, particularly the most beautiful and costly, went to Gertrude. They were all grateful.

In the meantime Alice continued talking, revelling in the mention of this or that maid: “There are always good maids, but even they have their faults.”

“They wouldn’t work for you in the first place, Alice,” Gertrude interjected, “if they didn’t have any faults!”

Then, turning to Mohammed as if the topic of maids were of relevance to him, she said: “Actually, Mohammed, there’s nothing worse than having a maid come into your house, and, consequently, into your life, then having her suddenly leave you one day for no reason!” Mohammed surrendered to Alice’s copious flow of memories and reflections about the maids who had been employed at 27 Rue de Fleurus. Within moments, and thanks to her luminous memory for such things, Mohammed saw that the house had transformed over the years into a crossroads for many a maid and her saga. There was Célestina, a Swiss-Italian woman brought by her maternal aunt, who worked as the concièrge for the building next door. She had left due to her lack of cooking experience and particularly her inability to make an omelette, which was an indispensable part of Gertrude’s daily repast.

Alice said to Mohammed: “You know Gertrude! The only thing she ever asks a new maid about is her daily favourite: ‘Do you know how to make a good omelette?’ After Célestina came another maid, Maria Lasgourges. But she was getting on in years, and wasn’t able to take proper care of the large house. Then another Maria came. She was Swiss, too. Maria Entz. Do you remember her, Gertrude?

98 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES

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