Chapter 50 – I like the way you move.

Sasha’s POV


The sun was setting and the men were setting up an evening fire. We’d just finished dinner and the women and children were cleaning up. This sounds so sexist but it’s really what was happening. I was visiting the village in Egypt were Nef’s family is from and there was a clear division of labor based on gender. The fire that the men were building was large with several smaller fire pits scatter throughout the communal meeting area for both light and warmth. There were also torches and lambs near each house…hut…brick structure… The structures weren’t really houses in the modern sense but they weren’t mud brick huts either. They had brick walls that had been plastered and painted both on the inside and out. Each home had several rooms: a kitchen, living/dining room, and 1 or more rooms for sleeping.

When we finished building the fire we sat around it and it gave many of them time to ask me questions. They were interested in modern western culture and how it differed from their own. I started to shiver; it gets really cold in the desert at night. As hot as it was during the day, the cold at night matched it. Nef had warned me before hand so I excused myself to change into sweats. When I came back I noticed that they women had returned and they were all wear wraps to cover themselves. I assumed it was because they were cold. For those that weren’t wearing Western dress, the traditional desert day time wraps that they wore would do little to protect them against the dropping temperature. It was warmest at the center of the meeting area. All the fires were positions so that all of the light and warmth moved to one centralized area. It was an ingenuous set up.

There was music; traditional drums and string instruments playing softly in the back ground.

“So what do you think?” Nef asked as she sat beside me.

“I like it. I get to see where your family comes from. It nice.” I had learned a lot today about Nef, about her family, about her way of thinking. I felt closer to her.

One of her younger cousins ran up to me and held up her arms for me to pick her up. She couldn’t have been more than six. She said something to Nef in Arabic and Nef laughed.

“You have a new admirer. She wants to know if she can marry you.”

I kissed the top of the little girl's head and said no, that I was already promised to Nef. Nef told her that but I heard Ivan’s name I could only assume she was offering my nephew as a replacement.

During dinner Nef walked me through some of the more traditional Egyptian foods, suggesting things that I might like and warning me away from some of things that I might not. I was not keen on trying things like camel tongue or brain. That’s just a little too far for me.

After dinner there was dancing, both traditional and modern dancing. I liked watching Nef dance. There was a grace that seemed to flow around her when she moved. It was intoxicating and I often found myself staring at her. I remember the first time she belly danced in front of me. Well not exactly in front of me. She’d gone down to the basement to do yoga and she’d decided to work on her dancing. She later told me it had been a few weeks since she’d practiced.

I’d come down to the basement to asked her if she wanted anything special for dinner but I’d gotten distracted by the way that she was moving. I sat on the steps watching her for about 10 minutes before she even noticed I was there.

“What are you doing?” she asked her arms akimbo.

“Uhhh….I came to ask what you want for dinner but I…”

“Got distracted?”

“Yeah,” I said sheepishly.

Since then she’d danced for me a few times. This time, even though we were surrounded by her family and friends, I couldn’t help but to be drawn in by her.

“You’re staring,” Ali said to me.

“Sorry,” I couldn’t help it. She was beautiful and she was mine.

Nef walked over to me and used the end of her wrap to pull me closer to her. She danced around me, holding me where she wanted me to be with the wrap. I tried to grab her arm to pull her closer to me but I ended up with a fistful of cloth. She spun away from me, leaving the cloth behind. I noticed for the first time that she had on a belly dancing costume, so did her a few of her cousins. These were different from the ones that she wore in the US. The top and the bottom skirt were connected by fabric covering her midsection. She later told me was in compliance with Egyptian law. If she had been wearing a two piece costume she would have had to put on a mesh type body stocking to maintain modesty. There were laws against showing excessive skin and performing certain movements in public. In private they were allow to wear whatever they wanted.

She smirked and pushed me back into my seat. It was nice to see traditional folk dance and to learn how the customs had evolved in Egypt. The evening was fun and the festival lasted late into the night. When we finally did get tired we were housed with her grandmother Bast. We weren’t allowed to be alone together so Nefetari offered to watch us until we fell asleep.

“No funny stuff,” she warned. “I’m watching you both.”

“Funny stuff?” I asked, not understanding.

“She means I can’t do this.” Nef kissed me, hard.

“Or this.” She grabbed my hips, pulling me flush against her.

I pulled away quickly and apologized to her grandmother. She laughed and said that she understood but not before swatting the back of Nef’s head.

”My grandmother knows we have sex.” Knowing it and see it are two different things. I’d rather not do anything to cause her army of cousins to skin me alive.