Out of Sight...

A. Prologue (Continued)

As the car started to accelerate upon entering the highway, Amr El-Serafi looked at his watch, which was now pointing towards 2:14 a.m. Suddenly, he realized that his watch was still set to Italy’s local time which was, in the summertime, one hour ahead of current local time so he began to adjust it accordingly. When the car approaching the city, the cab driver asked Amr for exact directions to where he was headed. Amr informed him the exact address. To Amr’s luck, the driver knew that exact location.

Fifteen minutes had passed before the cab made its final stop at Amr's house. The driver unloaded the trunk of the car while welcoming Amr to Cairo once more. Amr understood that the man’s overly exaggerated gesture was driven by his anticipation to get more than the 12 pounds the meter had indicated. Having had no time to exchange money, Amr was left without a choice but to pay the man in Euros. Amr took a couple of Euros - roughly the equivalent of 20 pounds - from his wallet and handed them to the driver. In return, the driver did not agree to let go of Amr’s bags except on the doorsteps of his apartment.

Amr, now lying on his bed, was still wearing the same clothes he had on all day. Tiredness was taking its toll on him to the extent that he fell asleep right away.

The next day, Amr woke up to the ringing phone placed on the nightstand next to him. He picked up the phone and said “Hello”. A man’s voice on the other end replied, “Good morning Amr, how are you?” Not realizing who was talking to him, Amr answered, “Good morning, I am sorry but who is it?” Much to his surprise, it was his father, Akram El-Serafi, calling to welcome him back. Amr has been away working in Italy for almost 8 years and it has been a long time since the two men last talked. As a matter of fact, Amr has not talked to his parents since he moved out of their house, two years prior to his departure.

Amr’s father made it very obvious that he wanted to see him soon, which reminded Amr of the time he was in Egypt for a couple of days on a business trip and did not stop by to visit his parents. Realizing that he only slept for four hours, he decided to go back to sleep but was unable to, the call he had from his father left him thinking of his parents and how their relationship has gone downhill ever since he moved out.

TBC

Preceded by: Prologue part (one).

What if?

Did you know that everything we "sense" is the result of a stimulation of our brain cells and nervous system? But, What if these stimulated senses were just generated artificially or maybe falsified? I am not talking about some conspiracy theory to keep all of mankind in an alternate reality or some sci-fi flick like the matrix were the machines keep us locked up in order to use us as batteries… I am just wondering... a simple “What if?”, that’s all I am after. Now imagine that everything we see, hear, feel, touch or believe in is not real or at least is not reality. Wouldn’t that make our minds inactive while being active at the same time? Wouldn’t that make us prisoners of our minds? And wouldn’t this mean that we are "locked up inside our own heads"? It would also mean that the world as we know it is not the world that actually exists but the world we are supposed to presume exists. This limitation doesn’t have to be a mechanical or a tangible one, it’s not like we’re actually chained in place or locked up inside cubicles with wires and probes sticking out of our bodies… it could simply be a psychological or a theoretical one. It could be that our vision, hearing or sense of touch are limited to a certain frequency spectrum or range and that within our hearing range, for instance, lies all that we could possibly listen to and that beyond this range is a different world filled with sounds that we’ve never heard before. What if there were things that existed right there with us and around us that we’ve never seen, touched or felt before? What if love, hate, happiness, anger and sadness were different from what we've experienced daily? Or that these feeling have some other aspects to them that we’ve never fully felt or understood before. Doesn’t this make you wonder? What if angels, devils, ghosts and souls are all around us but we simply cannot see or hear them talking? What if?