Life Templates

Life Templates – Short Story.
Written by:Manal Radwan.
Translated into English by: Awny Seif.
Published in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram on 1 September 2023
First idea:
(Rectangle is the most abhorrent geometric form I have hated)
Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that I hated it; Being similar to the little iron bedding, which has a lot of bars on both sides of it, they say it was then convenient to tame a coming newborn baby , on the habit of moulding that he would not change throughout his life.
Second idea:
(The rose which in my old book.
As a blade it never lost its rudeness!)
Old papers’ lines possess a great ability to deceive;
They can manipulate occasionally by removing dots, or erasing letters, the time knife scraping, can turn angels’ miracles into… many things.
Here, let go of these funny absurd thoughts; Even if words attempt to heal the wounds of the injured righteous or disinfect the sores of the demons, nothing can happen on the ground other than speech; And when I gave up my naive dream, I certainly did the right thing.
So I closed my locker with a theatrical move, after I threw inside it my attempt to write a novel about my autobiography, that was many years ago,…
I decided to remove that day away from my memory, I tried diligently to refuse to call it, but I remembered the withering rose I was late in giving her, the love looks I thought were false, my constant accusation of treason, I remembered this all with ease, and with little difficulty I succumbed to a fearful past.
The last meeting with her, hours before she left, came back to my memory,it surprised me: How a wellness woman could lie this long sleep, I still remember her of the same strength I admire how she left me, loved dozens of times and never weaken her features inside me.
See, do I need to change that sentence to another one?!
Sure, here I have to add the word ” I imagined that to” to love a dozen times.”
This addition will be well suited; Writing is not required the red correction pens, as much as the interlocking phrases within us need.
The third idea:
(When you start making your own shapes, you’ll be free)
I’m being raided by the obnoxious shape of the rectangle all around me, but I’m going beyond it in great steadiness.
– Can my office be in half-circle form, for example?
When I began the work I asked that question to my boss there,
Not to disclose wishes that I did not have the capacity to carry out, the first lesson I learned was, as was my only disability it was my clearness, yet I was not persuaded to stay in my home and to consider my job as the implementation of a law requiring them to give me a job; My amputated arm or a simple deformation of my right leg will not hinder me from getting more money.
Fourth idea:
(Exceed all this, as a new step in the ladder of failure).
You won’t be able to work with one arm, you can’t resist, you won’t marry as long you’ve lived, l’ve done it all more quickly, and l’ve had great success, l realized that the further you get from the shape which I hated,the sooner l succeed.
Hey… Do I look like a liar in front of you?
Largely yes; I could not get away from the computer screen, my sombre office, the work bus, my equipped car, and even the bedding, which I did not give up some of its bars, which may be support me .All things were in the form of the obnoxious template, but that would inevitably take me back to the second idea, maybe I could finish writing my novel, why not?!
I have found dealing with that rectangular shape hundreds of times and certainly a package of A4 papers will not hinder me from achieving my happiness..
Fifth idea:
(What you do, do it more quickly.)
I wrote very often, I tried to remove scars on words written in pencils, as I tried to fill the emptiness of others, I was going after my fugitive letters; to get her back inside the white rectangle.
But I suddenly remembered my first thought, when I saw the lines in front of me as iron bars for a small bedding, and in a moment of madness I decided to tear up all the caged papers, I must stop recording all this, I will start writing a new story without fear of abhorrent geometric forms; I have to find a better formula…
I will stop torturing the woman whom I loved, I will disclose my crazy desires, I will take medication less regularly, I will not care what they say about one template will not change, even if their claim is true, but I can accept it more joyously; I am still confident that that last rectangle will no doubt lose its bars for the first time.