1925
Beni still hated Egypt, but Egypt had become a habit. He never expected he would return to that miserable city, but of course he never expected to return from Hamunaptra without any treasure either.
Hamunaptra. What a fucking joke.
The only thing the City of the Dead had given Beni was an excuse to scam money out of unsuspecting strangers, mostly foreigners who were willing to do anything, even put up with Beni on a boat for three days, in order to set eyes on the famed lost city. None of them ever saw it, of course. Beni had better things to do than lead people all the way out to Hamunaptra, so he took his money and ran at the first opportunity, back to Cairo. He always ended up back in Cairo. He could have settled in any city, in any part of the world, but month after month he found himself in the same place. Beni hated being hot, but he hated being cold even more.
Sometimes, when he wasn't busy scheming and finding new ways to steal, his mind would wander to a young woman named Emese Barta, but he never saw her after that first week he spent in Cairo. Not until the day she called out to him on the street.
"Beni!"
Beni's first instinct was to run and hide. Plenty of people called out to him on the streets, and it was rarely for a good reason. But then he heard his name again, more loudly this time, and something about the voice was familiar.
"Beni! It really is you!"
If she hadn't been speaking Hungarian, Beni would have never known it was her. The woman who stood on the street calling to him was not the same girl who had taken him home two years ago. Her dark blonde braid was gone; instead her hair had been cut to her earlobes in the stylish bob that was so popular with women, and her clothes more expensive than the cheap, sensible garments she wore the last time he saw her. She even wore cosmetics.
Beni resented her stylish appearance. She had obviously moved up in the world, while he still had nothing. Of course, she might be able to provide him with better handouts, now that she looked as if she had more money. Beni swallowed his sarcasm and forced a smile upon his face as he approached her.
"Emese. It has been a long time."
"I know." She looked down at the ground for just a moment, revealing some of the old shyness that Beni remembered, then looked back up into his eyes. "But I would recognize you anywhere. I never thought you would return to Cairo."
Neither did Beni. He never expected a lot of things to happen over the last couple of years, and Emese's reappearance was at the top of the list. Yet there she was, standing on the street just like the day he first met her, still eager to talk to someone who spoke her native language.
"Well I'm back," Beni said evasively. She didn't need to know that he had been back in Cairo for two whole years. She didn't need to know anything. "What about you? I haven't seen you around."
Emese glanced down at the ground again. "I've been out of town."
That was when Beni saw it: a simple band of gold that circled a finger on her left hand. Beni could always spot a piece of gold, no matter how small. "Sure you have," he said with a mocking little smirk.
She seemed distracted and didn't acknowledge his words. "I'm sorry, but I can't stay and talk," she said. "Do you know how to find Shepheard's Hotel?"
"I can find any place in this city."
"I want you to meet me there in about an hour. Can you do that?"
Of course Beni could do it, but it didn't mean he wanted to. Any respectable hotel would throw him onto the streets the moment he walked through the doors. "I'm a very busy man," he said.
"Well I'll be waiting for you, Beni. I hope you don't disappoint me."
Beni watched her walk away with a sneer on his face. Who did she think she was, coming by with her fancy new haircut and her fancy gold wedding ring, giving him orders? And how the hell did she end up married? The girl Beni remembered was as likely to get married as the toothless old man who begged near the Legion's camp two years ago. Knowing the rules of the old German widow she once lived with, Emese probably wasn't allowed to find a husband, but if she could easily break the other rules then Beni supposed she could break that one too.
She had a lot of nerve, calling out to him on the street like that. He wasn't supposed to see her again. His first visit to Cairo lasted for a week and he often snuck away from camp, avoiding the notice of his fellow soldiers as he crept away to the old widow's house. Emese was allowed a couple of hours to herself each day and she used that time to look after Beni, providing him with food, pleasure, and cigarettes in exchange for conversation, while the other Legionnaires made do with prostitutes and cheap beer. Beni didn't bother saying goodbye when it was time for him to leave Cairo; he simply departed without a word and dreamed of the gold hidden beneath Hamunaptra, thinking of all the women he could have when he was a rich man.
But then he returned to Cairo with bad memories and nothing in his pockets, and when he tried to sneak into the old widow's house he found that Emese was gone. Like every speck of brightness that touched his dark little life, Emese was just a temporary relief that wasn't meant to last.
Still, it might be worth his while to see her again. He could definitely use a free meal.
An hour later he arrived at Shepheard's Hotel, a massive building that housed the sort of people Beni would gladly rob, if he got the chance, and found Emese waiting outside. She kept glancing around with nervous eyes, reminding Beni of all the times she snuck him into the widow's house, and murmured a soft "Follow me" as she turned around and entered the hotel.
Beni crept behind her and looked about with shifty eyes, just dying to get his hands on the jewelry worn by the women staying in the hotel. They probably had piles of jewelry back home; what would they care if a couple of necklaces went missing? Emese led the way in silence, keeping her eyes straight ahead as she took Beni to the elevator, and Beni crossed himself before following her through the double doors and into the waiting contraption. He didn't trust elevators and added a silent prayer in Yiddish for good measure.
He was glad to leave the hotel lobby, though. People kept looking at him like he was a stray dog that had wandered into the building, like he wasn't good enough to walk along them. Even the man who operated the elevator behaved as if Beni were a cockroach.
Emese finally broke the silence as the elevator started to move. "Are you still a soldier, Beni?"
"No," Beni said, his voice practically a whimper. He reached under his shirt and clutched the religious amulets that hung around his neck, just in case.
"I'm glad to hear that," said Emese.
The moment the doors opened, Beni pushed past the elevator man and into the hall, where the floor remained stationary the way it was supposed to. "Next time I'm taking the stairs," he said, shooting a glare at Emese.
She busied herself with opening one of the rooms and didn't see his look. "Hurry, get inside."
"Why should I hurry?" said Beni. "Are you still not allowed to bring men home with you?"
"Beni, please. Just get inside."
"You're a lot bossier than you were two years ago," Beni grumbled as he entered the hotel room. His eyes were immediately drawn to the spacious bed and he started walking in that direction until he noticed the bottle of champagne that sat in a bucket of ice. His mind made up, he went for the champagne and carried it to the bed.
"So when did you get married?" he asked Emese. He situated himself upon the soft mattress and popped open the bottle.
Emese's eyes grew round. "How did you know I'm married?"
"Anyone could figure that out. I saw the wedding ring."
"Oh." She sat down on the bed as well, maintaining a safe distance from Beni, and tucked her left hand out of sight.
"Is he a rich man?" asked Beni.
"Who?"
"Your husband. Is he rich?"
"I don't want to talk about my husband."
Beni smirked and drank his champagne. He liked unnerving her. "He's not Hungarian, is he? He can't be Hungarian, or else you wouldn't be talking to me."
"No, he isn't Hungarian. He's an English soldier." Emese took out a cigarette and stuck it in her mouth, then lit it with a match. "I can smoke as much as I please now. That's one good thing about being away from that old widow."
She was trying to change the subject, but Beni's curiosity had been piqued. "Why would you marry an English soldier? English is a pain-in-the-ass language."
"Not long after you left, the old widow wanted to take a trip to Alexandria. I met a soldier there named Henry Collins and he helped me with my English." Emese smoked with her right hand, keeping the left one tucked out of sight once more, and chose her words with slow, deliberate care, though she seemed to have kept her old habit of chattering about herself. "I was tired of being companion to an old German woman, so I married him. We've been living in Alexandria until very recently."
"That's no good reason to get married," Beni scoffed.
"You wouldn't understand. Men don't understand these things."
"I don't think there's any good reason to get married. It's nothing but trouble."
Emese studied the cigarette in her hand, watching the little tendrils of smoke that curled from the end. "Maybe you're right."
"I know I'm right," said Beni. He glanced around the room, hoping to find something stronger than champagne, or at least something to eat. He certainly didn't come here to talk all day long. "Why did you bring me here?" he asked, suddenly on edge. "What if your husband comes in?"
"He won't."
"Well why did you bring me here?"
Emese looked down at her lap, unable to meet Beni's suspicious gaze. "Everyone calls me Emma now. Henry's friends and family can't pronounce my name. I just... I want you to stay for a little while. It reminds me of home."
Beni rolled his eyes and poured more champagne, wishing more than ever for something stronger. "You women are too damn sentimental. I have better things to do than sit around and remind you of your stupid past."
"What do you do now that you aren't a soldier?"
"That is none of your business."
"Well..." Emese finally met his eyes, her face full of an emotion that Beni recognized, for it mirrored his own frequent desperation. "Why don't we have lunch, for old times' sake?"
Emese Barta had become Emma Collins, but she was more vulnerable than ever before. Beni looked at her hand; not the left one, but the right one that clutched the cigarette, and his eyes traveled to the thin silver bracelet clasped around her wrist. "I'll have lunch with you if you give me your bracelet."
"You know I'll do anything you ask, Beni," she said, giving him a sad little smile. "Anything at all."