The Traffic Light

His eyes were watering, fighting his own inevitable tears when he spotted hers. It was past midnight, a little bit late for a young woman like herself to be travelling alone on this particular road. They were the only two cars standing before the last traffic light in Cairo leading to the desert road to Alexandria. The red light seemed to be taking a lifetime. It was all it stood between him and his past. He just wanted to let it everything behind him and start a new life.

She noticed him staring at her, and looked back at him for a split second. A single tear was on her cheek when he looked away as the light finally turned green - Allowing them to pass.

He only stopped at the final rest stop before Alexandria; he got out of the restroom and headed to get a cup of much needed coffee. It was when he sat on the table with the steaming cup in front of him when he noticed her. The tear was still on her cheek when she entered the coffee house. She hastily wiped it away with her hand as she hurried to the counter. He watched as she impatiently stood at the counter. She looked rather impatient as she rudely snatched the cup from the guy and threw some money at the cashier. She seemed to have the whole weight of the world over her as she headed for the nearest table, not noticing that he was sitting on it. He noticed that her body was shaking; she was in great distress… just like him.

He reached for the box of tissues on the table and offered it to her. She looked surprised when she looked up at him. He did his best attempt at a smile, but it caused the muscles of his mouth to ache.

"I'm – I'm sorry," she mumbled, "Were you already at the table?"
"It's fine," he said.
She grabbed her cup and made to get up. "Excuse me," she said, "I'm very sorry."
"No please!" He said, "Don't get up."
"I'm very sorry," she repeated as though not hearing him, "I really didn’t notice – "

He pulled out his hand in front of her to stop her from getting up, and it accidently touched her hand. She stared at him for a second through watery brown eyes. "I'm sorry," he said, pulling back his hand. "I didn’t mean… I just didn’t want you to get up." They both stared at each other. She noticed the amount of hurt in his eyes he was desperately trying to hide for a very long time. She sat back down quietly, "Thank you…" she mumbled.

"Not at all," he replied, grabbing his keys and his cup in front of him.
"No," she said, very quietly. "Please, don’t get up." She gave him a look that mesmerized him in his place. He just couldn’t get up and leave her, he sat back down.

Ten minutes passed and they sat in silence, they were the only ones in usually crowded place. Tonight was a lonely night for everyone it seemed. He watched her as she sat there, her eyes were still moist, but no tears flowed out. Watching him made him forget that he was feeling just as bad. He didn’t know anything about her, but he was sure that they were both leaving behind a bad memory.

"Your family is living in Alexandria?" It was his best attempt at breaking the awkward silence. She looked up at him, "No," she said, "Well my aunt is. That is where I'm going."
A few more seconds of silence passed, and then he spoke again.
"Is something urgent?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean… You're driving this late – alone – to Alexandria."

She heaved a sigh and looked away. He noticed how rude he must have sounded and felt even worse. "I- I'm very sorry," he apologized, "I shouldn’t have – "
"No its fine," she said quietly without looking at him.

They were left once more in silence. He was trying very hard not to think of anything, but it was extremely difficult. He let out a big sigh as well.

"I'm sorry," she said suddenly.
"For what?" he was surprised.
"I know I'm not being good company," she caught him completely unawares by this. "What?!" he said, "What are you talking about?"
"I'm all quiet and rude," she said.
"You don’t have to say anything," he didn't know why she was saying all this. "I just don’t want to bother you. Perhaps I should go."
"No don’t," she said, her eyes watered once more as she looked at him, as though pleading him to stay with her. He just couldn’t get up and leave.
"I saw you in Cairo," he said sheepishly, "At that traffic light."
"I know." She replied.
"You looked a mess." Once again he realized he was being amazingly rude too late. He was always a wise talker, but not today.
"You did too." She said.
"Yeah…"
"Is everything okay?" she asked.
"Business problems," he said.
"What kind of business are you into?" she said, he noticed how hard she was trying to get him to talk. He looked at her for a second; she didn’t know how desperate he was to talk.
"It's a joint family-business problem," he said slowly. It only made her look more eager to hear him than ever.
"You can tell me about it if you want…" she said, a bit shy.
"I got into a bit of a fight with my father," he didn’t know why or if he even should be telling her all this, but reason didn’t matter anymore. He just couldn't take it any longer.
"My father," he continued, "Owns a chain of hospitals in Cairo."
"That’s nice," she said.
"It is," is agreed heartedly, "I've always really respected him. He worked hard to get to where he is now."
"What is the problem then?" she asked.
"It's always been hard growing up in his shadow." He said, looking down.
"I know how you feel." she was looking at him. He didn’t ask her if she really did. They look she gave him was so familiar to him; it was the same look that looked back at him every time he looked at a mirror. The look of someone trapped. She understood him, he was sure of it.
"The problem is I don’t want to be him." He said.
"What do you mean?"
"We've been having the same fight ever since I was a kid." He explained. "He was building an empire and the time came where it should be passed on."
"You don’t want to run the hospitals?"
"I don’t want to be him." He repeated.
"What's wrong with him?"
"We think differently," He said, "I didn’t graduate from med school to take over a business."
"You became a doctor to help people."
"Exactly!" he said a little bit too loudly, but he was deeply relieved she said that.
"But don’t your dad's hospitals help people?"
"They do," he said, "But that is not what he wanted from me. He had grown so big that he be forgotten about what it really meant to help people. He expects me to run a five star hotel where only the rich can go to and most of the time it really isn’t something life threatening."
"I see," she said slowly. "So where are you going now?" she added.
"I'm going to stay with a friend for a few days I guess." He said.
"To do what?" The question smacked him in the face quite painfully. He just stared at her, he didn’t have an answer.
"You're going to call me an irresponsible spoiled brat, aren’t you?"
"Of course not," and to his absolute amazement, she actually let out an unmistakable giggle. "You are under a lot of pressure, you deserve some timeout."
"Thanks," he said. A few seconds passed, he just stared at her as she took a sip of her coffee. He looked at his own cup and noticed that it was empty, but he didn’t want to leave.
"If you don’t mind me asking," he said shyly, "What's at your aunt's?"
"Ah," she said sadly, "It's a long story."
"I'm sorry," he said, "I really didn’t mean to be nosy or anything."
"No no you're not," she said. "Just let me ask you something. Does your dad know? That you're going to your friend I mean."
He chuckled, looking down at his feet. "No one does," he said after some time, "I'm not even sure that my friend knows."
She sighed, not knowing what to say. But she really felt she had a lot she was bursting to tell. "Well – " she said. He noticed how hard it was for her so he decided to talk about something else. "What does he do?" he asked, "Your father." She looked up at him gratefully. "A businessman," she said, "He owns a few companies."
"Hmmm," he said.
"How long are you going to be away?" he asked her.
"I don’t know," she said sadly. "It's not really family friendly at home, hasn’t been for a while."
"What's wrong?"
"Well growing up I rarely ever got to see him anyway, he is always too busy or abroad."
"I see. It was just the same with my father," he said. "All he ever cared about was his work and all of the sudden he just expects me to carry it on for him."
"Yeah," she said.
"Were you close to him?" he asked her.
"A very long time ago," she said, "When I was a little girl, but all of the sudden we just began to drift apart."
"I know what you mean." He said honestly. A few seconds passed and he noticed how beautiful her eyes were.
"The thing is," she began, clearly under huge stress. Her eyes began once more to water up.
"You don’t… You don’t have to – "
"It just became too much, you know?" she said.
"Trust me," he said, "I know."

A few more minutes of silence followed, he looked at his watch and was amazed that it was four in the morning already. They had been sitting there for two hours. "I'm sorry I held you up like this," he apologized. She smiled at him. "It's not like anyone is expecting me," she said, "I doubt my dad would even notice I'm gone for a bit." It was very clear to him that this young woman was under immense pressure, he felt attached to her, he knew she didn’t give him a full account of what happened, but it didn’t matter. They were both the same, they were both leaving similar bad memories behind.
"I didn’t even notice I finished my coffee a while ago," she said. He was happy to see her spirits change slightly from their talk; it was a big difference how she looked now than when she was crying at the traffic light back in Cairo.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I just don’t want to bother you with everything."
"What are you talking about? You have no idea how much this little talk helped. It was much needed."
"I know," she said. "It's just too hard; to be depending on yourself your whole life and when you think that your father is finally trying to reach out to you you discover that it was always just business to him."
"That was just how I felt." He said.
"I decided to leave it all when he tried to force me into marrying the son of a wealthy man just to seal off the business deal of his life."
"He did?" he asked, disgusted.

He looked at her with pitying eyes. But he couldn’t help but feel the horrible knot in his chest as it dawned on him that they were both running away from the same thing.
"Do you think it will work though?" he asked, "What we are doing."
"I don’t know," she said. "What do you think?"
"I honestly hope it does." He said.
"What do you plan to do?" she asked him.
"I thought of staying at my friend for a bit while I figure out what I really want to do with my life." Even as he said it he felt how weak he sounded.
"Tell you what," he said, "Let's have a chat like this one more time, but only after we figure it out."
"You think we can make it?"
"I hope so, because I would really love to talk to you again." He smiled as he watched her look away with a tomato red blush on her face. He would never understand how mustered enough courage to say something as bold as this. He never knew how to talk to a girl he liked like this. But something was new after this morning. A new fire was lit inside him, he wasn’t going to run away anymore – he had been running all his life. It was time he would put his eyes on what he really wanted and went for it. He was sure it was fate that brought them together, that too people who knew what it meant to be heart to meet at a traffic light that would perhaps change their lives forever.

"I'll give you my number," she said, "You may call me ONLY when you figure it out, and I will only answer when I do it myself." She was feeling the same fire inside her. She would never have done something like that or spend so long pouring her heart out to a stranger like this. But today was different - And definitely worth it.

He got up and help out his hand, "Deal," he said with a wide smile. She got up and shook his hand, returning the smile. "Thank you, for everything," she said. They both left the coffee house and headed for their cars.

"So where does your friend live?" she asked.
"I'm not going to my friend," he said.
"No?"
"I'm going back."

She looked at him as he stepped into his car. She watched as he drove away into the main road and took the U-turn across the rest stop. A million thoughts were racing through her head as she climbed into her car and started it.






"Dad?"
She entered her dad's home office very cautiously. She didn’t know what to say, or how to start. "What is it honey?" he asked, he took his eyes away from the computer screen in front of him when he saw that she was shaking. "What's wrong?"
"We – We need to talk," already her voice broke and her eyes filled up with tears.

***
A few hours later she entered her room and threw herself on to the bed. Her cheeks were still wet, her body was still shaking, but her spirits were soaring. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen now, or how things were going to get better. But she had gotten what she wanted, they talked and talked, and it paid off in the end. She was exhausted and wanted nothing than to fall into the longest dreamless sleep that was possible. But instead she found herself staring at her phone on the bedside, waiting. She didn’t know how many days it would take… but she was waiting – and hoping.

A few minutes later her eyes were feeling as heavy as ever, she couldn’t resist sleep much longer. She began to doze off at the instant the phone's screen lit up. She jerked herself up from bed and raised the phone.
"Hello?" she said.
"You answered!" it was him.
"How are you?" she asked.
"I'm great." He said happily.
"Did you figure it out?"
"I think I did," he said, "I'm not on the right track at least. We had a pretty rick conversation me and dad."
"I did too," she said happily.
They both knew that not all of their problems were solved, but they knew now from where to start. They would not run away any longer. "By the way," he said, "I never really got your name."