The Child's Story: Demons in the Box

After lunch the father sat down beside the radio to listen to the news. Samia was reading in a book thick of bulk and small of print. Her brother Nihad, who is younger than she, now paced among the chairs, sighing with impatience, now looked out of the window at the road, waiting with worn-out patience for Mama to finish putting on her dress and take him and his sister Samia to the cinema—for there was a new film about Tarzan.

And here is the new maid, Zanbaq, come carrying a pail to mop the floor of the next room. She set the pail on the floor and began to mop. But now she stops her work and looks through the door toward the radio. She stands frozen like a statue, and her pupils grow wide. Nihad asks her what is the matter. She answers him in astonishment, a little fear having crept over her:

Who is the man in the box?
— What box?
— That black box.

And she pointed to the radio. Nihad understood that she did not know what a radio was. She had come recently from the mountain, from a far-off village, and had never seen a radio before. It occurred to him to make fun of her—he being well known for his love of teasing. Without smiling, and without his features changing in the least, he answered her as if he were saying something ordinary and understood:

— Demons and the spirits of the dead speak in the box.
— The spirits of the dead? Demons...!!

And poor Zanbaq's eyes grew wider than before.
— Yes, all the spirits of the dead. And all the demons....

Nihad's father was beside the radio listening to the news, so he could not hear the talk that was passing between the maid and Nihad; and Samia, sunk in her reading, noticed nothing. No one heard him but Zanbaq, so he went on:

Whoever turns the knob of this box hears the spirit of a demon.

Zanbaq answered him in utter terror:
— Which demon is speaking now?
— Black demons... white ones...
— Ah. But I don't understand what he is saying.

— She had turned on the radio while you were away, and I don't know how she fiddled with it until its sound rose to the very top; we heard a din and the sound of crying and wailing. We hurried over and found the poor thing weeping aloud in front of the radio. We turned it off and asked her what was the matter, and she answered that the demons were speaking to her, angry and wrathful, in the box...

Nihad was at a loss what to answer her; then, after a moment, he said:
— The speech of the demons we do not always understand.

Meanwhile Nihad's mother had finished her preparations for going out. She made Zanbaq understand what she was to do in her absence, then said:
— The khawaja will leave about an hour after us, and you will stay a short while alone in the house. Have you understood well everything you have to do while we are away?
— Yes.

And Nihad and Samia went out of the house with their mother.

When the picture was over, the three returned home. As they were climbing the stairs they heard a hubbub and shouting, and they supposed there was a gathering in the neighbors' house; but when they drew near their own house they saw the door open and people in their house talking with great excitement. They were much astonished, and it seemed to the mother of Nihad and Samia that perhaps some calamity had befallen her house; so she ran in alarm to the door and asked Mrs. Mariam, her neighbor, who was standing at the door:
— What? What has happened?
Her neighbor answered her, smiling:
— Don't be afraid, it's nothing important. We came running when we heard the noise. We had seen you leave the house with the children. Poor thing, your maid—she is simple in the extreme.

And the neighbor began to tell her, laughing, what had happened: