Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan

wonders of divine creation in the universe and in our bodies.
    On the surface of the water I recalled with delight how I would lie on the hill on which stands the house where I was born, where the doves would land around me. When the sun had declined from
the high point of the sky towards the horizon, I became aware of pangs of hunger. The beach seemed a long way off and near my clothes I noticed someone waving to me with their arms. I felt a sudden
alarm and apprehension. My arms and legs sprang into action to take me back quickly to my clothes. But after moments which seemed an age I realized that I was not making progress towards the beach.
I began to swim faster but I moved no closer to my goal. Suddenly I was exhausted and my right arm almost froze rigid. I let my body float to have a rest for a while but I panicked when I realized
the water was pulling me out to the open sea. I resumed swimming, exhausted, but the pull of the sea was stronger than the constant strokes of my panicked arms. That’s when I understood that
the sea is treacherous.
    The person standing on the beach gave up waving at me and disappeared from sight when the waves rose between us. I was completely exhausted and the sea was relentless. When I was sure I was
drowning I shouted out despite myself. Then I suppressed my desire to shout to save what strength I had left for the swim back. The pain in my left arm was excruciating but I kept paddling with it.
To myself I chanted, ‘Jesus Christ, stay with me now and I will vow all my life to You.’ I swam faster and faster, and suffered greatly for the predicament I had brought upon myself.
After a long struggle to overcome the current dragging me out, I found that my strokes were pulling me towards the beach. I was gasping for air but delighted to survive. When I reached the point
near the beach where the waves break and die away my foot touched the ground and I thanked the Lord with a troubled heart.
    I stumbled towards my bag and when I found no one else on the sandy beach I thought for a moment the person who waved at me, warning me of the danger of drowning, was not human, but rather an
angel sent by God from heaven to save me from wandering into danger. I said to myself that our Father in heaven is merciful to us and the secrets of his creation never end, and that after this I
would never go close to the sea again.
    A gentle laugh rang out from the direction of the nearby rocks and I stood up from where I was lying on my back. I looked towards the sound in alarm and saw a white woman in Alexandrian dress,
with bare breasts and arms. The woman staggered forward, as though she too had just survived drowning in some capricious sea.
    ‘You’re a proficient swimmer, and lucky too,’ she said.
    ‘Who are you, my lady?’
    ‘My lady!’ She laughed. ‘I’m Octavia, the servant of the Sicilian gentleman, the silk merchant,’ she said.
    I looked at her askance, as though I were dreaming or had died drowning and come back to life in another age. I looked around me: the seagulls were still flying and the houses in the distance
were still in their place, as they had been. A cold breeze brushed me and I came to my senses. What had brought to this place this servant who did not look like other servants? I could think of no
answer, so I asked her in a stammer and she replied without hesitation.
    ‘Poseidon sent me, the god of the sea who saved you. I am one of his mermaids.’
    She laughed again. ‘Please, don’t joke with me.’
    ‘Don’t scowl, southerner. I will tell you everything.’
    She said her name was Octavia and she came to this place most days when her master was away on business and had taken all his other servants with him, and the only person left with her in the
house was the guard sitting at the gate. She liked to come here, so she said, to tell her cares to the sea, because it kept secrets. Looking towards the waves, she told me people did not frequent
this beach