GG Maalouf

Elias Maalouf makes olive-oil soap the way the souk always has, and the part that governs his life is the curing: weeks of it, racks of blocks in a dim room needing nothing but patience. That is when he plays. The moment a batch is ready he is gone to cut and stamp it, mid-match if necessary, and he will not start what he cannot finish inside the window. Regulars have worked out his calendar and time their invitations to it, which he finds funny and has never once exploited. He does not look at a clock while any of this is going on. The room tells him how far the drying has got, and he can say to within a quarter of an hour how much of the evening is left.