The Intern Affair (47 page)

Yves grabbed his wrist and said firmly, “Before we go in, please tell me we’re going to talk later. I may be able to help her if my son can’t.”

Charles
looked into Yves’s eyes.
He knew instantly that the old man meant what he said.

“Yes, M
r.
Sandros, we will do that.
Let’s go and see
Alhassan
now.”

69

“Princess, wake-up,”
Samir whispered in Talya’s ear.

She did with a jolt. She had fallen asleep in his arms at the soft rocking of the méhari’s stride.
Her heart was racing, and suddenly she felt faint again.

Samir saw the blood drain away from Talya’s face, and handed her a soft pouch filled with water. “Drink some of this.”

Talya was trembling like a leaf as she did so, but the water did the trick, the woozy feeling went away. Her hand was throbbing again and her foot was no longer happy in the soft-shoe.

Boy, am I in a sad shape!
“Where are we?
How long have I been asleep?
Are we stopping soon?”
Did I have any more questions?

Samir laughed.
“Princess, you’re a joy to behold.
I’ll answer your last question first.
We’re about to stop over the next rise.
It’s about two o’clock and we need to give thanks to Allah for bringing us thus far.
As for the other two questions, I think you can figure out the answers yourself.”

“Okay,
Teach
, here it goes.
We left at eleven o’clock so we are three hours into the journey, which means we’re about thirty-five miles out of
Nouakchott
.
And I have been asleep for almost two hours, judging from the sun’s position when I first rested my head on your chest.”

“We’ll make a Touareg woman out of you yet, Princess.
Well done!
But what did you call me?
‘Teach’, what was that?”

“Oh that’s short for ‘teacher’. It’s the way children sometime address their instructors in
North America
.”

“And you mean you consider me as your teacher?”

“Of course.
Isn’t that part of your leave from
God
to teach me the ways of Islam?”

“I am grateful for you to think of me that way, but you do not need any teachings in the ways of Islam.
You have them in your heart.”

“But I am Jewish, Samir—”

“And so you say,
but maybe you’re not only Jewish
.”

“Would you explain what you mean by that?”

“Not now, Talya. Tonight after sunset and before we retire, we will talk about many things.”

At these words, Talya felt the camel slowing its stride.
They were reaching the next rise.
Then she saw
Abdullah
come to ride at their side.

“We’re arriving, Samir.
Shall we dismount before the top or do you want to ride under the rise?”

“Under the rise,
Abdullah
.
Our lady needs to lie down and have
Jasmin
attend to her when we’re down. The sun is hot today.”

“That it is, my brother; that it is.
I’ll go and arrange for our lady’s rest,”
Abdullah
said, turning his beast toward the rear of the caravan, and was out of sight in a moment.

In that region, the dunes are as high as small hills. The same as north of their position, at the heart of the
Sahara
, they are aligned north-easterly, in the winds’ main direction.
They had been traversing these ranges of sands, following the crest of some dunes when their paths didn’t stray from the direction in which they were heading.
‘Stopping under the rise’ meant that they were going to dismount along one of the ranges with their backs to the sun, which was slowly going down to the west.

Samir said, “When we stop, I am going to ask this young man, who’s been carrying us, to kneel and sit, and when he does, we are going to be pulled forward, so you need to grab the pommel and bend forward to accompany his movement.
Don’t try to resist or we would both fall.”

“I won’t resist, believe me, I don’t want to fall and break something else,” Talya replied. “I have enough bandages as it is.
I don’t need anymore, thank you.
Just say when.”

“Good, here we go then—” The kneeling movement that Samir had briefly described was slow yet forceful enough to pull Talya forward so far so fast that she thought she was going to tumble head first onto the poor camel’s neck.
She felt Samir’s arm tighten its muscles around her waist with such strength that if they were to fall, they were both going to the ground in a breath.
Then the méhari lowered his hind, and the balance was restored once again.

Since Samir had led the caravan, as his position required, the other camels and riders came to a halt behind and around them.

Once the brothers, the women and everyone had dismounted, Talya saw
Jasmin
run toward
her with what seemed to be a blanket and a gourd of water. “Come, we shall find a spot for you to rest.”

“Go with
Jasmin
now, Talya, and I will come for you when we are ready to leave.”

“Samir, I need—”

“I know,” he cut-in, “
Jasmin
will take care of you.
Go now.”

How did he know what I was going to ask?
Oh well, no matter.

They ‘walked’ a small distance, Talya putting her right foot gingerly down at each step, away from the assembled men and women (and camels), and sat on the blanket
Jasmin
had spread out for them.

“My Lady, I know you need to go to the washroom.”

Talya had no desire to comment on that statement. As the saying goes,
“that’s the one place kings and queens and even princesses go alone.”

Nevertheless, nature was calling. “And how am I supposed to do that in front of everyone?
Should I just bare my bottom at the nose of the camels?”
Jasmin
exploded in such a loud laughter that Talya saw everyone turn around, and Samir smile.

“Oh no, you won’t have to do that.
When everyone has gone to prayer I’ll wrap the blanket around you loosely and—”

“Oh, okay,” Talya stopped her, “I get the picture,
Jasmin
,” patting the girl gently on the arm, “but tell me, where are the people going to pray?
Aren’t all the spots the same, especially here, all the dunes look the same to me?”

Jasmin
was giggling. “Yes they are, but we prefer to pray away from the camels so to show Allah our reverence away from the beasts.”

“And what are you doing here then?
Shouldn’t you go with them?”

“Oh no, that would be offensive to Allah.
Samir is
Sheikh
and Master and he asked me to stay with you, so I will obey.
And don’t worry, I will pray in my heart, and Samir knows this.”

“What if I ordered you to go and join them?
What would be the consequences?”

“I can only obey one
m
aster, My Lady, and you are in my care, I can’t leave you to satisfy your bidding or my own desire.”

“In other words, you would be punished for disobeying your
m
aster, although I am the one who would ask you to leave.”

“Yes, but I have no desire to leave you.
You bring me joy and it’s a great honour for me to serve you.”

“All right then.
And did you bring some water with you?”

“I did, and some biscuits for you to eat.
You need to regain some strength to heal your hand and your foot.”

Jasmin
then pulled out a packet of biscuits out from one of the pockets in her abayah.
Talya was grateful that she did.
She was a little more than peckish.

Samir came toward the two women some twenty minutes later.
Talya felt somewhat restored for having stretched her legs, eaten, drank, and satisfied the call of nature.
The sun was getting lower, which had provided some shade from the dune behind them. She could have stayed there the whole afternoon.
The breeze also provided some coolness as it whipped softly through her garments.

“We need to go now, Talya,” Samir said with urgency in his voice as he squatted beside her. “The breeze you are feeling may get stronger and the sand might rise so that we would have to stop before reaching our camp.
Jasmin
, please return to your camel.” He looked at the maiden with kindness. “I will take care of our lady now.”

They rose, and while folding the blanket,
Jasmin
said, “I will be with you tonight, My Lady, and, do not worry; Allah will safeguard us during our journey.”

“Thank you,
Jasmin
.” Talya then watch her run toward a young beast, which she mounted with grace and agility.
She was such a fine young woman.

A few minutes later, they were on their way again.

Talya lifted her gaze to Samir. “Have you thanked
God
for me?”

He looked down at her and smiled, yet he seemed distant.

“We both have….
Now, Princess, I need you to listen to me.
The wind is getting stronger. We are going to travel with the sand blowing in our faces. I want you to lower your veil completely over your face and pin it around your neck. When we’re ready, the young man under us will start stretching his stride and the rocking, which is gentle now, will become quite intense.
What I don’t want is for you to feel sick.
Again, don’t resist the
movement;
let yourself be rocked in the saddle.
I’ll show you once we get started.”

Talya lowered her veil and Samir pulled up the litham, from below his chin to over his face, masking it almost entirely, leaving only a slit through which he could continue to see ahead of them.
Then she heard him yell a couple of words and their
young man
started to extend his rhythmic pace.
He had been right; the rocking was indeed so intense that Talya’s woozy feeling returned.

Samir slowed the pace once again. “I feel you’re responding to your body’s motion and not to that of the animal. I’d like you to sit against me, so that our weight becomes one and my movements become yours as well.”

Talya did as he asked and he was right. Once their bodies were one with one another, the rocking became gentle and much more acceptable. They rode like this for almost an hour before slowing down yet again.
The sand blowing in their faces became fierce, so much so that they couldn’t see in front of them.

Samir stopped. “
God
is preventing us from going any farther for the moment. We need to dismount and huddle against our camel until the storm has passed.”

They did and waited. All the while, Talya was nestled against Samir’s chest listening to his heartbeat. He wrapped his arms around her, protecting her from the needling of the sand blasting against her back.
Talya had never felt nor seen something like this before that afternoon.
Now when she speaks of a sandstorm however, she can still recall the sun being hidden from view as the sand clouds rose toward them. She can still feel the battering wind against her body and the million of sand grains inexorably piercing through her clothes. It was harsh, unrelenting and lasted for another hour before abating.

Once Talya felt calmness return, she lifted her veil and looked into Samir’s face. He smiled. “I think you will remember the wrath of
God
is to be feared, won’t you?”

“That I will, Samir. But why, have we displeased Him so that He chose to beat us in such a fashion?”

“No, we have not, but I think we have been warned.
I have at least.”

“And what did He want to warn you about?
You have not trespassed His wishes, or have you denied His leave, so why?”

“He has designs for us. I think he’s just reminding us of the promise we’ve made to each other…, and
—
”

“And if we trespass we are liable to lose ourselves in the blindness of a sandstorm. Is that what He means?”

“I believe so, and yet I have a feeling there is something else ahead of us that He didn’t want us to face unprepared. I don’t know, but I am very uneasy about this.
Let me get
Jasmin
and ask her.”

“Why
Jasmin
?
What would she know?”