A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard by Paul Bowles

Author:Paul Bowles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

The Story of Lahcen and Idir

TWO FRIENDS, Lahcen and Idir, were walking on the beach at Merkala. By the rocks stood a girl, and her djellaba blew in the wind. Lahcen and Idir stopped walking when they saw her. They stood still, looking at her. Lahcen said: “Do you know that one?” “No. I never saw her.” “Let’s go over,” said Lahcen. They looked up and down the beach for a man who might be with the girl, but there was no one. “A whore,” said Lahcen. When they got closer to the girl, they saw that she was very young. Lahcen laughed. “This is easy.” “How much have you got?” Idir asked him. “You think I’m going to pay her?” cried Lahcen.

Idir understood that Lahcen meant to beat her. (“If you don’t pay a whore you have to beat her.”) And he did not like the idea, because they had done it before together, and it nearly always meant trouble later. Her sister or someone in her family went to the police and complained, and in the end everybody was in jail. Being shut into prison made Idir nervous. He tried to keep out of it, and he was usually able to. The difference between Lahcen and Idir was that Lahcen liked to drink and Idir smoked kif. Kif smokers want to stay quiet in their heads, and drinkers are not like that. They want to break things.

Lahcen rubbed his groin and spat onto the sand. Idir knew he was going over the moves in the game he was going to play with the girl, planning when and where he would knock her down. He was worried. The girl looked the other way. She held down the skirt of her djellaba so the wind would not blow it. Lahcen said: “Wait here.” He went on to her and Idir saw her lips moving as she spoke to him, for she wore no veil. All her teeth were gold. Idir hated women with gold teeth because at fourteen he had been in love with a gold-toothed whore named Zohra, who never had paid him any attention. He said to himself: “He can have her.” Besides, he did not want to be with them when the trouble began. He stood still until Lahcen whistled to him. Then he went over to where they stood. “Ready?” Lahcen asked. He took the girl’s arm and started to walk along beside the rocks. “It’s late. I’ve got to go,” Idir told him. Lahcen looked surprised, but he said nothing. “Some other day,” Idir told Lahcen, looking at him and trying to warn him. The girl laughed spitefully, as if she thought that might shame him into coming along.

He was glad he had decided to go home. When he went by the Mendoub’s fig orchard a dog barked at him. He threw a rock at it and hit it.

The next morning Lahcen came to Idir’s room. His eyes were red from the wine he had been drinking.

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