Badawi by Mohed Altrad

Author:Mohed Altrad [Altrad, Mohed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780802190161
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 2016-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

The following day Maïouf and Fadia met on the road to Deir ez-Zor. It was almost nightfall and there was already a coolness in the air. They took a track between two villages, heading out into the desert. The road surface was very uneven, pitted by violent rainstorms, passing herds, and ruts made by the wheels of a cart. The track came to an end on a stony plateau, and in the space of a few minutes it took you from the cultivated banks of the Euphrates to the vastness of desert hills and dunes. Here and there along the way stood crumbling tumuli, their sides eroded with dark holes, but these ancient tombs had been empty a long time. When Maïouf and Fadia reached higher ground, they looked down and saw a spring. They climbed down to watch the water bubble to life at their feet. Fadia told Maïouf that the water in a source has to fight to exist, battling against the sand and stones that drive it back into the ground, away from the sun.

“And yet it’s so clear, it shows no trace of this fight, it reflects the sun’s rays and gives us a clear view of the stones beneath it. But the sun and stones go on attacking it, trying to stop it from living, so it carries on fighting and it wins. Ever since men have been here to see it, this water has been fit to drink.”

Maïouf looked around and noticed strange scattered outcrops of greenery, like tiny velvety tufts of grass. He bent to pick one. It smelled like a peppery version of thyme mixed with sage, bitter but also smooth.

“That’s a rare herb,” said Fadia, noticing what he was holding. “It doesn’t appear very often; you must be lucky. It heals all sorts of pain, stomachaches as well as headaches, and it also helps people sleep when the full moon won’t let them.”

A slender crescent moon suddenly broke through the red marbling in the sky; night had fallen quickly.

On the way back they hardly dared talk, as if the previous day’s confession was too momentous for them. They walked side by side in silence.

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