The African Equation by Yasmina Khadra

Author:Yasmina Khadra [Yasmina Khadra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910477182
Publisher: Gallic Books
Published: 2014-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

Late that afternoon, a puncture almost catapulted us into a rock. The pick-up skidded, and Joma’s aggressive attempt to control it sent it flying over several metres. Bruno and I were almost thrown out.

Joma made us get down and ordered Blackmoon to bring him the spare wheel and the jack. After taking off his hunting vest, he crouched to loosen the wheel nuts. He removed the flat tyre, replaced it, and worked the jack. Just as he was putting the nuts back on, Blackmoon took his sabre and cut through the ropes tying Bruno and me. This gesture both surprised and terrified us. It was obvious that things were about to go downhill. Blackmoon, though, looked calm and implacable. He didn’t seem to realise the significance of his act, nor did he appear to care about the consequences.

‘It isn’t meal time yet,’ Joma yelled. ‘Tie these idiots up again, and be quick about it.’

Blackmoon interposed himself between Joma and us, impassive. ‘Let them go and let’s go home,’ he said.

Joma threw the damaged tyre in the back of the pick-up, lifted the jack and put it away in an iron case soldered to the running board, wiped his grease-stained hands on a cloth and put on his vest. In all this time, he hadn’t looked at us once.

‘Stop this nonsense, Chaolo.’

‘Why won’t you listen to me?’

‘Chaolo, you’re going too far this time,’ Joma said slowly, as if telling off a naughty child.

‘These men haven’t done anything to us.’

‘Chaolo …’

Blackmoon signalled to us to leave. Neither Bruno nor I moved. Leave where? Leave how? We were in the middle of nowhere, our two kidnappers had fallen out, and it looked as though the situation could only end badly for us. A cold shiver went down my back. Bruno was ashen. His eyes shone with terror.

‘You taught me a whole lot of theories,’ Blackmoon said in a flat tone. ‘You told me why some things were right, and others weren’t, and I drank in your words like holy water. But you’re doing the exact opposite of what you told me, Joma. You had a good head on your shoulders when I met you, and you’ve turned bad. You lash out and you yell, and you drive me a little crazier every day. I thought war was crap, and that was what made people such pains in the arse. And I said it would all sort itself out in the end, and that one of these days when we’d dealt with the things that bothered us, we’d go home. Except that you don’t seem to want to go back to the village or become a reasonable person again, the way you were before. Do you remember? We were all right before. We didn’t ask for the moon, and we were content with simple things. Don’t you see? I miss those simple things now.’

‘Chaolo!’

‘You were unlucky, and I understand. I understand it isn’t easy to stay good after what happened to you, but we’ve gone too far.

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