The Friend of the Desert by Pablo d'Ors & David Shook

Author:Pablo d'Ors & David Shook
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Parallax Press
Published: 2019-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

THE SANDSTORM

September—the month of my second visit to the Sahara—arrived much faster for me than expected. There were also eighteen of us on that expedition, so I had to ask myself if the coincidence of the number of travelers, as so many other apparent “coincidences” that I would later notice, was true serendipity. On the other hand, I even asked myself if there might be something pure and simply effortless about the organization. Once again, all of the participants were the same Friends as always. There was just one that I did not know: a young man named Vlk, who, also “coincidentally,” made the journey to Prague beside me.

“Do you belong to the Friends of the Desert?” I asked him. I had never seen him at a single meeting.

His answer left me stupefied.

“If you want me to tell you the truth,” the young man said, “I don’t know.”

I burst out laughing, fortunately with a more virile laughter than Stubemann, who had cut his hair and changed his glasses, which gave his face a very different look.

Vlk looked scared. Of course, he was very young, without doubt the youngest in our group. He told me that he studied medicine and that he lived in the outlying neighborhood of Kačerov, where he had met the Friends. Also, that he had a girlfriend of Arab extraction named Marua, and that they planned to marry once both had finished their respective degrees. For my part, I intervened only when my silence would have been rude or inappropriate.

The young man wanted to know if I had been a Friend of the Desert for many years, as well as if he might be bringing too much luggage, given that the rest of us brought so little. He was also intrigued that we all spoke in such low voices on the bus. I found Vlk to be very agreeable, but I must recognize that I was not particularly affectionate or friendly with him then. Even today I don’t know why.

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