In Byron's Footsteps by de Loo Tessa;

Author:de Loo, Tessa;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Byron, Albania
ISBN: 9781907973420
Publisher: Haus Publishing
Published: 2015-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

OH NO! This was the last straw. My stomach responded immediately to this news. I sat down on a rock. ‘Don’t worry,’ said the Professor. ‘Let me handle this.’ Above my head, negotiations took place in knotty language. It seemed to go on for hours. Everyone wanted to have their say, and no one was in a hurry. What were they cooking up? Were we going to have to sleep in the hay, here of all places, where I had already been branded an emissary of the devil? There was a jinx on this place. Across the valley I could see the lights of Gjirokastër beckoning. A clean hotel room, with a bed and a bath, all for me – seemingly close, but out of reach.

I tugged at Karagjozi’s sleeve. ‘Why don’t we just take a taxi to Gjirokastër and sleep one night in a hotel, after the tough day we’ve had?’

But he dismissed the idea. ‘No, no. I’ll handle this, don’t worry.’

I obviously needed a better argument, or we would still be standing here at midnight.

‘Listen,’ I insisted, standing up. ‘I have to get to a dispensary. I need medicine for my stomach. The pain is starting to become unbearable.’

He hesitated. The villagers carried on talking. For them, we were the high point of the evening.

‘OK, OK, we do that,’ the Professor said suddenly. He even sounded relieved.

More negotiations. Someone had a car and was willing to take us, if we could agree on a price. It was by no means cheap, but we were in a compliant mood – we just wanted to get away from this ill-fated place. Again, two police officers appeared. How, I will never know. Without a car in any case, as they asked if they could drive with us to Gjirokastër.

Now all we had to do was rid ourselves of the horse-man. Karagjozi had seriously had enough of him and never wanted to see the man again – ‘in my haul life’. We had not yet discussed a price. Because he had been recommended by the mayor, the Professor had simply assumed that the price would be reasonable.

From one moment to the next, the knotty language above my head turned into the roar of rusty cannons. The Professor and the horse-man were almost attacking each other physically, and everyone else was getting involved.

‘What is the problem?’ I shouted.

I should have known the answer. ‘Let me handle this,’ the Professor shouted back from the melee.

Groaning, I sank back down on to my rock.

I think that all the villagers had an opinion on the dispute. One after the other, they raised their voices, threateningly or indignantly. I don’t know whose side they were on. They were a large clump of dark beings, swelling and contracting again, like a giant octopus.

‘What’s all the fuss about?’ I kept shouting up at the Professor. Once, during a short lull in the proceedings, I received an answer.

‘Money,’ the professor called hoarsely. ‘The man is asking a ridiculous price.’

‘How much?’ I persisted, but the shouting and shoving had resumed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.