The Haj - Leon Uris [145]
Lights and shadows played off the canyon walls and ten trillion stars were above me. For a moment I did not know where I was and when I realized, Najnun—the spirit that makes you crazy—began to consume me.
‘ISHMAEL! Ishmael! ishmael! Ishmael! ishmael!’ bounced through the canyon. It was Allah, calling out for me to come to him! No! No! It was my father’s voice!
‘FATHER! Father! father! Father! father!’
Oh God, please, please, please! I begged.
‘Ishmael!’
‘Father!’
‘Ishmael!’
‘Father!’
We could not find each other, even with the moonlight, but we managed to bring our voices closer and closer. ‘Can you understand me!’ his voice called.
‘Yes!’
‘Stay where you are! Do not move! I will find you in the morning! We can call each other throughout the night!’
‘Are you with Kamal and Omar!’
‘No, but we hear each other faintly! Do not fear, my son, Allah will protect you!’
I wished I had my father with me instead of Allah at this moment, but suddenly I was no longer afraid. The moon passed directly over, making a great display of lighting the walls. Along with the stars, I was suddenly in paradise again. I was a Bedouin! Like a Bedouin, I slept sitting up, crouched over, with one eye and both ears open. Throughout the night my father comforted me with his calls.
At dawn I saw the sight of my father and brothers coming toward me. I had strange feelings. I wanted them to save me, but I had learned not to be afraid and I had seen the desert by night and wanted more of it. I went to them, trying to act nonchalant, but babbled with overwhelming excitement as I led them to the cave. It was simple to find, for the vultures were out in force.
We climbed up the rope ladder and into the cavern. My father surveyed the defensive possibilities.
‘It is perfect! Let us hope the vultures do their work quickly and do not lead the Bedouin back to us!’
‘Who do you think those people were?’ Kamal asked.
‘Only Allah knows. There seems to be only one man. The rest are women and children. The man was probably left to guard while the other men went looking for supplies. I’m sure they got lost trying to find their way back in and the women and children starved.’
Ibrahim proved to be right, for in ensuing days we found the bodies of three men who had trapped themselves in a fool’s opening. Nothing was left of their clothing or any supplies they might have been packing in. The Bedouin got them first and the vultures shortly thereafter.
We found the main wadi bed again and carefully marked the canyon walls to find our way back in. At twilight we reached the truck. Although the women could not embrace us in front of each other, they stood before us and wept, for they had been certain we were lost.
My heart sank as I saw the truck. Sabri had a hundred parts scattered about on blankets on the ground.
‘Everything is clogged with dirt and sand. Each piece must be cleaned before I can put it back together.’
‘Will it run?’
‘We have a problem. The radiator is broken. There is no water in it.’
‘If we don’t get this truck out of here and sell it, we will be in a very dangerous situation,’ Ibrahim said. He was completely puzzled by what he saw spread before him and I knew he was thinking it would not be possible to put it back together again, much less run.
We made a plan to guard the truck in shifts. Sabri would stay and work, for we were now in race against time. The rest of us would unload the provisions. A person could carry no more than twenty-five to fifty pounds of supplies and water on each trip, for there were stiff climbs and the heat was tormenting. We were concerned that the wall markings were not efficient. A false marking, made by nature, could easily lead us astray.
‘When I was very young, before my father inherited the garage, I was a shepherd,’ Sabri said. ‘I would take the flock on winter pasture into the Bab el Wad. I marked my way back to my cave by piling a small pyramid of rocks every short distance.’
The idea was perfect, but it annoyed me. Sabri had been in our life for only a few days, but already he had answers to