The Sheltering Sky - Bowles, Paul [130]
A few minutes later two men walked out to the waiting cab. They looked inside, glanced up and down the sidewalk; then they spoke questioningly to the driver, who shrugged his shoulders. At that moment a crowded streetcar was passing by, filled largely with native dock workers in blue overalls. Inside it the dim lights flickered, the standees swayed. Rounding the corner and clanging its bell, it started up the hill past the Cafe d’Eckmuhl-Noiseux where the awnings flapped in the evening breeze, past the Bar Metropole with its radio that roared, past the Cafe de France, shining with mirrors and brass. Noisily it pushed along, cleaving a passage through the crowd that filled the street, it scraped around another corner, and began the slow ascent of the Avenue Gallieni. Below, the harbor lights came into view and were distorted in the gently moving water. Then the shabbier buildings loomed, the streets were dimmer. At the edge of the Arab quarter the car, still loaded with people, made a wide U-turn and stopped; it was the end of the line.
Bab el Hadid, Fez.
End
Table of Contents
BOOK ONE
BOOK TWO
BOOK THREE
BOOK ONE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
BOOK TWO
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
BOOK THREE
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30