The Stranger - Max Frei [248]
I awoke at dawn, happy and full of peaceful well-being.
“Thank you for that wonderful excursion,” I said, smiling at Lonli-Lokli, who was already pulling on Glamma’s blue skaba.
“I’m the one who should be thanking you, since our dreams belonged to Sir Max. I’ve never had the opportunity to be in places like that before. Without the slightest doubt, they’re marvelous. I never expected anything like that from you, Sir Max.”
“The name’s Marilyn,” I said, and burst out laughing. “Gosh, Shurf, can you really make mistakes?”
“Sometimes one must make mistakes to be understood correctly,” Lonli-Lokli remarked cryptically, and went off to bathe.
“All the same, it wouldn’t have happened without your help! I don’t know how to find those places whenever I feel like it!” I called after him. Then I sent a call to the kitchen; Lonli-Lokli shouldn’t have to be the only one to bother with the trays.
A grand, dusky spring morning, a drive through endless green glades, a languorously long lunch of five identically tasteless courses in a remote tavern, the monotonous chatter of the other travelers . . . I don’t think I said more than ten words all day. I felt too pleasantly contented to break the tranquility with any sound at all.
“When do we arrive in Kettari?” Lonli-Lonli asked our Master Caravan Leader after we had finished our midday meal.
“It’s difficult to say exactly,” said Mr. Abora Vala. “I would guess in about two hours. But you see, in this part of the County Shimara, the roads are pretty rough. We might have to take a detour. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“A very competent answer,” I grumbled under my breath, getting behind the levers of the amobiler. “‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.’ That’s just dandy. I’ve never received such exhaustive information in my life. It makes a guy happy to be so well-informed.”
“A girl,” Lonli-Lokli corrected me. “Are you nervous?”
“Me? Where did you get that idea? Actually, I’m always nervous. It’s my normal state. But today I happen to be feeling as calm as I’ve felt in eons.”
“Well, I’m nervous,” Shurf admitted unexpectedly.
“Whoa! I didn’t think I’d ever be hearing that.”
“I didn’t think so either.”
“We people are strange creatures,” I mused. “You never know beforehand what we’re going to do.”
“Indeed, Marilyn,” Sir Shurf said solemnly.
We continued on our way. Lonli-Lokli drove the amobiler, so I had an excellent opportunity to gaze about, savoring the foretaste of mystery.
The road was as predictable as a road can be when you’re seeing it for the first time. After an hour and a half I grew bored, and my vigilance tried to go into early retirement. Just then, the caravan turned off the main road onto a narrow path whose usefulness as a thoroughfare looked extremely doubtful.
Several minutes of merciless rattling and rolling and we turned again. The new road was fairly tolerable, looping a bit through the foothills. Then it suddenly soared upward at a dizzying angle.
To the right of the road loomed a cliff, overgrown with dusty bluish grass. On the left yawned the emptiness of an abyss. At that moment I wouldn’t have agreed to relieve Lonli-Lokli at the levers of the amobiler for all the wonders of the World I had a mortal fear of heights.
Struggling to reign in my panic, I recalled the breathing exercises and started in on them with a vengeance. Sir Shurf glanced over at me in concern, but didn’t speak. In a half hour my torments were over. Now the road was winding between two identically towering cliffs, which seemed to me to offer some guarantee of safety.
“I just sent a call to Mr. Vala. He claims that Kettari is still about two hours away,” said Lonli-Lokli.
“He said the same thing after lunch,” I grumbled.
“Well, nothing to get too alarmed about. But it does seem a bit strange, doesn’t it?”
“A bit? I’d say it’s very strange. As far as I understand it, the fellow makes this journey several times a year. This must have given him enough time to get to know the road.”
“That