Пол Боулз - Let it come down

Dyar was listening, but at the same time he was uneasily watching the other end of the room where he had observed Hadija and Thami engaged in what appeared to be an intense and very private conversation. « What are you talking about?» he demanded rudely, turning suddenly to stare at her.

Daisy misinterpreted his question. «My dear, certainly no one but an imbecile would think of trying to enlist the help of the Police in such matters. I love Jack; I think he’s a dear. But I certainly think you should be warned. Don’t get involved in any of his easy-money schemes. They crack up. There are plenty of ways of making a living here, and quite as easy, without risking getting stabbed or shot».

Now Dyar looked at her squarely and laughed.

«I know I’m drunk,» she said. «But I also know what I’m saying. I can see you’re going to laugh even more at the other thing I’ve got to tell you». Dyar cast a troubled glance behind him at Hadija and Thami.

Daisy’s voice was suddenly slightly harsh. «Oh, stop breaking your neck. He’s not going to run off with your girlfriend».

Dyar turned his head back swiftly and faced her, his mouth open a little with astonishment. «What?»

She laughed. «Why are you so surprised? I told you everyone knows everything here. What do you think I have a good pair of Zeiss field-glasses in my bedroom for, darling? You didn’t know I had such a thing? Well, I have, and they were in use today. There’s a short stretch of shore-line visible from one corner of the room. But that’s not what I was going to tell you,» she went on, as Dyar, trying to picture to himself just what incidents of his outing she might have seen, felt his face growing hot. «I’d like to sock her in that smug face,» he thought, but she caught the unspoken phrase. «You’re angry with me, darling, aren’t you?» He said nothing. «I don’t blame you. It was a low thing to do, but I’m making amends for it now by giving you some very valuable advice». She began to speak more slowly and impressively. «Madame Jouvenon, that frightful little woman you went off into the other room with, is a Russian agent. A spy, if you like the word better». She sat back and squinted at him, as if to measure the effect of that piece of news.

It seemed to have brought him around to a better humor, for he chuckled, took her hand and smoothed the fingers slowly; she made no effort to withdraw it. «At least,» she continued, «I’ve heard it from two distinct sources, neither of which I have any reason to doubt. Of course, it’s a perfectly honorable way of making a living, and we all have our agents around, and I daresay she’s not even a particularly efficient one, but there you are. So those are my two little warnings for tonight, my dear young man, and you can take them or leave them, whichever you like». She pulled her hand away to smooth her hair. «I shouldn’t have told you, really. God knows how much of a chatterbox you are. But if you quote me I shall deny ever having said a word».

«I’ll bet you would. And the same goes for the room in Marrakech. Right?»

She took the tip of one of his fingers between her thumb and forefinger, squeezed it hard, and looked at him seriously a moment before she said: «I suppose you think that was immoral».

The company was thinning; people were leaving now in groups. Abdelmalek and Hassan Beidaoui stood one on each side of the door, bowing and smiling. There were not more than ten guests left, including the Hollands, who had found an old swing record in the pile, and were now doing some very serious jitterbugging, alone on the floor. One of the two Arab gentlemen stood watching them, an expression of satisfaction on his face, as though at last he were seeing what he had come here to see.

Thami and Hadija still conversed, but the important points in their talk had all been touched upon, with the result that Thami now suspected that the money for his boat might conceivably be donated by Eunice Goode. Many members of the lower stratum of society in Tangier naturally knew perfectly well who Hadija was, but there was next to no contact between that world of cast-off clothing, five-peseta cognac and cafés whose patrons sat on mats smoking kif and playing ronda, and this other more innocent world up here in which it was only one step from wanting a thing to having it. Nevertheless, he knew both worlds; he was the point of contact. It was a privileged position and he felt it could be put to serious use. Nothing of all this had been said to Hadija; encouraged by him she had told all the important facts. No Arab is foolish enough to let another Arab know that both are stalking the same prey — after all, there is only a limited amount of flesh on any given carcass. And while the tentative maximum set by Thami was only whatever the price of the boat should finally turn out to be, still, he knew that Hadija would consider as her rightful property every peseta that went to him. Like most girls with her training, basically Hadija thought only in terms of goods delivered and payment received; it did not occur to her that often the largest sums go to those who agree to do nothing more than stay out of the way. This is not to say that she was unaware of the position of power enjoyed by Thami in the present situation. «You won’t say a word?» she whispered anxiously.

«We’re friends. More than friends,» he assured her, looking steadily into her eyes. «Like brother and sister. And Muslimin, both of us. How could I betray my sister?»

She was satisfied. But he continued. «And tonight, what are you doing?» She knew what that meant. If it had to be, there was nothing to do about it, and tonight was the most likely time, with Eunice in her present state. Hadija glanced across at the massive body sprawled on the chair.

«Call a taxi,» went on Thami. «Get the servants to put her in. Take her home and see that she’s in bed. Meet me outside the Wedad pastry shop in the dark part there at the foot of the steps to the garden. I’ll be there before you, so you won’t have to wait».

« Ouakha ,» she agreed. She was going to get nothing for it, yet it had to be done. To remain Miss Kumari she must go back and be the Hadija of the pink room behind the Bar Lucifer. She looked at him with undissimulated hatred. He saw it and laughed; it made her more desirable.

«Little sister,» he murmured, his lips so close to the lobe of her ear that they brushed it softly in forming the word.

She got up. Save for Eunice they were alone in the room. The remaining guests had gone out, were being taken through the blue court, the jasmine court, the marble pavilion, to the vast, partially ruined ballroom where several sultans had dined. But Hadija was too much perturbed to notice that she had not been invited to make the tour along with the others.

«You call a taxi. The telephone is in there». He indicated the little library. «I’ll take care of her». He went out to the entrance lodge and got two of the guards to come in and carry Eunice to the gate, where they laid her on a mat along one of the niches until the cab arrived. He sat in front with the driver and went along as far as Bou Arakía, where he got out and after saying a word through the open window to Hadija, walked off into the dark in the direction of the Zoco de Fuera.

The European guests were not taken back into the European wing; Abdelmalek and Hassan led them directly to the gate on the street, bade them a gracious good-bye, and stepped behind the high portals which were closed and noisily bolted. It was a little like the expulsion from Eden, thought Daisy, and she turned and grinned at the Hollands.

«May I drive you to your hotel?» she offered.

They protested that it was nearby, but Daisy snorted with impatience. She knew she was going to take them home, and she wanted to start. «Get in,» she said gruffly. «It’s a mile at least to the Pension Acacias».