It’s a matter of question and answer, and agreement is the brother of patience.”
“Very well. We’ll give you ten dinars. But how will you take us?”
“Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. Listen!” Abul Khaizuran sat on the concrete seat with the three standing round him. He explained to them, with the help of his long hands:
“I have a lorry that is licensed to cross the frontier. Now you must realize it’s not mine. I’m a poor man, poorer than any of you, and I’m only connected with that lorry because I drive it. Its owner is rich and well known, and so it doesn’t wait long at the frontier or get searched. The owner of the lorry is well known and respected, the lorry itself is well known and respected, and consequently the driver of the lorry is well known and respected.”
Abul Khaizuran was an excellent driver. He had served in the British army for more than five years before 1948. When he left the army and joined the Freedom Fighters, he had the reputation of being the best lorry driver one could find. That was why the commandos in Al-Tira invited him to drive an old armored car that the village had captured after a Jewish attack. Although he had no experience of driving armored cars, he did not disappoint those who stood on both sides of the road, watching him as he climbed through the small armor-plated door and disappeared for a few minutes, after which the motor roared into action and the vehicle set off slowly down the narrow, sandy road. But it soon broke down, and none of Abul Khaizuran’s efforts succeeded in putting it into running order again. If the villagers were greatly disappointed, Abul Khaizuran was still more so, but all the same he had increased the sum of his experiences in the world of mechanics. And who could say that this particular experience hadn’t helped him when he joined the drivers working for Al-Haj Rida in Kuwait?
One day he had managed to drive a huge water tanker along a muddy salt road without its sinking into the earth and breaking down like all the other lorries in the convoy. Haj Rida had gone out into the desert with a number of his men for some days’ hunting. But the spring was treacherous, and as they were returning, the road appeared firm and white, which encouraged the drivers to start along without hesitation. Then all the vehicles, big and small, began to sink into the mud one after the other. But Abul Khaizuran, who was driving his huge lorry behind them all, skillfully continued advancing, without stopping for a second. When he caught up with Haj Rida’s car, whose wheels were three-quarters sunk in mud, he stopped his lorry. Getting out, he went up to Haj Rida, saying:
“How would Haj Rida like to get into my lorry? It’ll take more than four hours to extricate these cars, and by then Haj Rida will have reached home.”
Haj Rida replied:
“Splendid.