The noise of your lorry’s motor is kinder to the system than stopping here four hours.”
Abul Khaizuran drove his huge lorry for six hours over that treacherous ground, which looked hard and white because of a fine film of salt that had dried on the surface. The whole of the way he was moving the steering wheel lightly and quickly to left and right so that the two front wheels could open a path slightly wider than necessary.
Haj Rida was delighted with Abul Khaizuran’s skill, and mentioned it to all his friends for months. He was even more delighted when he learned that Abul Khaizuran had refused several offers of work elsewhere, made to him after the story became known. He asked to see him and congratulated him, and then he increased his wages a little. What was more important was that Haj Rida imposed a condition that Abul Khaizuran should be an obligatory companion on every hunting trip or long journey.
A week earlier Haj Rida had set off with a convoy of lorries on a hunting trip he had organized specially for some guests staying with him. He had asked Abul Khaizuran to drive the big water tanker, which would accompany the convoy the whole way to ensure a supply of water for the entire journey, lasting more than two days. The convoy had driven far into the desert, when suddenly Haj Rida decided to follow a different route on the return journey, which would bring him to Al-Zubair, and then from Al-Zubair he could take the main road to Kuwait. Abul Khaizuran could have been in Kuwait by now with the rest of the convoy if his lorry hadn’t developed a small fault that had kept him in Basra two days longer to have it repaired, before catching up with those who had gone on ahead.
“So you want to put us inside the water tank on your lorry when you drive back?”
“Exactly. I said to myself: ‘Why not seize the opportunity to earn an honest penny, while you’re here, and as your lorry does not get searched?’”
Marwan looked at Abu Qais and then at Assad. They both looked at him in their turn, questioningly.
“Listen, Abul Khaizuran. I don’t like the sound of this game. Can you imagine it? In heat like this, who could sit in a closed water tank?”
“Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. This isn’t the first time. Do you know what will happen? You’ll get into the tank five minutes from the frontier, and fifty meters beyond it you’ll climb out. We’ll repeat the performance for another five minutes at Mutlaa on the Kuwait border, and then suddenly you’ll find yourselves in Kuwait!”
Assad shook his head and stared at the ground, grimacing with his lower lip. Marwan had begun to play with a dry twig, while Abu Qais went on staring at the tall driver. Suddenly Marwan asked:
“Is there any water in the tank?”
“Of course not.