It was not too uncomfortable riding on the back of the huge lorry. Although the sun was pouring its inferno down on them without any respite, the breeze that they felt because of the lorry’s speed lessened the intensity of the heat. Abu Qais had climbed up on top with Marwan, and they sat side by side on the edge of the tank. They had drawn lots, and it was Assad’s turn to sit beside the driver for the first part of the journey.
Assad said to himself: “The old man will be last to sit in the shade here. But it doesn’t matter; in any case the sun is still bearable now. At midday the old man will be lucky.”
Abul Khaizuran spoke suddenly, raising his voice so that Assad could hear over the roar of the motor:
“Just imagine! In my own mind I compare these hundred and fifty kilometers to the path that God in the Quran promised his creatures they must cross before being directed either to Paradise or to Hell. If anyone falls he goes to Hell, and if anyone crosses safely he reaches Paradise. Here the angels are the frontier guards.”
Abul Khaizuran burst out laughing as though he were not the person who had made the remark, then he began to hit the steering wheel with both hands and shake his head. “You know, I’m afraid the goods will perish, up there….”
He indicated by a movement of his neck where the old man was sitting with Marwan on the tank, and laughed violently.
Assad asked quietly:
“Tell me, Abul Khaizuran. Have you ever been married?”
“Me?” he asked in surprise, and his thin face became veiled in sadness as though he hadn’t been laughing a moment before. Then he replied slowly: “Why do you ask?”
“For no particular reason. I was thinking that you have a splendid life. No one to drag you in any direction. You can fly off alone wherever you like … you can fly off alone.”
Abul Khaizuran shook his head, then he narrowed his eyes to meet the sunlight that had suddenly struck the windscreen. The light was shining so brightly that at first he could see nothing. But he felt a terrible pain coiled between his thighs. After a few moments he could make out that his legs were tied to two supports that kept them suspended, and that there were several men surrounding him. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them as wide as he could. The circular light above his head hid the ceiling from him and blinded him. As he lay there, tied firmly in that strange fashion, he could only remember one thing that had happened to him a moment before, and nothing else. He and a number of armed men were running along when all hell exploded in front of him and he fell forward on his face. That was all. And now, the terrible pain was still plunging between his thighs and the huge round light was hanging over his eyes and he was trying to see things and people, narrowing his eyes as much as he could.