“Because I am trying also to make sense of this story of mine for my own sake. You are right, this mokeb and this war are not, as you say, places of assisted suicide. But I must ask you again: why not? At every moment, everywhere, something or someone is serving a purpose. Why should your purpose not also be to help me in my journey? This is my first question.”

“But that isn’t a question. It is a statement.”

He was silent for a while, and I wondered if I’d offended the Frenchman again.

“You are right, Saleh. I did make a statement. But do you accept it?”

“That I—we—should assist you in getting yourself killed?”

“Well, yes!”

“Hang around here long enough and it will happen by itself. You won’t need our help.”

“This is all I ask for. That you let me stay. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Silence again. Was he for real? It dawned on me that in all my encounters with people from his world, I was always the one asking for something—a job, a favor, a recommendation for a job, recognition of some kind. It was a one-way street of asking, even groveling, that men like Saeed and Mafiha had perfected to an art. Yet now, this man, Claude Richard, was asking me for something. A favor. The ultimate favor. And I had the power to give it. Or to at least not stand in his way.

“You have more to say, Claude?”

“Only this: by telling you something of myself, maybe I will be helping you too.”

“Helping me?”

The electricity came back on outside, but the room stayed dark. Maybe the bulb had gone bad with the sudden surge; whatever it was, neither of us seemed to mind the circumstance. It was as if the Frenchman and I were speaking to ourselves, as if we had become one and the same person. I felt that I was in a trance.

He said, “Helping you, yes. To understand yourself as you think you understand me. I needed an honest war and I came looking. But I needed one to die in, not one to live through.”

“Well, I’m not here to die, Abu Faranci. There’s a difference between me and you.”

“True. But you are here with the knowledge, because of the danger around us, that if you do die, it is for something bigger than you. This gives you a warm feeling at night.”

“If you say so.”