Liliana drove the high spirited little Alfa sportscar through the quiet deserted streets with skill andbravado. She knew just when to up and down shift thegears, and she negotiated the turns like a gran prixrace driver.
"Where did you learn to drive a car this way?" Danshouted over the roar of the exhaust and the rumble ofthe wind blowing in his ears.
"It's in my Italian genes," she said. "We're allfrustrated formula one race drivers," she shouted backthen again concentrated on pushing the car and herselfto the limit. She obviously enjoyed the thrill ofdriving at high speeds, and Dan slipped down in theseat, relaxed and tried to share the experience withher.
In no time, it seemed, they were on the oppositeside of town on the highway to Afgoi speeding past theInternational School, then Kilometer four and the "JollyGreen Giant," as the Americans had dubbed the only highrise building in Mogadishu. The U.S. Government hadbuilt it to house the Marines and the single embassystaff. Dan could not help but smile when he thoughtabout how shocked they would all be to know that while they were sleeping their ambassador was speeding intothe bush in an Italian Racing Red Alfa Romeo with thisbeautiful Italian woman who was as high spirited as thecar she drove so well.
Once past all traces of civilization Lilianapressed the car harder and Dan looked at the speedometerto see that they were going 180 kilometers, more than a110 miles, per hour. The headlights bored a hole in thepitch black desert night, and the thorn trees and bushbeside the road were nothing but a blur.
"Are you frightened?" she leaned toward Dan andshouted.
"Not at all," he shouted back. "I love it, and you drive the car very well. Itgets the adrenalin pumping." He reached over andtouched her thigh, and she took one hand from thesteering wheel and briefly acknowledged his caress byplacing her hand on his for just a few seconds thenreturned it to the wheel.
Coming out of a high speed turn the headlightsplayed on a camel lumbering across the road. Lilianabraked the car hard, swerved and barely missed the slowplodding animal. Then in the distance, off to theright, they saw the glow of a campfire. She slowed thenpulled the car off the road and stopped.
Some two or three hundred feet away they could make out the silhouettes and shadows of camels, cattle, goatsand people gathered around a campfire belonging to atribe of migrating nomads. She turned off the engineand the headlights and they sat in the darknesslistening to the lowing of the cattle, an occasionalbray from a camel, and an eerie, haunting melody playedon a flute. They were both transfixed by the scene, andDan felt as though he were eavesdropping in a time warp. Neither Dan nor Liliana heard a Somali bushman approachLiliana's side of the car until he spoke to them inSomali.
Dan turned his head quickly to see a tall barechested, bushy haired man standing beside the car. Themoon still hung in the sky and Dan could just barelymake out the man's face in the moonlight.
"Non parlo Somalo," Liliana said in Italian. "Leparla Italiano?"
"Un po," a little, he answered then continued inItalian. "Tiene acqua?"
"He wants to know if we have water?" she said toDan.
"Tell him no," Dan said, "and let's go."
"But I do have a case of bottled mineral water inthe trunk of the car," she said. "I just picked it upat the store at Fiat Circle this afternoon, and I didn't move it into the house."
"Never mind," Dan said. "Tell him no and let'sgo."
"But they need water," she insisted. "Otherwise hewouldn't have asked for it."
"I also speak some English," the bushman said. "Ifyou have water please give it to us. It is many daysthat we are without water and we need it. Do not fear;we will not hurt you. We just need water, and if youhave it please give it to us. Our children arethirsty."
"Let me have the keys," Dan said.
Liliana pulled the keys from the ignition andhanded them to Dan. He opened the door, climbed out,and walked to the rear of the car. Opening the trunk alight automatically came on and played on a case of 24bottles of Italian acqua minerale. He started to reachfor the case, but the bushman touched Dan's arm. "Iwill carry," the man said and reached inside the trunkto pick up the case of water.
"Come, with me," he said. Holding the case infront of him, the man motioned with his head for Dan tofollow him.
"No, that's all right. We'll just go on now," Dansaid and started back toward his side of the car.
"Please come," the bushman repeated. "Do notworry, no hurt come to you. Please bring lady andcome."
"He wants us to go with him," Dan said to Liliana. "How do you feel about it?"
"Excited," she said and opened her door. "Let'sgo."
Dan and Liliana walked behind the man through thebush toward the circle of light from the campfire.
Stopping in front of a wiry old man seated on theground beside the fire their guide spoke in Somali tohim. Then turning to Dan he said, "This is Sheik AbdulaMuhammad, our leader. He says 'thank you, and may thePeace of Allah be always with you.'"
Dan looked at the old man fingering a string ofamber prayer beads, his eyes looked straight into Dan's,and in a second there was a bond of mutual trustestablished between them. "Salaam Aleichem," the oldman said touching his right hand to his left breast,then gestured for Dan and Liliana to sit down.
"Aleichem a Salaam," Dan replied, and touched hischest.
They were about to sit on the ground when the guideinterrupted them and said, "Wait. I am Ali, and I willbring pillows. Please wait." He looked at the Sheik and spoke again in Somali. The old man nodded hisapproval and Ali disappeared running into the darkness.
Ali returned with two pillows which he droppedbeside Sheik Abdula Muhammad. He gestured for Lilianaand Dan to sit down on them.
The Sheik spoke for a long time to Ali, then Alitranslated. "The Sheik ask me to tell you that for manydays he has prayed to Allah for water, and that nowAllah has answered his prayers. You were sent here thisnight by Allah, and the Sheik has offered prayers ofgratitude. He will pray always that you have the Peaceof Allah. The Sheik wishes me to offer tea to you." Alileaned over the campfire and removed a large aluminumtea pot from some rocks sitting near the edge of thefire. He filled two cups made from gourdes and handedthem to Liliana and Dan.
While for health reasons Dan was not anxious todrink the tea he knew that to refuse it would be anunforgivable affront to the Sheik, and he took the cup.
"I wish you and your people well, and trust thatAllah will make easy your path," Dan said looking at theSheik then took a sip of the strong bitter chai.The Sheik again spoke to Dan through Ali theinterpreter. "Where do you come from?"
"I come from America," Dan replied.
"Yes," Ali said after consulting with the Sheik. "We know America. The Americans send the grain whichthe government gives us. We thank you."
Dan looked at the Sheik and the old man nodded hishead and smiled, then clasped both his hands in front ofhim in a handshake, indicating the symbol of friendshipthat is imprinted on the bags of grain which aredistributed through the American foreign aid program.
"Where are you going now?" Dan asked Ali, thenwaited for him to translate.
"We come from the Ogaden in the north and we gosouth to Kenya," Ali translated.
The Sheik picked up a rifle from his side and heldit in front of him and smiled while Ali continued tospeak. "Sheik Abdula Muhammad says we are ready tofight with the soldiers of Kenya. He say that for manycenturies our people have followed the rains, just asAllah has sent them to us, from the Ogaden to theNorthern Frontier District of Kenya, and now thesoldiers of Kenya and Ethiopia think they can changewhat Allah has willed - they cannot. We will fight. Itis Allah's will that we fight for our lands." The Sheikshook the rifle, and nodded his head.
Dan realized that he was getting a dramatic lessonthat showed him in a tangible way what the diplomacy that he discussed in abstract impersonal cables oraround conference tables meant to the people who wereinvolved. Dan finished his tea, stood up, and offeredhis hand to Liliana to pull her up. "It is late and wemust go," Dan said to the Sheik. "I thank you for yourhospitality and offer my prayers for your safe journey."
Ali translated and the Sheik stood up. He againtouched his right hand to his left breast and wishedthem a safe journey.
The moon was hanging low on the horizon whenLiliana pulled the car up in front of Dan's beach hut. It was only one o'clock in the morning, but Dan feltthat they had made a journey through time and space inthe few hours that they had been gone. The brief,chance, nocturnal encounter with Sheik Abdula Muhammad,had touched some deep, fundamental chord in him and hehad a powerful sense of his oneness with humanity alongwith a strong feeling of gratitude, as much for who hewas not, as for who he was. In that tiny split-secondof infinity Dan seemed able to grasp and integrate thedifferences as well as the similarities which he sharedwith the primitive patriarch who was leading his peoplethrough the trackless East African bush toward the NFDof Kenya and the rains which he prayed would be therewhen they arrived with only his rifle and his faith in Allah to assure him that they would be there.
"Would you like to come in for a nightcap?" heasked Liliana."I would love to," she said, "but it's late and Ihad better get home. It's been a wonderful evening, andI think you were just marvelous with the nomads."
"Marvelous?"
"Yes, marvelous," she said. "It was just so humanof you to get out of the car and give that case of waterto that bushman. My husband would never have done that. He would have insisted that I start the car and leave."
"Well, when Ali said that their children neededwater I couldn't refuse. Anyway, it was your water, andif you wanted to give it to the nomads who am I to saythat you shouldn't do it," Dan replied.
"You could have refused," she said. "That's thepoint, you didn't refuse to help them. You were verykind and courageous to get out the car, and I love youfor it," she said and placed her hand on his face, thenleaned over to kiss him on the cheek.
Dan took her hand in his. "Thank you, Liliana, butI didn't think at the time that I was doing anythingparticularly kind or courageous. It just seemed thehuman thing to do." He pressed her hand to his lips. "I better say goodnight to you now." He opened the door of the car and swung his legs out on to the ground.
"I see your car is not here," she said. "Can Itake you up the hill to your house?""No thanks," Dan replied. "I'm going to stay downhere at the hut tonight. "I frequently spend the nightdown here on weekends. I'll look for you along thebeach tomorrow.""Why don't you walk up to the Italian Beach Clubfor lunch tomorrow. I'll meet you there at two."
"I'd love that, Liliana," he said then walkedaround to her side of the car. "I'll sail the Sunfishup, and after lunch I'll give you a ride. Maybe itwon't be as exciting as the ride you gave me, butsometimes these gusty winds can give you a thrill."
"You've got a date," she said and started the car. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Dan leaned over the car and lightly brushed hermouth with his lips.
"Ciao," she said and put the car in gear to backup.
"Ciao," he replied and waved as she blew a kiss tohim.
Dan walked through the beach hut out to the terrace andpoured himself a cognac then sat down in a chair to look out to sea. To the south, beyond the breakwater dock,he could see the lights of two ships rolling in the longinky swells of the tide that was nearing its high. Thesound of the waves pounding over the offshore barrierreef were carried ashore on the monsoon trade winds thatwere starting to blow strongly out of the northeast asthe tangambili, the time between the winds, came to anend.
Reflecting back over the evening Dan had a strongfeeling of his own being and of the life that wasthrobbing in him, in the others who had been at thedinner party, as well as the nomads who, if it had notbeen for Liliana, he would never have met. They wereall involved in living life to its fullest. Rudy andBarbara Shumway could be idling away their time on thequiet English countryside, but they chose to live herein Somalia and run an experimental farm. General Ossmanwas involved in the politics, intrigue and maneuveringof the Somali government, and his sister, Khadija, wasinvolved in getting the Somali language reduced towriting. Even Dave and Martha Winters who were bothkeen, sharp eyed, professional observers of other peopledid it with involvement and enthusiasm, and then therewas Liliana.
As his thoughts turned to Liliana Dan felt a flicker of desire swelling in his loins as he recalledthe scent of her perfume and the way she had pressedagainst him while they danced, or how she acknowledgedhis hand on her thigh as they raced in her car acrossthe bush into the African night. He recalled how shehad flirted with him in his office when he had brazenlysuggested that going off to live with the nomads withher along appealed more to him than the thought of doingit alone, and finally, he thought about how she hadreached out to place her hand on his face as they saidgoodnight. He rubbed his hand over his cheek where shehad touched him.
Liliana, he suspected, was no happier in hermarriage than he was in his, and he wondered if she wasjust looking, as many of the women in the diplomatic andexpatriate communities, for a love affair. Dan had nopersonal experience with love affairs, but somethingtold him that he could not have "just" a love affairwith Liliana. If he were to become involved withLiliana it would be for high stakes, not just because hewas the American Ambassador and expected, supposedlyrequired, to behave as a statesman who was holier thanCaesar's wife; Dan was frightened, yet attracted, byLiliana's youthful, animal vitality and enthusiasm forlife and living. He was frightened because she had touched the place in him where a desire for spontaneous,enthusiastic involvement had been smoldering for years. Dan realized that he was tired of being a ForeignService officer and a statesman, the AmericanAmbassador, the personal representative of the presidentof the most powerful nation on earth. He wanted to beDan Thornton, just an ordinary man who did and enjoyeddoing ordinary things - a man who was falling in lovewith a beautiful and alluring woman.
He finished the cognac and walked into the bedroomof the hut, stripped off his clothes and lay down on thebed. It had been a full exciting day, and as he laythere with his eyes closed and just the sounds of thesea and the wind he felt a rush of fiery intoxication atthe promise of lunch and sailing the next day withLiliana. Just before dropping off to sleep Dan knew inhis heart that he was already involved with Liliana, andthe fact that it was for "high stakes" just made it moreexciting. His intuition told him that Lili ana felt thesame way, and that it was just a matter of time beforethey would consummate and fulfill their desire for oneanother.
