《The English Patient》


 I The Villa

    In memory of Skip and Mary Dickinson For Quintin and Griffin  And for Louise Dennys,  of you, I am sure, remember tragic circumstances of ton at Gilf Kebir, folloer by ton,  expedition in search of Zerzura.

    “I cannot begin ting tonig referring very sympatically to tragic occurrences.

    “ture tes of ty meeting of November 194-, London

    I

    the Villa

    SANDS UP in to tance. S in ther.

    t of all cypresses s drops of rain on ers the house.

    In tc pause but goes t and climbs tairs  t from an open door.

    Surns into trees and boed over its walls and ceiling.

    to turns owards ers.

    Every four days s troyed feet. Ss a o . Beyond purple. Bone.

    Sight hips.

    , s.  on  ted onto ts canopy of branc, blue sky.

    Sripes across  s cliff of skin. Reaco ters.

    ? s of ration.

    urns s grey eyes toone and passes t into h.

    ening  of to  o during ths before he died.

    tories tes quietly into to level like a ed arbour t surrounds s spilling flo trees. s of  noo the colour of aubergine.

    I  , forgetting to look at to t sins of omission but signs of preoccupation.

    o tare ravel alongside o the wall. She leans forward. how were you burned

    It is late afternoon. , t.

    I fell burning into t.

    t of sticks and dragged me across t. e self caugand up naked out of it. t on my rapped me onto a cradle, a carcass boat, and feet t.

    t fire. t planes t since 1939  of tools and utensik al of crasanks. It ime of to pick t from a cockpit became jeo stand up alive out of a burning mac kno knoribe.

    ho are you?

    I don’t know. You keep asking me.

    You said you were English.

    At nigired enougo sleep. So ever book so find in tairs.

    talking face, barely revealing at trees and vista t decorate tens to er.

    If it is cold so t upon  giving  even .

    Sometimes at t asleep, he darkness.

    . tle of tin cans wcer.

    to large pieces of soft cloted.

    man o uny-four  nigo examine he dark.

    Unclot. t over  great nation  country invented suc dates to be c mouto ime  remember he air.

    Later, at tal in Pisa,

    and cened tes and passed to h.

    ts. No speecar of y  te of saliva t entered e or by t running.

    S and read, t. S al,  gradually, t over.

    time in  s of  at t table, o memorize diverse jes on a tray, tossed from teaco teacaug taugaugo escape tic.

    t for more tes s t ts skin. A scurry in  ient and ables planted in t orco survive, a man coming noorade soap and ss and  in tal for otials. Some beans, some meats. t tles of er s back to t table just outside ter-closed door and sip ao wever book she was reading.

    So tened intently or not,  like sections of a road orms, missing incidents as if locusts ion of tapestry, as if plaster loosened by t night.

    t sed no be entered because of rubble. One bomb crater alloo tairs—wly soaked armchair.

    S concerned about t  ty-six” or “page one  or. Sed boto ill in them.

    Your ting rough, he said.

    tles and digging.

    Be careful. I  the dangers.

    I know.

    to read.

    aug  a dog’s pas paer, is test smell in t! Great rumours of travel! Send disgust, but t never suggested dirt. It’s a cat field of grasses, a ration of s of all taken during the day.

    A scurry in the book again.

    ting for it.  civilisation  understood tions of ? El A be one of t desert tribes. tc of tted togete garden in t Kee and various, like levels of ash on a hill.

    o taugo raise rengto  pulled dohe covered sun.

    Alments, or darkness, against   seemed to be opped and , t noise like t of a bird, per fox, w in a sewn- in his burnoose.

    t day c of t toles on different lengtring and  of a glass curtain,  sphere.

    t of all tried to copy as a sc, so smootilt in ttles. A s tles o skin to ed especially for a ed lig glass noise and the regal walk and his face like a lean dark gun.

    Up close ted, glass t  its civilisation. Eactle e cork t eet in tle’s contents eeth.

    ood over ticks deep into t yoke, icks. epped out from under o o and put here.

    o everyone along te from to Giza, ty Days Road.  traded spice and liquid, and moved beter camps. orms  of bottles, o  doctor, tist. er a camp and set up tain of bottles in front of whoever was sick.

    and leaned back to pluck,  even looking, certain bottles. itiny bottle t. t. Indigo. Ink. River-mud arroance as ts. o rub green-black paste onto t ered for in a medina to t or t potent healer of skin.

    Betcroyed co an oval-s for a large  portrait level in tar-stack on t of ted itself to ting ts of ars, t, tuffed bear and  torn  of tning came into too, again and again, falling across t.

    At t o ty-six penitent steps past toed from, so most rooms not needed, like ty, to their frames.

    So to its afternoon darkness. Sood conscious suddenly of  on t rigger .

    t poured tar circle t looked onto the sky.

    ition, as if it led from one single unit, s t of t ion, t to be disturbed, sepping on prints, for safety, but also as part of a private game, so it eps t sered the seal of warning.

    S in tient’s room, ted iff  self on tive of 1757. Illustrated by N. C. yet books, tant page  of illustrations, a line of text for eachem.

    Sered tory kno stretcy years, ences and moments, as if ah a heaviness caused by unremembered dreams.

    talian oinel to t route, ery surrounded by apple and plum orche generals lived.

    Just above it tlelike battlements  t strong roops. As too be torn apart like a battles sea, by fire sroops moved from tents in to tions of ts of top storey of took over t a al, teps leading to tion of chimney and roof survived.

    Sed on remaining beients moved to a safer location in time t electricity. Some rooms faced onto t all. S a sodden bed  a corner, covered o landscape.

    Some rooms had become an open aviary.

    taircase  its loeps during t  before t. So ty books and nailed to to eac steps. Most of t t , drencorms t came in tar ever  escaped burning during t April of 1945. t. So be nomadic in t or imes in tient’s room, sometimes in temperature or ress and tied it into a  ing sunligs s in rooms t  on ting landscape of stars, moving clouds, ning.

    Sy years old and mad and unconcerned y during time,  t startled . Sless after ted to dark, protected spaces. Sered rooms t ure  leaves and s and urine and cables. S,  reposed in his bed like a king.

    From outside, tated. An outdoor staircase disappeared in midair, its railing entative safety. tial candlelig niged everytected by t t t s safe  and  of  duties for ter good. Sient. So ion h him.

    S crucifix from t to build a scarecro wtered and clanked wed.

    itep from rubble to a candlelit alcove case, ters, a feal box of medical supplies. S small sections of this she could burn down if she wished.

    Ss a matc onto t lifts itself onto s .

    S and e cangle onto tinues backangles, so t  on t. till so s crouching.

    So t of ands and pulls up t and ties it around . S a piece of metal and flings it out in front of  falls just beyond t square.

    So tennis so eacangle, one foot landing, t, til s square.

    Sal, pauses in t position, motionless,  still tucked up above akes a gulp of air and blo the candle.

    Now s a smell of smoke.

    Surns so sill landing on squares sennis so t into ted Italian villa, out to he building.

    Sometimes at nig surns up o dra interpret or place.

    Sebook t lies on table beside  is t ories by us t o, cutting and gluing in pages from oting in ions—so text of us.

    So read ing.

    t imes reaco ty of Rome. t of Yugoslavia. tened are/or rifi,   live in t tense.

    tant  cion, t can knock do roz leaps into Afgan for 170 days —burying villages. t, dry gunis,  storm t dresses in brigres tan, self into tlantic.  Imbat, a sea breeze in Nort just sigo dust storms t come  in Egypt from Marco May, named after ty,” blooming for fifty days—t. too out of Gibraltar, which carries fragrance.

    t , wer .

    And t—a blast out of Arabia. t and cold souterly knoo Berbers as “t  of turkey, “poison and en in battle. As  plucks off rare petals, causing giddiness.

    Ote winds.

    travelling along ting off paint, telepransporting stones and statue tan blo, dust as fire, as flour, entering and coagulating in t of ted as far nort taken for blood. “Blood rains ed   in Portugal and Spain in 1901.” tons of dust in t as tles, underground creatures) ting on it. us records tion  t and marc in full battle array, only to be rapidly and completely interred.” Dust storms in t. In t t. In tzing Ginns.” t, is “copper-tinted. Nature seems to be on fire.”  So talk across the darkness.

    t. I am a man s skeletal sion like a sea in me. I am a person . So ory enters us. I kne depict s painted on skin t contain tes of the Crusades.

    So I kneraversed it in an earlier age, for t greed. I kneoms of nomads besotted by silk or ribe dyed a o increase convection and ty of rainfall, and built ructures to pierce tribes  if t t moment t a storm into an adjacent sp, toribe. tinual droribes suddenly made orical heir gasp.

    In t it is easy to lose a sense of demarcation.  of to t, into troug t build a raft... I must build a raft.

    And er people.

    In tassili I ime er s. In adi Sura I sas edge, six thousand years ago.

    Ask a mariner  kno t can be seen in rock draic. ill found in t. ter people. Even today caravans look like a river. Still, today it is er  between your h.

    among tom, a cell of torical animal, and to place.

    did most of us knotlefield eigo t.  tanks, Blenor biplane fig thousand men.

    But  marsing th Africa, in Sidi Rezegh, in Baguoh.

    ravelled on a skid beemperature fell. t of t’s er tribe t spilled and slid over sand and stones, ting like a spray of milk or a ed t cloto tone whey camped.

    In took o talking loudly  around   suddenly clarifying. he buried guns.

    oraigo reac a yard or so.

    After days of travel, to move to lean tooucill oucen barrel and t go of o translate the guns.

    “tre Breda macaly.” , inserted o find no bullet, pus back and pulled trigger. Putered. he was moved forward again.

    “Frenc-five-millimetre Ctelerault. Ligeen ty-four.” “German seven-point-nine-millimetre MG-Fifteen air service.

    to eaco be from different time periods and from many countries, a museum in t. ours of tock and magazine or fingered t.  to anot   matter to t t to kno  the gun was.

    again and o a box of cartridges. In anoto t hers.

    , and on ttered a deck of cards face doaugo turn up tually, trout streams, birdcalls t ing fragment. A fully named oed t, bolted it, and  up in ting itself in  to be sullen and mad ten t sentence do, picking up toget to , and firing eacion into to eac urn to face one direction, to time on range ock. —t and ter tude. t he men who had saved him for such a purpose.

    travel into er of use-fulness from tribe to tribe. tribes representing eigers specific customs and specific music.

    Mostly blindfolded er-draribe ations, daes antly sounding a drone).

    to territory of five-stringed lyres. A village or oasis of preludes and interludes. iph-onal dance.

    only after dusk, ribes too  across tes flung a of breeze. Or tes s to desirable te as papyrus, liging s on omaco ankle, revealing ning.

    t desert surrounds traversed by a loose order of storms and caravans. ts and dangers around   times  kno so clean it leaves no pain, and  ill untouco signal to ors. t into in complete silence, or t see ted? Dreamed by  and darkness

    ter oed s of er. And ty of an innocent dancing boy, like sound from a boy cer,  river er, t transparent dept, , everyted—like t of linen across terbirtals against the colour of fire.

    ts smoke ruments like a pulse or rain. ts  fire, to silence tes. tsteps s t over to te translator of guns and passes it into  you celebrate not er.

    Sands over t, looking at tucco y room. So side, releasing a movement of ss er into ill it is completely . t  hunder.

 II In Near Ruins

    tary al in Rome for more t  tient and turned from to tcors  passed, to discover ime, and t no tartled t time ing by signals and grimaces, no even  e out he Allies.

    atus er of known scars on him.

    So tors o  ty, after all, ing silence. A war hero.

    t . Revealing not enderness or subterfuge or knives. For more t said a  among patients and nurses in and out of tockrooms.

    But no tors in turned and came up to tal sold  it aken over by ted into a al after to it. In t of it torn apart by bombing. Unsafe. It  a temporary field al. But tient o leave.

    you force them down?

    Soo ill to be moved. e could   safely, of course, but noime to argue. She was in rough shape herself.

    Is she injured?

    No. Partial s rouble is, t make anyone do anytients are  of als. troops are going AOL before t sent back home.

    hich villa? he asked.

    It’s one t in t , a burned patient. t it is unrecognizable. tche face is asleep.

    ho is he? he asked.

    e don’t know his name.

    talk?

    tcors laugalks, alks all time,  doesn’t know who he is.

    here did he come from?

    t o Siag.  and  it one day, or per. t cs —none of tification. No leave ients t t  stronged, eac season. Outside t ty miles from Florence, in t someone to drive you up. It is still terrible out ttle.  dead, en. People  vices of war.

    Completely unsafe. t gone in t to clear it. treated burying and installing mines as t. A terrible place for a al. t. e need a good snoo clean up try.

    e need ravens.

    thank you.

    of tal into to open air for t time in mont of t rooms t lay like glass in ood t, , I need stom. I need gelato.

    difficult to fall asleep on train, so side. tment smoking. emple banging against to be on fire  cigarettes. iced t ery travellers around hemselves. She’s in rough shape herself.

    Gelato for tonsils, o onsils out. Saken one look at t adaptable and genial of curned into a stone of refusal, adamant. No one  of  t. S in, ” looked like. ill  a tonsil was.

    touc, t range. t times , cut next. At times  of his head.

    A scurry in the ceiling like a mouse.

    ood  t termittent pools of candleligter of footsteps as o surprised ing to  ient’s  loudness.

    As urned up t enlarged ter of lig very still, to hen crouched beside her like an uncle.

    “tell me onsil is.” aring at him.

    “I keep remembering ormed out of tal followo grown men.” She nodded.

    “Is your patient in t s until he spoke again.

    “I’ll see omorro tell me  need ss. Is tcrange journey I took in order to find you.” o table and sat dorembling. Needing table, to collect rain and o table just to see er a fees so tood t across t t made trompe ’oeil seem convincing. S flo onto her dress.

    t. ly over rees, to silver fisers outside. ter. An er ions along troyed gardens and orc neigaly.

    In tain talk tentatively.

    “Noaly you s more about Verdi.” “?” S s in tain.

    old me once you h him.” hana bows her head, embarrassed.

    Caravaggio  t time, peering doo the garden.

    “Yes, you used to love o drive us all mad ion about Giuseppe.  a man! t in every een-year-old.” “I ain.

    “You ones, grass in tcockinged feet, trade.

    “I to admit, somet t and my dad  for t ter in tain. tled er pipes w.

    t t o s h.

    “I’m glad to see you, Caravaggio. No one else. Don’t say you o try and persuade me to leave.” “I  to find a small bar zer and drink  a fucking bomb going off. Listen to Frank Sinatra singing. e o get some music,” ient.” “ill in Africa.” cing for o say more, but t tient to be said. ters.

    “Some of t of ts t precisely. So t foreigners tly. A lean face  s,  tery of ain gurgling in the villa.

    Maybe to come out of a o ed like a garden. As if all t remains is a capsule from t, long before Verdi, trade or —t arcect in teentury—and requesting sometisfying to frame t vista.

    “If you are staying,” so need more food. I ed vegetables,  quite saying it.

    “I lost my nerve,” he says.

    “I’ll come  togeteaco steal, s to do.” “You don’t understand. I lost my nerve.” “. t nigimes,  is asleep or even after sside one rim of tain looking up at stars, or serrace. In t difficult to stay indoors at nig of time  ly werrace looking for him.

    Satue of a count, upon s likes to sit, solemn and drooling  so claim  up by a family of owls.

    tory, Florence and s in tance. Sometimes ic to oo calm. In dayligices better ices tiffened arms above turns instead of just ts to somet s to him.

    “My patient t o t sky. “Yes.” “ere you a spy t quite.” able, more disguised from ient’s room looking do times  in to steal. alian and a t believe to use me. t four or five of us. I did ime. tally pograp?

    “I uxedo, a monkey suit, in order to get into ty, to steal some papers. Really I ill a thief.

    No great patriot. No great  made my skills official. But one of t a camera and  t in mid-step, ep, tter’s noise making me jerk my o. So suddenly everyture was dangerous. Some general’s girlfriend.

    “All pograpaken during t labs, capo, and so t part of any list, to be filed ao tory. So it meant o try and steal t film back someient, o dip o t, leaning fore against t of the hand on her own cheek.

    So  a swing as she ground.

    Moments before sleep are s of t into to il times, uations. Caravag-gio ance given ive, a drama, and a stolen image.

    y in a car. It crunc of tomobile purring, serene as ink . For t of t tograped to pograpion. No s existence . o tress to an officer, ravel nortuscany. t of tigated.

    Four er, ed by tops at t.  t the square moons of window. A palace of war-women.

    A car beam—like somet of a s up tep, seeing t same  ands turned in surprise at t t reveals s so a corner of the room and disappear.

    t kno t to break a neck—tohe bed?

    inue, oion, anoto suggest collecting a t as one tinkers ed bicycle. ords are tricky told ricky t.

    urning and s for anot of lig emerges out of till an arro, and toucting of . to understand. to of irony, just a contract anding, so o t into t.

    Finding . ered tly passed t seventeentury murals along ts in a gold suit. t past guards o be revealed as an innocent. ripped completely and left hes in a flower bed.

    airs to to laug some privacy, so  at  ation, alfresco,  it? Or seduction a cappella~?

    One long air and one at ty yards aoo many yards arical , c suspicion and scornfully by tries, t a section of mural to peer at a painted donkey in a grove.  falling asleep, tumbles and immediately pulls ogeto a military gait.

    ray left o te from a tz ed saints on tuesday during to save  on tiles looking for a pograph of himself.

    s  as if looking for ends to use it as a key to let o t is being guarded. Laugaggers back, peeved at o t room humming.

    eps out onto tiful nig and so ter t. Printless foot. Sory old someone’s c this image of himself on a piece of film.

    In tely a. o c in order to feel anytouc even a grain of light.

    s to  and souc of marble. one ands ts sling. taneously as urns is seen by t.

    Caravaggio cs across from o rying to read rying to figure t to do. c, searcrace.  and looks back at less, clear as any river, unimpeac lost in to  tcilting ion as a dog one or pitc is not s across from  of t like, and in  look, slim, tanned olive from all t in try, she reminds him of his wife.

    Nourn around and evoke every move of  of  of  on  during t.

    s able, c. ill prefers to eat alone, ts y, al vanity. Sing s on one of ty-six steps by t a fork or a knife in sigo eat like someone from t. In ubble-beard, in , salian finally in ices this more and more.

    c toronto before t in deceit against toa or er of his friend.

    But noo ccs to set in motion, is interested only in  seems so tairs.

    During meals s opposite tc.

    ta Cal in Pisa, o see a  stood alone on top of ttlements, linked by colour to te marble of to, ts roug of anot from t t o be accepted. Yet sed it most of all among tal. At midnig stood  and t it . S five or five-ty and t six to see its silte and groail. Every nig s.

    Even t it t t of ts mad logic of a tower leaning like a person in shell shock.

    tal buildings lay in old monastery grounds. topiary carved for too careful monks ients among t s seemed t only one remained permanent.

    Nurses too became ster. t blood t never stopped, as if to believe in notrusted notling a mine broke ta Cal er t told her.

    A we lion.

    It ime after t sient—someone  and dark, a pool for er,  patient in to return o ty of tals. All tal ports, suco and Marina di Pisa, are noisroops ing to be sent  s and returned it to ting nurses. t over everyold it ion. t desertion. I ay er and food. Sairs to tient, and told ay as well.

    o turn oo  o  it cool he valley of his fingers.

    how old are you?

    ty.

    ted to be carried oo tance.

    A friend of my fated to die  is.   himself.

    does your father do?

    he is

    .. he war.

    You’re in too.

    S kno er a montting  first  by t t t ients and doctors and nurses and equipment and ss and to back doo Florence and to Pisa. Sed aablets, as cures, trucks. Good-bye, tters to a close.

    Beo t of ty miles a of ty of Florence,  of t one of t door en a nightingale.

    t to protect inants from tress, t of tatues blo days of stle demarcation bets of to o garden  could come only to someone e of te of ter. Someday t.

    Caravaggio came into tco find ting able.  see ucked in under he bare shoulders.

    S still or asleep. itable.

    Caravaggio stood t. It  yet daable wood.

    “illed illness. “o moan so t be reached.

    ain at first about touchen lay his bandaged hand on her shoulder.

    S stop s sorroo excavate everything.

    Sill, tood up against  of table.

    “Dont touco try and fuck me.” t,  ering tc.

    “and?” “ love ied yourself to a corpse for some reason.” “. I t. Are to protect t even care!” “I can love y-year-old o love a g!” Caravaggio paused. “You o protect yourself from sadness. Sadness is very close to e. Let me tell you take in someone elses poison— t—you ead store it  er t   ston pocket of ary sries to imagine een cypress trees.

    As to , like er, t moving. he plum being swallowed.

    dribble,  reacs o suck it. Let me tell you about plums, he says. hen I was a boy...

    After t niger most of t taken a dead man’s o use it. So o ing above all te and er on ts t arted to appear coming doorey.

    Eac so tline of aken from a dead soldier, someone who had died under her care.

    A pair of tennis s saken from ot on t s in,  nohings.

    ure ant planets, eacude. Caravaggio, ill and causing o give o. o  trust talked  o o ionsed from professional or personal robberies.

    S about Caravaggio—some people you just o embrace, in some o bite into to remain sane in to grab tc like a droo t. Otreet to about to hs. As an uncle he had been a disappearer.

    Caravaggio urb you by simply enfolding you in er.

    But no of t Englishman.

    t t patients, s fall apart at tences all to toercil tered Florence and t farther sea near Pisa.

    In tal sient for t time. A man ification consumed in a fire. Parts of annic acid, t o a protective sed ian violet. to recognize in him.

    Sometimes ss several blankets and lies under t t slides onto t o sleep truly pleasurable state. If ser s ebooks and favourite cat and e in bed. Strangers and lovers  past the locked door.

    to rest o receive all aspects of t judgement. A batenderness toenderness to the self.

    ary blankets. Sient moved in a.

    soronto so read t. It o a fire escape  in her arms.

    In aug. Nos,  gestures  country trained at omen’s College al and t overseas during t was in

    t Canadian Infantry Division s aly, and troyed bodies o tals like mud passed back by tunnellers in ter ttle of Arezzo, roops recoiled, s by ter t rest, stress he world around her.

    of to cut  concerned  cutting it aation of its presence during till in  for  to make sure trands and turned again to face the wounded.

    S  darker ss about ain people sient’s face and discover er on Danfortients. Reason  miger of blood moved up try.  oronto anymore in reac tors, nurses, civilians.  closer to to soldiers.

    S t ime I co see Franklin D.

    o me.

    S kept bleeding. S sransported a ton of metal out of t sravelled nort s died sook tennis s tly too big for  sable.

    oug later. Sly from tiredness. S a furious exion to feed a patient  or didn’t  to, co s. Sed notic, just bread, meat. One of totaco tal and in ime s and ter, ichoke.

    It range sleeping in teries, or  of t orderlies ance. toned building and side into spring or er or summer, seasons t seemed arc sat like old gentlemen t tep outside ed air t smelled of noted moonlig came orm.

    ract only until deat or past augo be a nurse. But cutting ract, and it lasted until tors, one ients. taly moved fart  behind.

    tions of some local victory, someive in too Florence or Rome or any otal, ient,” o y of ensive burns. Sold tal   for y from brigands.

    Sill refused to leave, got out of  frock s ennis sepped a till t s in t ed to learn, groo, and urn a. ttle z in to . Sed to save  faceless man wwo h.

    In  dress sion. S into t do, and s t up sloto. It  even so seemed a luxury. So look at  o move it back to arm’s length, her hand wavering.

    Sctle portrait of ients being broug into t in taff. Only till indoors. S t. o rying to recognize herself.

    Darkness betalk in his familiar slow drawl.

    “It y late at nig Craaurant. Do you remember, hana?

    Everyone o stand and sing a song. Your fatta, friends, and you said you ed to as  time. You ill at sche song in a French class.

    “You did it formally, stood on tep up onto table betes and the candles burning.

    “ ‘Alonson fon!’ “You sang out, your left o your . Alonson fon!  kno kno , but you kne.

    “t over so it almost touce in t you, miraculous  so distinct, flaions, and t touc almost toucood up at table into able. Like gloves.” “ jumping from a  old you about, ograp .” S me do it.” S of  pockets. S, but in t t luminous.

    As seps backe coming out of ill oo catco postpone t not his eyes.

    ogeto les in  she holds seems firm, healed.

    “I tell you I o negotiate for  me.” “?” “All to  move. Don’t drift a is a strange time, tment.” “Yes.” o cup ter-moon.

    “t of ly  it is no trick, t w looks like a gill is w away. owards her blouse.

    S in t ugs it softly towards him.

    “I toucton like t of you al Pimpernel, and in my dreams I stepped onto t roofs s, pencil cases, s music off some Forest o t you? You liked t tense?” “It seems unimportant notern of leaves rolls off him.

    “You used to be like tists  nig on in treet. Like trapped to t of liging doo ty parks. You took me to t place, t cafe” ock exc dropping and rising, five cents, ten cents. People unes. Do you remember?” “Yes.” “alk back ’s getting cold.” “t pickpockets are born  t need to go as deep into a pocket. t distance of orees.

    “ to you?” “to do it. t it renc. t in one of ts o table legs.  off my t of t any poommasoni. S, kneionality or ient was sing.  go of Caravaggio and cairs, ennis ser.

    to tcore off a section of bread and followed airs.

    As os became more frantic. epped into taring at a dog—tunned by to Caravaggio and grinned.

    “I  seen a dog for years. All ts . Seered to must o  turned into a man. Caravaggio collected t the room.

    I ient said, t t be Poliziano’s room. t  is ter coming out of t  ancient fountain. It is a famous room. t here.

    It , long before t a nunnery. took it over.

    I t protege of Lorenzo. I’m talking about

    In Florence, in Santa trinita Cing of t, ay.

    It  midnight and he was wide awake again.

    Okay, tell me, s, take me somec s name was.

    It ics and ts and colonial padded stockings and er, not mucer, and ties. Poliziano translated e a great poem on Simonetta Vespucci, you know her?

    No, said hana, laughing.

    Paintings of ion at ty-tanze per la Gios-tra and tticelli painted scenes from it. Leonardo painted scenes from it. Poliziano ure every day for two ernoon. e wed and joined Savonarola.

    t was my nickname when I was a kid. Pico.

    Yes, I t ain in the young Michelangelo.

    ted do four books of Cicero. ted a giraffe, a roscanelli dres. t in t of Plato and argued all night.

    And t of treets: “Repentance! t ao be elegant, fame, t to er the graves. Pico’s bones were preserved.

    Poliziano’s o dust.

    ened as turned tion glued in from ot great maps lost in to’s statue, , ts across tood on ture. Pico docion.

    er into a bohe war.

    doery  s to  of grass snipped dohis.

    to be a man  ill did not feel o go h his aging.

    o coo late, grabbing table, upsetting the carafe of wine.

    Your name is David Caravaggio, right?

    to table. At one point  in  ried to run  topped, dropping to do more. table slid out and fell against , and all its contents, and  per ommasoni picked up to ? ill  sure.

    As able, to  clearly and slipped table leg, flinging to dro to t to step out of ther cuff.

    Blood every  by producing envy. But t   table tion into  slowed him.

    ood up dizzy above table. tommasoni, teleperrupting tommasoni, ically o t t him go, so perhaps he was wrong.

    to Spirito to tion  Brunellescoitute, er him.

    Suddenly  ting o revealing tact. o a side street, not looking back, never looking back. ed a street fire so ancar cauldron so black smoke rinita Bridge. traffic, rade of then lay back. No sounds.

    Earlier, s, t of tanks and jeeps.

    As  of t  filled er. er.

    ter of to but couldn’t even nudge it. Ligo to ts of which were on fire.

    old ory later t evening sopped torturing you because tting out of ty, blo.” “I don’t knoold t? tant po t room. tcening to t  of to t to e in it.

    t forty-five,  time of darkness, her.

    So t in one of the high shelves.

    t up from ly pulled free t candle o t out t out of ture, iced onto . As if ed to slip into ating its climate and light.

    Sood by tcoug. In darkness, in any liger dusk, you can slit a vein and the blood is black.

    So move from tropired. Srode do doairs and  out onto terrace of trying to discern tepped a tiff so t tting in t air.  kno evenings nourning a few here was no sign of him.

    S t covered to a corner of t in after  of fish.

    No lighunder.

    Sanding in front of t looking doed to play, just co a skeleton. Ser eac of notes as if bringing  of er to see inued, placing doune. Ss of ood in front of ill in the changed room.

    on tinuing aug sised on any surface, a kitcable, a o ty centre on Saturday mornings and play t all  o tcable and ter. t time scs s day ter. You opened up t a full glass of er, and a monter ty. old  t pianos, never in bars. S but  first t it was perhaps mice.

    A ligorm , and s amazed, relieved any be it  a quick glimpse of urban and t  guns. tal table several montcient could ified the weapons.

    one pure Italian. A villa romance.  ableau, t over and t brigning slipped itself into t ipake my sugar to tea

    ..

    Do you knohe words?

    t from to intricacy, tumbling into  split open notes and angles from tnut of melody.

    ake my sugar to teaAll take ake my sugar to tea.

    t  and ning and ter to it, filling up ted to o ruggling to remember ting it under a kitcap and using it to able free of tes, tcer y  still unable to reac, so so stand,  pedal and tronome ticking.

    S  to end to give up t, ra. So t sop now.

    Caravaggio did not see all turned  in tchen making up sandwiches.

 IV South Cairo -

    ter us, little interest by tern o for o tietury ting of eyes. Silence. teentury was an age of river seekers.

    And t postscript ory on t of eartly by privately funded expeditions and follo lectures given at ty in London at Kensington Gore. tures are given by sunburned, exed men oo comfortable iquette of taxis, t  of bus conductors.

    ravel by local trains from toy meetings, ten lost, tickets misplaced, clinging only to ture notes— knapsacks ions travel at t early evening  of tary. It is an anonymous time, most of ty is going home.

    too early at Kensington Gore, eat at ter ty, airs  to tes. At eigalks begin.

    Every oture. Someone roduce talk and someone ests ture for inently critical but never impertinent. tay close to ts, and even obsessive assumptions are presented modestly.

    My journey t from Sokum on terranean to El Obeid in tracks of t a number and variety of interesting geographical problems....

    tion and researcioned in turer recorded ty people in ice in Antarctica. Similar losses in extreme  or orm are announced s “interesting geograpilization in connection ion or drainage of ta? Are tesian er supplies of the oases gradually diminishing?

    erious “Zerzura”? Are t” oases remaining to be discovered? ortoise marsolemy?

    Joor of Desert Surveys in Egypt, asked tions in

    By t. “/ so add a fes raised in teresting discussion on toric Geograp oasis of Zerzura was found by Ladislaus de Almasy and his companions.

    In  t decade of Libyan Desert expeditions came to an end, and t and silent pocket of tres of war.

    In tient vie distances. t dead knig liquid, one pillo can gaze beyond  into vista. Fartoheir works and days.

    s by ravels like a squire beside hese journeys.

    In   of teau, looking for t oasis t was called Zerzura.

    ty of Acacias.

    e  Europeans. Joed the Gilf in

    to t Surveys, ographer, Dr.

    Kadar t and Bermann. And t large plateau resting in t, tzerland, as Madox liked to say—s escarpments precipitous to t and , teau sloping gradually to t rose out of t four  of the Nile.

    For tians ter  of to terior erless. But in tiness of deserts you are al ory. tebu and Senussi tribes  t secrecy. tile lands t nestled ’s interior. Arab ers in teentury spoke of Zerzura. “ttle Birds.” “ty of Acacias.” In treasures, tab al Kanuz, Zerzura is depicted as a y, “ a map of t and you ary, carried out t great modern expedition. Bagnold -. Almasy-Madox -. Just nortropic of Cancer.

    e cion bet Daky, Bagnold called it. e knew eacimacies, eacher’s skills and weaknesses.

    e forgave Bagnold everyte about dunes. “ted sand resemble t  o the jaws of a dog.

    Our first journey, moving souto t among tribes. A seven-day journey to El taj. Madox and Bermann, four ot told us to start a journey in a sandstorm is good luck.” e camped t nigy miles sout morning  of our tents at five. too cold to sleep. e stepped to in t in t stars. tea. tes along e stones. e ate breakfast and tea.

    er orm t  us out of clear morning, coming from noually   is as team-pipes, iny jets of steam are puffing out. ttle spurts and s force. It seems as t o some upting force beneatrike against till it strikes t out, all but t objects fade from vieo keep moving. If you pause sand builds up as it ationary, and locks you in. You are lost forever. A sandstorm can last five rucks in later years  terrors came at nig by a storm in t tents from taking in sand like a sinking boat takes in er, ill  free by a camel driver.

    e travelled torms during nine days. e missed small desert too locate more supplies. t tea. t link ea urn and toer t alking. All t mattered he minimal brown liquid.

    Only by luck did umble on t toaj. I o treet of barometers, past tridge stalls, stands of Italian tomato sauce and otinned food from Beng, ostricail decorations, street dentists, book mercs. e ill mute, eac of a droral square of El taj  and ate lamb, rice, badaen into it. All ter t for tea flavoured .

    Sometime in  I joined a Bedouin caravan and old t turned out.

    I  to ent.  for tion, cataloguing fossil trees. I looked around ent, tos  cetera. As I acked up  t it I saion of to be a small lump, a dog possibly, under tied up, sleeping there.

    By , Bagnold was finis of us were everyw army of Cambyses.

    Looking for Zerzura.  and  and

    Not seeing eac ty Days Road. t tribes, t beautiful  in my life. e o tionless. I came to e nations. e are deformed by nation-states. Madox died because of nations.

    t could not be claimed or o ones, and given a ing names long before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and t. Its caravans, trange rambling feasts and cultures, left not an ember. All of us, even tance, ries. It o landscape. Fire and sand. e left ter came to and touctara, S  my name against suciful names. Erase tions! I aug.

    Still, some ed t dry ercourse, on ties in t of land nort of ted trees o bear ed a tribe to take  a year on tiations. tdid ype of sand dune named after  I ed to erase my name and time er ten years in t, it o slip across borders, not to belong to anyone, to any nation.

    or

    I forget travel in A-type Ford cars  time large balloon tires knoer on sand, but tand up to stone fields and splinter rocks.

    e leave Kharga on March

    Bermann and I  tten about by illiamson in  make up Zerzura.

    Sout of ted granite massifs rising out of t, and Gebel Kissu. teen miles apart from eacer in several of t Gebel Arkanu are bitter, not drinkable except in an emergency. illiamson said t ed t even one rain oasis in ter-stempt to cross suc, of t ar,  ure. t uries, hs and roads.

    e find jars at Abu Ballas us speaks of such jars.

    Bermann and I talk to a snakelike mysterious old man in tress of El Jof—in tone  once  Senussi sebu, a caravan guide by profession, speaking accented Arabic. Later Bermann says “like ts,” quoting us. e talk to , and  doctrine, is still not to reveal ts of t to strangers.

    At adi el Melik we see birds of an unknown species.

    On May , I climb a stone cliff and approac plateau from a neion. I find myself in a broad rees.

    time heir own.

    Someone seen bat caravan,  of ’s er over urns from o describe Zerzura.

    So a man in t can slip into a name as if s sempted never to leave sucainment. My great desire o remain t in a place uries—a fourteentury army, a tebu caravan, the Senussi raiders of

    And in betimes—not... until er suddenly reappeared fifty or a er. Sporadic appearances and disappearances, like legends and rumours tory.

    In t t loved ers, like a lover’s name, are carried blue in your er your t. One se lengt of to a rainstorm to allo.

    ing, c saying a word. his woman?

    ts on a map t colonists pus, enlarging ts and slaves and tides of poy. On t step by a  river, t sige eye) of a mountain t here forever.

    look into mirrors. It is o ture. e become vain o  eyes, trongest army, t merc. It is s a graven image of himself.

    But erested in o t. e sailed into t. e  finance emporary t us. “For ties t  in earlier times must   in my time ime before.... Man’s good fortune never abides in ton  a friend at Oxford ed me, got married t day, and ter fleo Cairo.

    tered our  still filled our moutled Zerzura, eentury. ravel t far in time you need a plane, and young Clifton was rich and he could fly and he had a plane.

    Clifton met us in El Jof, nort.  in er plane and owards he base camp.

    ood up in t and poured a drink out of  beside him.

    “I name te try Club,” he announced.

    I cainty scattered across .

    t like our c of th us.

    t ory....

    ton ohe warm alcohol.

    Bear. I don’t t, but ion for it t gre of a our stark order, into o fit e  be expected o bring  eous about it. Sood ted in her mane of hair.

    o tten books about dune formation, t culture of deserts. e seemed to be interested only in t could not be bougerest to tside  latitudes, or about an event t ion. t Abd el Melik Ibra-uring camels  man among tribes  of pographs.

    tons  days of t t to join a man in Kufra and spent many days rying out t secret from t of tion. I returned to t El Jof ts later.

    t fire ons, Madox, Bell and myself. If a man leaned back a feon began to recite sometwig fire.

    ts ly, in tory. I am a man ry until I e it to us.

    And in t desert sy days into our midst to describe tars—tenderly taugaphors.

    t,  S in vain, nor t  spectators, God  praise;  Millions of spiritual Creatures : en from teep  Of ec ial voices to t air,  Sole, or responsive eaco ote  Singing t Creator...

    t niged to  up and walked away.

    S  my age? I see ill, al of a plane, bending do to prod at a fire, ed towards me as seen.

    A feer, szed ly drunk s most revealed  time w lovers.

    All trying to uneart s look. It seemed to be contempt. So it appeared to me. Noudying me. S, surprised at somet time  te. I ting shan I.

    Sudying me. Succatue-like gaze, somet would give her away.

    Give me a map and I’ll build you a city. Give me a pencil and I  cs on t o ttlements along terranean coast—Gazala, tobruk, Mersa Matru ted  ried to lose ourselves in. “My task is to describe briefly tions er take us back to t as it existed t is to ot Kensington Gore. But you do not find adultery in tes of ty. Our room never appears in tailed reports  of ory.

    In treet of imported parrots in Cairo one is ored by almost articulate birds. tle in roe palanquins across ts. Forty-day journeys, after t by slaves or picked like floorial gardens and to enter t is trade. tship.

    e stood among ty t o her.

    ouc t.

    “If I gave you my life, you . ouldn’t you?” I didn’t say anything.

 V Katharine

    t tIME she dreamed of him she woke up beside her husband screaming.

    In tared doo t, mout his hand on her back.

    “Nig er?” “Yes.” S move. ouldn’t lie back into t zone they had been in.

    taken place in touc noimes s  anger, a lack of interest, irritation at a married hem.

    t over like animals, and o breathin her arousal.

    s lift  t ed er, some coming down o omach.

    ime to t snessed, so a quick deep sleep.

    t  recognition. S sometime during t day, but so nestle s significance for long, dismissed it; it al collision on a crowded nighing more.

    A year later t one of t ed for to so violence.

    tempt you? toer another series of dreams.

    er it y. Propinquity in t. It does t y of er, ty of ting knee beside truck, t you ime to look everyhings around you.

    alked like t sed e, ing to slap o slap  terns. You fell into propinquity or distance. Just as, for ories in us clarified all societies. ially left years earlier, struggling ever since to explore a ed .

    At Cairo aerodrome t into taying on to crol lines of t t morning. Madox  off to one of to send a oo get drunk, t at Madame Badin’s Opera Casino, and later to disappear into treets beel. o just climb into truck t morning, hung over.

    So o toraffic bad and slohe hour.

    “It’s so . I need a beer. Do you  one?” “No, I o arrange for a lot of t couple of o excuse me.” “t’s all rig  to interfere.” “I’ll ?” “About t.” “I . traffic got oo many carts, too many pedestrians s.  soutoel,  beyond the barracks.

    “You’re going to find Zerzura time, aren’t you.” “I’m going to find it time.”  alled for more tes in one spot.

    At tel e. o pretend tesy, graciousness. It reminded o  o  to see him again.

    of t to carry it into the lobby.

    “ake t.”   t out of t.

    to take t s to carry it,” and s ion.

    t turned to  of her.

    “So. Good-bye. Good luck.” “Yes. I’ll look after t, stood in it.

    to  for a moment o embrace ead   arm for in a gesture across ouch of hisdamp forearm.

    “Good-bye.” o truck. S no by a blade ed.

    S onto  o me I  lie about it. If I make love to you I  lie about it.” S , as if se t part of herself which has broken free.

    “ do you e most?” he asks.

    “A lie. And you?” “Oo below his eye. She dresses and leaves.

    Eacurn  t so muc t about ticed before, the beginning of grey in his sandy hair.

    looked at  was a long eyebrow.

    Nothing can keep him from her.

    in t s ered plum gardens. S ure, whis much greenery feels like a carnival.

    From Groppi Park t into ty, Souts empts at furnisill a sense of base camp to ers.

    texts and European ories beside eactempt to recognize ec us to tab al Kanuz,  caravan. And too too timate excory, of scar, of manner of kiss.

    “I don’t knoo do. I don’t knoo do!  of wounds.

    t russet leading to broe ss contents aside, and broke across o traered ts bite marks tor suspected were caused by a fox.

    ep into an embrace  to see s axi jerking to a  so t  t covered a . Madox  -prone. Sly at tion. Maybe it’s ’s a  a ce?

    It ralis.

    A postcard. Neat ing fills tangle.

    bear not to touch you.

    t of time I feel it doesn’t matter  if I ever see you again. It isn’t ty,  it is how much you can bear.

    No date, no name attached.

    Sometimes  s of ty beginning ts t lie betiful songs of faiter t ansy.

    es and glasses on a restaurant table so s look up someude bet to can  is somet feeds er. t aj, s it out, is replaced aining  of a missing . t continues to flouris dies from some lack or other.

    Kato burn doesy.

    erests s only alking beauty, re of expressions. s te and secret reflection betimate like two pages of a closed book.

    he has been disassembled by her.

    And if s o t  o?

    ells jokes  laug himself.

    Unceristically manic, tacks tory of exploration. . But s even catco everyone, to ts in t, erprets  s, and doubles to protect herself.

    But no your oo, sells  glittering in a beauty  stand. Siful clot laug everyone ements about t in some expedition th.

    te surns ao  of this.

    Not h a wall.

    Sunligo us journal, all tension in t of es  spine. e do. the words in love.

    In tment t only from t beyond it. It falls upon  tion scar  arm. Ss on t of  s of to eache river.

    In to tc. Just river and desert ligo t, stretco bat. Ss toreets.

    “e will never love eacher again.” “I know,” he says.

    t of ence on parting.

    Ss, enclosed errible conscience. o reac. Only o her.

    “Never again. ever and?” tempt to pull hin him.

    An er to a dry nigance from ts . to part before t closes up and people s knohere.

    tanical garden, near ts. Sear and leans for, taking it into aken t ear. ains smoke. All t is alive is ture desire and .   say to t mortal yet.  alter s side ties he world.

    t of ence. ty-eigember. trees already dried by  moonlig one cool drop to fall doing at Groppi Park.  asked if  , across treet.

    all roraveller’s palms above tstretcs. the way her head and hair were above him, when she was his lover.

    No one embrace. ugs urns. Sill to make a point.

    “I just  you to kno miss you yet.” o rying to smile. s tepost.   ices t ted already into t ence. al, is intentional. emple.

    “You will,” she says.

    From t on in our lives, so her find or lose our souls.

    o fall in love and be disassembled.

    I o tion scar. I love trument scratcself, free of her skin, years ago, when she was nine years old, in a school gymnasium.

 VI A Buried Plane

    , eac ter sip off an ampoule and turns to  of morp races in ime and geograpo a two-dimensional s of paper.

    t sky, il t dusk, arcing to colour of t. A unison of performance like a hrown seed.

    In t city in  you could buy anyt came at one pitcle, to terrible leas slipped over t finger of a o you in a cro.

    In t section of Cairo  courtyard of religious students, and beyond it the Khan el Khalili bazaar.

    Above treets s on ted tin roofs en feet to treet and stalls. Above all to minarets, feluccas, cats, tremendous noise. So me of  sleep srellises. Sake -my  at t onto tation at her neck.

    Marc. Madox is irritable because of teen  above sea level and able .  man after all,  on Magna, Somerset, altered all customs and s so y to sea level as well as regular dryness.

    “Madox,   t t.  is it, does it   tc the noon glare.

    “Pull yourself togetters.

    Let me tell you a story,” Caravaggio says to   . In t desert explorers. er  t.  dialects. Does t of Cairo. One o searc oasis. t aking t into Cairo.  I  to tell you is, I tient is not Englis about all ters’s all a perfect background. to name t  nigrange, because I gave ra dose of morp out about eigisriple agent.  aed.” “I kno Zerzura. alked about it. alks about gardens.” “But it is mostly t noairs.” t on t eac’s possible.” “I t herself.

    “I kno  an Englis of tripoli Axis. Rommel’s Rebecca spy—” “ do you mean, ‘Rebecca spy’?” “In  t a spy called Eppler into Cairo before ttle of El Alamein. o send messages back to Rommel on troop movements. Listen, tiselligence. Even I read it.” “You read a book?” “t into Cairo on Rommel’s personal orders—from tripoli all to Cairo— Ladislaus de Almasy. tretc t, it was assumed, no one could cross.

    “Bet explorers. But he Germans.

    Rommel asked o take Eppler across t into Cairo because it would oo obvious by plane or parace.

    o ta.” “You kno about tracking t men into t. to keep digging trucks out of to and its granite plateau so t er, take ser in t ings t teau  use truck out into t again. tisrol dumps to fill up tanks. In tco Britisises on tted from tely still.

    Baking to deathe sand.

    “It took to reac  urned and  back into t alone. e t again, back toripoli. But t  time isually and used to feed false information to Rommel about El Alamein.” “I still don’t believe it, David.” “tcly.” “Maybe  t at first.  lover as  t Almasy  someone  to sco as t on tc doesn’t matter o talk alking it out. Botand? to see oo obsessed. It doesn’t matter ail. Morped it at Brompton al in London for tients. Don’t   kill  absorbs fast into t it toget .

    Give . t raigcting on t stages of t ubes of morpoote tubes for dolls, s terly quaint. Caravaggio carried t all day long, slipping to umbled on ing from its excess, croucried speaking ared back. al supply box, torn it open  strengt open te, Caravaggio broke tip off eet to t it was. Kip pushing him away, glaring in anger.

    “Leave ient.” “I  damage ake aON COCKtAIL.

    : P.M.)  Caravaggio slips t of the man’s hands.

    “— someone. In late August. Nineteen forty-t  by t armies.” “t?” “Give me tispiece of Kirn ted line for took. It s a portion of India—a darkly cross-can, and Kasains.

    races ill it enters t °o’ latitude. inues sliding , off to ; ouches his rib.

    “ nortropic of Cancer. On tian-Libyan border.”   happened in ?

    I o Cairo and urning from tting trol and er, driving to. It  I ruck exploded and I capsized, rolling automatically into t ing a spark to touc one is alened of fire.

    truck exploded, probably sabotaged. tinued to drift like cities, carrying spice, rooms, government advisors  any given moment among there were Englishmen as well as Germans.

    Leaving truck, I started o, where was a buried plane.

    ait.  do you mean, a buried plane?

    Madox o tials—tra” , crucial for desert fligimes in t augo fly, ture t he wind.

    on’s plane—Rupert—fleo our midst, t arpaulin, pegged do alcoves of U. Sand collected over it gradually for t few years.

    None of us t  again. It im of t. it gully and see no contour of it. By noon’s plane, ten years younger, o our story.

    So you o?

    Yes. Four nig turned back into t. Everywhere was war.

    Suddenly teams.” tin Pas various times saved eac up into camps.

    I o. I got t noon and climbed up into teau. Above the well named Ain Dua.

    “Caravaggio thinks he knows who you are,” hana said.

    thing.

    “ Engliselligence out of Cairo and Italy for a  of tors, like some of t Caravaggio  like t.

    oo curious and generous to be a successful tole never came  Engliscillness as s appeared t  listening carefully to  ton looked and t alking.

    o ter. ed from ts of  of t, tlefield, and  naked into the cave.

    ings tle. takable posture of s t lake. o to t ill there.

    So a corner, ige material. o return for her.

    o die in a cave, s privacy, t in them.

    old  in Asian gardens you could look at rock and imagine er, you could gaze at a still pool and believe it  sness, rellis and  emporary. So love its sternness because of ing to understand  in its solitude. Seaming ness, climbing back in from  rainy nigting on ill , in order to  all. Just as sraditions and courteous ceremony and old memorized poems. Sed to die  a name. For o ors t actile, y in himself.

    Sioned the mediaeval dead lie.

    I approacing to undress ill ing to love her.

    is terrible in  ive for it. You can make love to a  on my asted and sranslate properly into anotation of intimacy the living.

    I lifted o my arms from turbed all t.

    I carried  into ttle from t in tones.

    My linked o rest on. As soon as I reacled . I o ion of t, fingers like starfish.

    e moved like to gully, ank of petrol I ruck. Because tent  it.

    “ hree years earlier?” “She had been injured. In

    even lovers at time. I suppose information of trickled doo oo o take o save o try and reacer all tion and anger, together had believed in.

    In tanical garden s tepost in determination and fury. too proud to be a lover, a secret. tments in urned back to  miss you yet.

    You will.

    During tion ter and self-sufficient.  stand o er in t tempted everyone. to trust nothing.

    ed serpreted ure to ot of Roundell’s jacket once in a lobby and s, laug tered somet government aide for to see if t trust  endearments to

    stand even entative smiles at  drink it. If at a dinner sed to a boing in it  look at it. Just anotimates t excluded o t muc love and ure.

    pale brote papers and glued to sections of tories t recorded  erest to e do o tcener, t days before t time to to clear out to pick il to love eacher.

    Clifton fle to collect ed day, buzzing t oasis so loled to ts—arpaulin. ted doraigoy yards ahere was no fire.

    A  t of t.

    Only s dead.  out of this grip of her husband.

    e me? salking t. Stered ribs. You errible to me. t’s ill e t about you—disappearing into deserts or bars.

    You left me in Groppi Park.

    Because you didn’t  me as anything else.

    Because you said your  mad.

    Not for a long time. I  mad before op defending yourself. Kiss me and call me by my name.

    t in perfumes, in s, frantic to get under t tongue or a tooter t righer.

    Noalcum on er on high.

    You t, but you’re not. You just move, or replace   sometreat into somet you because I kneill sometimes, so imes, as if test betrayal of yourself o reveal one more incer. In talked. e itudes ay of Kufra.

    ablet into t disappears into th.

    I crossed to robes against t and nigus left beer, in , I o .

    In t tools of survival are underground—troglodyte caves, er sleeping , weapons, a plane.

    At longitude , latitude , I dug dooarpaulin, and Madox’s old plane gradually emerged. It ern over to  for a —starlig, I don’t remember. Everyhere was a war.

    t of tarp so  dig it out but o cut it away.

    In ter t. I started tor and it rolled into life. e moved and too late, into the sky.

    tops. traight ahead in his morphine focus.

    t  above turns as if losing a stitc, noise terrible after o . Acacia and bone. he sky?

    top of a palm and s up, and t, o it.

    t, and t co t beside s  t glass and it  s. Begins punc, finally breaking it, and t were so arms uncoiling around ongue.

    Caravaggio reflected in t. tted plane, tings on tree been? s  of t t tired of living   lie back in rust o stand guard all day all niged not from t but from solitude. Madox gone. translated into leaves and to the sky like a jaw above him.

    o t parace and pivots upside do knoil he realizes he is on fire.

    ient’s room and stands in trying to catc they are saying.

    ?

    onderful! No’s my turn.

    Ahh! Splendid, splendid.

    test of inventions.

    A remarkable find, young man.

    ers sient passing a can of condensed milk back and fort tin aed t  . t imes, managing finally to pull tin ahe dark face.

    “e , for he sapper asks.

    hem.

    Kip peers into t anothe room.

    the bed.

    “Kip and I are boternational bastards—born in one place and co live elseo get back to or get a yet. t’s ogetcabs t, o the bedroom.

    “You must  suck it out t . I learned everyt ever o me t ant .”  hana.

    “One feeds me morp!” urns back to Kip.

    “how long have you been a sapper?” “Five years.

    Mostly in  London.

    taly.

    its.” “eacric.” “t kind of teac must  Miss Morden?” “Yes.” At no point does eittempt to make able in tion. But ss to kno eacher, and how he would describe him.

    “ . Miss Morden, ary, s. Miss Morden ake notes, ed as s ruments.  man. trinity. them, in

    At Erit t t up so t is against a painted buso interpret.

    Some men  knot of life in oo discover tona stes to topped inued ies o emotionally disturbed tons.

    Sc tral look on .

 VII In Situ

    EStBURY, ENGLAND, KIRPAL SINGOOD  first ood on to t see but wcch arms up and swaying.

    to t o teness of to the hill.

    No signalled . to t  out in t Sings scuffing te che slope.

    Miss Morden, becopped ten feet above t s sebooks.

    “Can you hear me?” he asked.

    “Yes, it’s fine.” So  and adjusted o tance and, as Singo t see.

    Sing t Englis of ime  in a barracks at oolo a question in teen, but conversations ed only tences.

    son o t brotor, a broter t radition in  all t  ander t monteered o a unit of engineers t  up to deal ion and unex-ploded bombs. ty of t ted by A.R.P. o convenient dumps, e t  until  t took over responsibility for bomb disposal, and turn,  over to ty-five bomb disposal units  up. tec and ools. ts.

    A bomb is a combination of ts:

    A container or bomb case.

    . Afuze.

    . An initiating charge, or gaine.

    . A main charge of high explosive.

    . Superstructionalfittings—fins, lifting lugs, kopfrings, etc.

    Eig of bombs dropped by airplanes over Britain o a tan.”  Singer long days of training, s still in ered til hen he was suddenly awake.

    a target, tance caused a trembler to activate and ignite t in te explosion o te o detonate. t off turn caused tNt, amatol and aluminized poo explode. trembler to explosion lasted a microsecond.

    t dangerous bombs itudes, ivated until ties and fields and remained dormant until trembler contacts urbed—by a farmer’s stick, a car  they would explode.

    Singeers to tment in oole in bomb disposal units ate of siege, it got worse.

    By August tz o be dealt h.

    Roads ories deserted. By September t up, but till no understanding of ancy in ts en weeks.

    “t led to taking of fantastic risks.... It s remained obscure, since tions  from ty. It o publiss t migo estimate ty to deal o estbury, Sing in front s s  niger over t sidelig te t anotoric location— in tomac o the rolling chalk hills in

    Sly after t, all ts pegged do to protect top them being obvious landmarks for bombing raids over England.

    From t Lord Suffolk cted about tion of robins from tory of bomb disposal, Devon cream. roducing toms of England to t ly discovered culture. In spite of being Lord Suffolk il  udy of Lorna Doone and ic torically and geograp ers  puttering around ties t Exmoor ion for bomb-disposal training. ts from various units, sappers and engineers, and Sing of t Riced around t on o Ex-moor, raining during tero t during  back door... s rigo her shoulder.

    Splendid s, actually, to to Sing sounded like a familiar Indian fable.

    Lord Suffolk’s closest friend in tor y but loved Lord Suffolk. t sing togettage in Countisbury on a cliff t overlooked tol Cs exotica described by Lord Suffolk. “t place to buy blackticks.” As if Singepping into tudor corner store in urban to c casually  canes. Lord Suffolk  of ter told isbury and reat, called y years old, married but essentially bacer, o visit or friend. o fix tubs and plumbing generators and cooking spits run by a eror, collect information on ts of badgers.

    to t estbury e and information. Even in ime  place to stop for tea.  into Pamela’s tea Room,  ton, and sary, ctee to allo up al bomb disposal outfit no one  ions ions t. odidact, and ives and spirit beion. ely invented t s, o be stored easily by a working sapper.

    tea and ed for scones, discussing tu defusing of bombs.

    “I trust you, Mr. Sing, don’t you?” “Yes, sir.” Sing real gentleman  in England.

    “You knorust you to do as o take notes. Mr. s  or more strengtle and  advise but ands perfectly. If  do somet means ake  you otal auty on te. ol. ticated no you never kno t ing a delayed-action fuze by pulling out  ting t of troduced a ne.

    Kirpal Sing it. So far, ime during taken place in tream of tepped out of England and planned never to step out of Countisbury once the war ended.

    Singanced from y-one years old.  no one but soldiers. So t eers al bomb squad, even t in a ake control, and ter cy or an individual.

    s, and Lord Suffolk e. Fifteen of to a library and asked by tary to . S t names, ervieest.

    o a ared at a barometer,  to touc but pulled back, just putting o it. Very Dry to Fair to Stormy. tered to ion. “ery dry. Very dry.”  t tary. Scernly. An Indian boy. oouc one point  o a volume called Raymond, or Life and Death by Sir Oliver hodge.

    itle. Pierre, or ties. urned and caug as guilty as if  t. Surban before. t you to fig  talk to you. Singies.

    t a very y Lord Suffolk during lunced it, and laug every attempt at a joke by ts. In ternoon trange exam in  back toget any prior information of   t of time inventing ots t could be made from ts. ted easily if it  for ry raits. Cars royed. Parts of ted into a se of a Ford was reupered and became a sofa.

    Most people in o carry a spanner or scre parts tered a grandfation pulley or tidotes to mecer   by scooping up coting it around t  of parts t inent of India going for two hundred years.

    s selected by Lord Suffolk. t even spoken to  laug joked)  ary turned out to be Miss Morden, and sled in ray t  drink,” took to ulations, your exam ook it.” “Miss Morden is a splendid judge of cer. Ser.” “Cer, sir?” “Yes. It is not really necessary, of course, but o be ogeted you.” “I found it quite a strain being unable to  you, Mr. Singo the window.

    “I t, as  o begin till t o  to knoo a family, after a year abroad, as if urned, offered a c table, embraced ions.

    It  dark o Devon on tal road overlooking tol Cs turned do lighree miles long.

    Apart from trinity of Suffolk, Morden and s, t. tone cottage over trix for turday-nig told Singo fly overland to India. Removed from ion. til it toucisbury and Area. Mapped by R. Fones. Drawn by desire of Mr. James halliday.

    “Drawn by desire

    ..” o love the English.

    tent ing as Lord Suffolk attempted to dismantle it. It also killed Mr. Fred s and Miss Morden and four sappers Lord Suffolk raining.

    May

    Sing for a year.  day enant Blackler, clearing t and Castle area of a Satan bomb. toget defusing ted. ing in ion and  . It probably meant t er ten at nigired. ting for urned back to work.

    an o save time and o one of t first urned aing to leave.

    “Yes. ?” took  enant Blackler  enant Blackler put his hands on Singh’s shoulders and gripped him.

    o Erit tating about asking   to tell er all. It meant ty, probably to find out w had gone wrong.

    ed to do tenant Blackler ay in London. t t of t, and it  meant ted to do togeto be a base of logic. You o share and compromise decisions.

    everytions during t drive. to keep ill o be alive. Miss Morden drinking one large and stiff o to drink more slo of t drink, Mr. Sing if you did, you’d do w I do.

    One full o meet in ill drinking, and Lord Suffolk ill nibbling at his Kipling cakes.

    t looked like t by rote. tered sometrick, ttle descant, and taug to t of ts. t a neage now.

    ook no one  o remember eacep. t  ed  till t morning, but o do it nooo common. If teration to knoired, but ed proper lig just two jeeps.

    . In daylig day, it  it on top of s ill alive in his mind. Exam.

    it ligal jumped into precise focus. No distrust. Lord Suffolk  c seventeen, even teen,  a grand master. But you can never  bridge player at t age. Bridge depends on cer. Your cer and ter of your opponents. You must consider ter of your enemy. true of bomb disposal. It is times for my exam I make t, a mec you o consider t somebody made it.

    torn open in its fall to earterial inside.  co decide or of traption. tificial lig it from every angle. to remove to open t past ttoned ced off te at t t  tell yet. t  kno  riggered. , glad raigurn left or turn rig t t. But ired, and till anger in him.

    knooo long. s,  t, and lifted it ao shake.

    it out. tially  ts tangled fringe of  in t.

    arted to drag toruck, fifty yards a of t along, a ter of a mile a up, making even ts seem subtle and human.

    An officer gave , and urned alone to t. he drink.

    take off  unless it co  at t of impact  die. the bomb.

    o reestabliso its original pattern. o t of t drink. turned and sat do  one-ty in the morning.

    c looked at it  of monocle t ton over and peered at t of otc a clamp might have made.

    Nothing.

    Later ractions. Later, s and moments in  to o burn or bury everyt of t of him.

    tal set and its loud band music er, a tarpaulin to he rain of real life away from him.

    But noion of ligs and Morden and Suffolk  names. o the fuze box.

    o turn ties. turned it al again.  to it so t tle clicks. It came apart in silence. tenderly ed tions from t t tube and peered doo it again.  to lay it on tated and broug back up to t.  iced anyt for t. And  about t if  looking for ten or look. ilted tube carefully, and t slipped doo o foil any attempt at defusing.

    toor  out and set it beside ts on t back to the jeep.

    “ttered. “I o pull out t a call in to ers and find out if t up a loose bencs to be trained on it.  dos and placed t apart along t benc a featance some soldiers ill emptying out te does and ion for to an officer.  fully understand it, of course, but tion.

    enters a room s of information. But  everyt Singo all bombs of ty across ty of London. y, somet Lord Suffolk carried er at all times. It  later created to block so muc ed in t uncomfortable in tions.  capable only of reconnaissance, of locating a solution. y of to o and reenlisted into troopsoalian campaign.  just for bombs but for building bridges, clearing debris, setting up tracks for armoured rail ve of t. In a year t ten, Lieutenant Blackler being to rise in talent.

    But t nig Leained, more ted to be the replacing vision.

    ill standing at truck  meant turning off ts. ity seconds metallic ligruck. Anots could be doused y petrol can facing ts er ts.

    cening, ing for to click. t, fifty yards aer, could order anyt of sand, a fruit pie for  cross an uncroo speak y range to  of clot   like it. omed to y. In England o prefer t.

    ter  just by alian campaign. It  of t up defences of cer against all t, trusting only t t nigtaco  influenced all around  alent.

    A feer o Italy, eaco a knapsack, t t on  leave during Cmas. Lord Suffolk and Miss Morden o take o an Englised Peter Pan, and t o a screaming cent oaly.

    Revealing  or qualities of er ure. Just as urn and inquire of  deepest motive caused tionsrengt for trange Englising at table c and laugo tage, returning to teacoo.

    In t darkness of Eritop s of sand.  in t so o ticking mecill timing trying to he German bombers above him.

    t ing for er exactly one imer tripped and the percussion cap exploded.

    Removing triker t activated t  to explode sixty minutes later—long after a sapper would normally he bomb was safely defused.

    tion of Allied bomb disposal. From noion bomb  of a second gaine. It o deactivate a bomb by simply removing to be neutralized act. Somes, and in  of trap. In tnessed te-green flase. o to make sure.” t t poured into  testing te delay proved to be consistent.

    of t nigo find  remember being driven back.  to a table and began to sketconators, to ttack to defuse it. Every arroly, text ten out clear taught.

    before rue. o defuse sucu  just blo up. e out everyt s. At ttom e: Dra Lieutenant Kirpal Singh,  May

    -out, crazily, after Suffolk’s deatering fast, ec’s Park enant Blackler and ts, ions, blueprinting eac came in.

    In t torate of Scientific Researcirely.

    Ignore t principle,  . t  ternative  tract t. t be solved by embracing it. t enant Blackler’s line. “If you are in a room  talk to it.” An offoement from anot touc all.” Once t, someone  tion in a eam sterilizer. One could cut a o tion of steam and drained a solved t for time being. But by to Italy.

    “ticed t? Just as to our bodies wyard.

    “treet into t into tyard as ed. e or cleared or rejected our bodies ruments, explored our necks h his hands.

    tongs slid out of Dettol and picked up parts of our skin.

    “ted filled up tyard. ts ten onto our skin er, in ter a brief interviees tied around our necks. Our , standard of education, dental condition and   suited for.

    “I did not feel insulted by to t, and ure  scate and mock. You understand, of course, I   t I ed confrontation. It didn’t stop me doing o. Quite early on I o t life. I didn’t argue  cycle over a certain bridge or te in t—I just stood till, until I  t. Like a er. You understand? t is tles taught me.

    “But to me my brotream of atus as firebrand. I nessed ion t came after eacest, o respond to t or t laion of our family and refused, in spite of being t broto join to agree to any situation heir jails.

    In tral Prison. Later tnagar jail. Lying back on  at niger, broken by o protect o stop rying to escape. In jail  insulted , no longer to be a doctor,  laug a message to be careful. o  me or  I rick of survival, of being able to  places.” ting on ter in tcalking  on ,  tient s to see you, boyo.” “Okay, boyo.” ter,  slipping over into the false elsh of Caravaggio.

    “My fat I t  beside ial to  as a pair of spectacles or a glass of er during a meal. In t ering   to ill alive?” “O ters for some time. And it is likely t my brotill in jail.”  e  on te dust of it sion, raig for t time s ty yards above aking notes on che glasses.

    lifts, ttles on everytraption, so o blo off tinually to see tails. It is  in tunic. ting ing s beo . All ts fill ts across . ired, citively. op er not, Miss Morden.” “Of course I can.” tons on  pockets and lays a cloto te s next to cents of a small bottle of eau de cologne and passes it to  to refresakes it tentatively and at ion dabs s. Sea. S strips of Kipling cake.

    So be in no o go back up to safety. And it o remind  surn. Salks about tc and t t at least totaco. Sory about  Lord Suffolk. Not a  tinually rereads trying to find a connection betences. S of tex of tc surns to ion on t above tbury   see clearly enougo  of eau de cologne.  once as a c onto his body.

 VIII The Holy Forest

    KIP ALKS OUt of t  of .

    s o of ecting ts errace, and akes  against o .

    Surns back into t in front of cairs.

    tient turns to face ouc   leaves o te s, it begins to make trek toance of t of  redness against w seems like volcanic flesh.

    In ter by Caravaggio o  reac, and c in his hand.

    Caravaggio glances doo see t all through his cheeks.

    hinks suddenly he owes him a life.

    Kip begins to laug of the box of wires.

    Caravaggio  oronto street Caravaggio  out of a taxi and  Indian o get into it, and hen.

    No laugo t tohe ceiling.

    “I kno sarongs.” Caravaggio oronto I met t turned out to belong to an Indian family. to sleep in, and it intrigued me. e s to talk about and tually persuaded me to try it. I removed my clotepped into one, and tely set upon me and co t.” “Is t a true story?” She grinned.

    “One of many!” S o almost believe it. Caravaggio antly diverted by t during burglar-ies. Breaking into a mas, iced t calendar  been opened up to te to s left alone in orically discussing meals en greeted by turned to the scene of a crime.

    S of t random pulls out a book. Sions in a book of poetry and begins to e there.

    city. London is a recent tory.  gunpoeentury, court paintings recorded fireworks displays.

    mucaller timate smile up close t can c. A tougo ure  ss. But  is more rambunctious ts. Remember “I’ll rees—named for saints and emperors or wo.

    the word bungalow comes from Bengali.

    At four in ternoon to t in a il -deep in ter, o tip ten feet s nose sunk into t.

    Beneater al casing, mucired ruts at so stop mud collapsing in around  around t up t arted coming in; this was his second one.

    It  to immunize it. It o get a firm er.  s—ter t of it could break his ankles.

    c tal casing, trying to to rating on touc reaco ty-foot pit and fell on t  any moment, remored, ell anyone  murmur or a stroke reet innocently in front of you.

    toc t o insert tools into ts of unic. o te—  t Buckingop doh Mice.

    . topped to taped to tal. No again.

    ttle space beture already. If en minutes. Noand tures in an enclosed space. Captain Carlyle

    into flames. t fast, already unconscious in his harness.

    Road?

    Kip dipped cotton o ter and touc to t t meant o  longer. ton uck, it meant enougo the cup.

    t  in radius noes.  taped onto t er t morning in te kit sent to all bomb disposal units.

    hen is explosion reasonably permissible?

    If a man’s life could be capitalized as X, t Y, and timated damage from explosion at V, t contend t if V is less t if V over Y is greater ttempt so avoid explosion in situ.

    e suchings?

    inued feeding in t s, just to ,  h oxygen.

    (o cure ried tton ime it froze on.

    ty minutes. After t ttery temperature  for noo remove it.

    o detect any rips in tal. tion  oxygen could ignite if it came into contact o use liquid nitrogen.

    “It’s a top of t.

    “type-marked fifty, in a circle, B. ts, most likely. But  armed.

    Okay?” t time.

    “Put me on a microp back.” “Okay, sir.”Kip smiled. en years younger t  in tal discipline. tation by to call   out loud and entically.

    noo prise out tteries inert.

    “Can you le.... Okay, I . A last topping up  it bubble for ty seconds. tart. Fres. Okay, I’m going to remove tening to everyt in case somet  person ernatives.

    “I’m using ter key.”  out of  pocket. It   moved easily and old hardy.

    “t Buckingled. ing ring and let to ter.  . It ake anotes.

    “Alice is marrying one of terrible  out loud, trying to get more o  painfully cold.  trying to lean back far enougal in front of o keep moving o till o free t. It  to get t to grip the head.

    to ely.

    “rong, alk back to me, okay? t get to it. t at?”  above   o t.

    “Six more minutes of frost.” “Come up and  up.” “No, pass me doer being placed in it.

    “I’m going to dribble to ted—t into tal. Cill I can grip somet back noalk it t er. ed for t to appear and to sal off ed and c of , placed it betal and t, cs. t y against a spark.   as tteries.  cutting sideo tal around t fuze  off in layers,  t doly t t flashe gaine.

    It took five more minutes.  moved from top of t, instead ime left in t in trut area, and ter temperature to al.

    t dare cact of t quivering like a silver tendril. If . ried to rub o his hands.

    , ill for a fe tact in t of ts. the bomb was dead.

    “Fuze out. Gaine off. Kiss me.” rying to clip on ter;   igo traps still taco feel  corpse out of a bog.  rising out of ter. ed out of t into t, orso.

    epee of poles t aneously, letting c ty yards aoo close, far too close, for safety; troyed. But of course  been to keep them back.

    tcly, to o o t—tools and canisters and blankets and truments still o t.

    “I can’t o t.” t pausing, to go past taring faces unic, c didn’t recognize or ackno. Just stepping back to give  tarted s stand to lift ages, into t.

    , Kip slorousers and  too cold and tired even to unscre tea on t beside : I  even frig angry—ake, or ty t ting just to protect myself.

    Only hardy, he realized, keeps me human now.

    day at t o remove ty of lice, and ter. Lying back, , eyes closed against ture, looking more like a corpse from a myts beside imes alk about her in jail.

    up and flip o rub t o civilisation. s and sern and visionary, pausing only in times of sunligo be godless, informal, able so tra. Alt years of war assumed Englisiful son.

    “A my brotrusting turns to  in ill not a free continent, and  o Englis is a battle of opinion alized by t my brot. ing for independence.” Surns a darkness of to sit he Englishman.

    At nigs ellation, tors against  beturns of sleep. S and ribbons. As  pours. Sie it against . As o ness ts of electricity in ent.

    ion to terrace   of ion to t. tc in terms of t gataly  tried to see everyt emporary and human.

    t  sion of c thing safe is himself.

    ree s one sick brancoo ree. It stood in Lord Suffolk’s garden on tol Cinel. In spite of sucy ure  .

    urban outside in  at trees. But ices t  tens  if s colour o adore , so say.  if s t tently at eyes but not register  or stomac texture more taste or specific object.

    a mout eyes and t seems to er depending on t of a room, te of ty or smugness or any ot on trum of cer. For  intricate aspect effaces.  an eye reveals. But o callousness, suggest tenderness. One can often misjudge an eye from its reaction to a simple beam of sunlight.

    Everyt of an altering ions t alter ure, even y, te of lifeboats.

    t of rising ing dinner in t available lig te evening to tient, or a lamp o forage any. But ty. to oucips.

    “No more ligo  of leaping doairs one o be stopped. S travelling tting turning Caravaggio in tomach.

    S tennis stoned at t, ttoned as  disorder.

    On t from tced cyard. Four  let you into  at one time must ed room. tyard reminded o reveal pressed floo be glanced at during passing, never entered.

    It wo a.m.

    Eacered t doorrance by ty-six steps and  tyard. As epped into tc into an alcove at c level ed. tron of tal. S catc trousers. trapped to c stood turban, t against t tibule like a spear.

    tyard. o tcely sensed t it and tied it o table. curned to tyard. icks leaning against it. ered and closed t t moment snaking  to prop ticks up against to t do the can of condensed milk.

    Sed someto turned on t on  stretco unseen s above  could reveal itself to anyone in to see tside. S, searcly Italian books for t s to tient. So love talian spines, tispieces, tipped-in colour illustrations issue, too fast, as if breaking some minute unseen series of bones. Serhouse of Parma.

    “If I ever get out of my difficulties,” o Clelia, “I s to tiful pictures at Parma, and to remember t at t seemed t  arm ing redness onto  tton of s puffed sleeve at her shoulder.

    of the well.

    t diameter of ligo blackness, so it felt to Caravaggio t tucked t arm. As shers disappeared.

    Sood ter,  in Europe s

    come to tic face,  seemed cold,  during t toion. Years before, ried to imagine  but ed someone ies moulded out of y. Not tranger hing he had provided.

    Sed to t some point later sening, and quickly sc.

    as sy   on for a moment and t off again.

    to be in movement but Caravaggio.  all around  touco toraig around  glared o o still  t emerged into t, moved past Caravaggio’s face and stepped onto the boy’s neck beside him.

    Anot  on.

    “Got you. Got you.” t tline of . S, “I got you,  got you. I used Caravaggio—o s already all over o struggle out. t from boto climb and cra of terror. Confess. to calm  tening, excited at ture.  of t saying a  the room.

    tions o , and in to s o o est? Condensed milk?” Ss   of it, tasting   to see you.”  goes on and reaked , ion. owards him.

    s o to lean, puts all  into rusting o come rusting o break t in t  of ail of a mantis. till strapped against t of  arm. o t to kiss and lick and taste. oself in tness of her hair.

    t a  is noerritory.  tanding on t ten of  time  of  I got you, I got you,” ss. “I’m t so ts forcs off and is free of , t ancient rain still in it, t and grit on  arms. o  and clicks off . “I o t gesture sly a nod, partly a s.  see urns off  so they are equal in darkness.

    t in lovemaking tion, a  to be fucked. I don’t  to fuck you.  or so   tenderness to comes y. ter all, a mortal age. ted itself only in  sleep ug of .

    All evening  c aug and peace during co sleep it o sleep imate stranger from Sout up ed oo in earlier years, probably knoer of all of tter ts did.

    It ual affection. If Kip  ing love greater ter, side to find suconic intimacy, or at times timacy, of a stranger. e old before  about  question of w.

    Only once did , tood  into ’s room o till, just noo scratc aside and scratcender art,  tent, in , s met in a own.

 IX The Cave of Swimmers

    I PROMISED to tell you how one falls in love.

    A young man named Geoffrey Clifton  a friend at Oxford ed me, got married t day, and ter fleo Cairo. t days of t ory.

    Katon climbed out of ted, for  s, bony knees. In too ardent for t. I liked , messenger, reconnaissance. o advise us ly.  back to Cairo and returned a monter, and it  ter time but ill t on some petrol cans, aring at some constantly flapping tarpaulin, and Clifton o joke  of it, but to .

    After t monted, read constantly, kept more to   t can c o remain a socialite o con could not see it, ion. S t. Salk about U and t oasis, ed doicles.

    I een years older tand. I  stage in life  believe in permanence, in relations span ages. I een years older. But ser.

    So ced.

    altered poned uary outside Cairo? e er t  leave  break tment to us. to Madox and me. e  ory. Our situation.

    Clifton celebrated ty of nessing  ts in tel suite.  breakfast.

    to all t, I didn’t say a imes as cnessing my unspokenexasperation, and ten years earlier from Dako ted t more t me  a fe apart from ty  sumbled onto because of this marriage.

    t not I am a man ten doact of  to repeat someto fling more er into took you a hundred miles.

    Our expedition  forty miles from U, and Madox and I o leave alone on a reconnaissance. tons and to remain be maps  book you look at in tus. A t?” “I don’t presume. If it is private.” “I es . And cuttings. I need it  o you. It is unusual for me to travel  it.” All tesy. I explained it . I o leave  feeling in any  tent imes I appreciate the delicacy of manner.

    e returned a er. Mucerms of findings and piecings togets. tion at ton o celebrate ot ching.

    Ser. “Congratulations, I  out my er er tuff in teens we had been drinking.

    “Geoffrey y for you. ing a song and s me to read a poem, but I  to do sometake t.” I pulled it from my knapsack and  to her.

    After teas Clifton broug a bottle of cognac ill t. ttle o be drunk t nig of our journey, Clifton’s funny song. to read from tories—tory of Candaules and  t story. It is early in ttle to do erested in. But it is of course a famous story. It alk about.

    tely in love  o Gyges, t pleasing to o describe ty of  above all measure.

    “Are you listening, Geoffrey?”  “Yes, my darling.”  o Gyges: “Gyges, I t you do not believe me y of my   men’s ears are less apt of belief trive t eventually I en open us for a clue to geograp Kat as a o ory was, as if shin quicksand while she spoke.

    “I believe indeed t s and I entreat you not to ask of me t  lao do.” But t I am saying to try you, or of my  any o you from rive it so from t t s perceive t sory of ory from us. I eased  reading it to erior motive in tion except for t ory t s familiarity of situation.

    But a patself in real life. Even t conceived it as a first errant step in any way. I am sure.

    “I er I o lie do near trance of ts as sakes to gaze at  full leisure.”  But Gyges is nessed by tands t cry... she holds her peace.

    It is a strange story. Is it not, Caravaggio? ty of a man to t rait of Clifton, but  of tory. t . Somet.

    t day two choices.

    “to you, and I o take. Eit slay Candaules and possess bot yourself  be slain, so t you mayest not in future, by obeying Candaules in all t  die  Gyges in iambic trimeters.  of to dedicate objects at Delpy-eig ill remember ory.

    Sopped reading and looked up. Out of te, I fell in love.

    ords, Caravaggio. they have a power.

    ons  on doing ot, an uncle in some government office. All t at t time ty ion s, meeting at Groppi’s for ts, dancing into t. ty. t I o nohen.

    Dinners, garden parties. Events I  normally erested in but no to because ss until I see .

    o you? it in t of tion for almost a year. I saer, s flooded back into t, noive, t nervous grip of an arm on a cliff, looks t erpreted.

    I  t time seldom in Cairo, t one montment of Egyptology on my oes Explorations dans le Desert Libyque, as to text as if t  emerged from tain pen. And simul-taneously struggled rutautness bee plain of stomace my brief book, seventy pages long, succinct and to t, complete ravel. I o remove o dedicate to o o  I imagined rose  of a bed like a long bo it ed to a king. Believing sucronized by e and embarrassed she head.

    I began to be doubly formal in eristic of my nature. As if a a previously revealed na-kedness. It is a European . It ural for me—ranslated rangely into my text of t—noo step into metal clothing in her presence.

    titute For t to love, One wild rher.

    On ion—s aide Roun-dell and so get urned back to me and said, “I  you to ravisurned. It reet of parrots.

    I sank to my knees in tiled ain of  taste of th.

    e range statue, to unlock our c ts around us.

    as it desire for  boyiso you of gardens.

    t small indentation at  o the Bos-phorus.

    Rest my eye tary stranger. S my neck on a Cairo bus. taking a closed taxi and our quick-ipperary Club. Or t the museum when her hand covered my face.

    As far as o avoid being seen by.

    But Geoffrey Clifton o Canute. t necessarily o Clifton, married only eigy, but it began to encircle t, tem. It kneouce cocel.

    I  ives. And Geoffrey Clifton  as  t Englis  tc ected. Only Madox,   of regimental associations, kne suc convolutions. Only Madox, act,  such a world.

    I carried us, and Madox—a saint in inually rereading tory of romance and deceit. One day, far too late to avoid t in motion, ried to explain Clifton’s erms of Anna Karenina’s broten to this.

    ersburg ions or friends of Oblonsky. o t ones of time ticoats.... Consequently, tributors of this world were all friends of his.

    t pass over one of t  to raise objections or be envious, not to quarrel or take offence, wural kindliness he never did.

    I o love tap of your fingernail on t time  tap of oher lovers.

    omen  everytoo often I  srophobia of hidden love.

    “I to me.

    “I’m not trayer.” “I don’t t t everyte of oo? ould you find anothing.

    “Deny it, damn you.”  Sed  emotions like sticks in er.

    Surned to her husband.

    From t on, sher find or lose our souls.

    Seas move aus disappear and are replaced by estuaries of silt. the wife of Gyges. Libraries burn.

    ionsrayal of ther life?

    So ired to the zinc bars.

    I’ll be looking at t I’ll be seeing you.

    t old us classic.  song again and again, beating to bend to one’s o loss variously. I ting rader. Ser t en things.

    And if Bagnold—ting by trader—broug during dinner at table ? Did it give me some comfort t s, a peoill in it, so tain of gold on .

    ory about me, pariao ter some scene or ot me, and Madox getting up and o a  toion of ty. tion pero otings. ter all.

    But did so togetowards h my hand?

    e eac treaty her.

    “ are you doing?” so me on treet. “Can’t you see you are driving us all mad.” to Madox I ing a  s a . urned to England sings to your Cairo o   more of a deceiver en years, t ry, in any case, to the war.

    And Madox returned to ton Magna, Somerset,  in tion of a c  revolver and s himself.

    I, us of  fortory, t time may not dra Man  into being, nor t and ed by botoget one another.

    Men ers of poetry in t. And Madox—to ty—iful accounts of our traversals and coursings. Bermann bleo te out tude and meditated on  I t of it all. “Do you like t moon?” Madox asked me after en years.  tentatively, as if imacy. For t too cunning to be a lover of t. More like Odysseus. Still, I was. S, as you would sropolis of his childhood.

    ed for t time, Madox used the old farewell.

    “May God make safety your companion.” And I strode aerly unlike eacher.

    Madox said Odysseus never e a imate book. Per alien in t. And my o, ern e caused me to burn doiment, all roric of love. Still, I described t as purely as I  days togeted.  for England, ty of terrupting everytory in t. Good-bye, Odysseus,  fond of Odysseus, less fond of Aeneas, but  t fond of Odysseus either. Good-bye, I said.

    I remember urned back, lauged o t by   urned to on Magna, took only e volume of tolstoy, left all of o me. Our affection left unspoken.

    And Marston Magna in Somerset, s green fields into an aerodrome. t over Artles.  drove o t I do not know.

    Maybe it  noise of fligo er t ted over our silences in Libya and Egypt. Someone’s apestry of companions. I ood ting and temporary vetoes of  y. urned out noo be the enemy.

    alone  us. Small gestures he war.

    It was July

    t a bus from to Yeovil. te for t to find seats to sit separately. er, it ic and  any doubt in its support of t intoned blit battle, blessing t and t to enter tened as t t pistol, bent over and s . ely. A great silence. Desert silence. Planeless silence. t t frozen in a gesture. It s and all faces turn. re aisle, stopped at tered somet  down, her arms enclosing him.

    it? I seem to recall t. No spoiled Madox. t time o my country to ions.

    I loved  locations on a map, and s ences. e calmly and joyfully about our journeys  a dance. Still, ered the man who fell in love while dancing.

    . I never saed t of being  t sliver of emotion. A glance could lead to paragrapnessed a ne among a desert tribe or found a rare palm, it emporary or ancient, Arabic on a mud e in Englisten in c and t as if to toucs possible deeper meanings, to become as intimate as he words.

    al, facing up, for t of morp floods o tin. urn its back to , a citizen of morph him.

    ting ep Club of France.

    Great jazz years. t floated out of tel Claridge on to to Egypt, o t, I took o t you o t.” Courtesy of te Ultraphone Franchise record company.

    the corner.

    During ts in Cairo, monter to a zinc bar for  nig dance. Almasy tempting an old dance step ed called ting Katon into raversing til ras.

    hinks.

    Almasy al series of movements. In t seem to be getting on ables  t nigayed. A bad Egyptian violinist mimicking Step out of control. “to us—tary strangers,” ed ed to dance ? on?” Most pulled back. urned to Clifton’s young   s naked plateau above tango ensued till one of t tep. S back do urning to table. Just staring   solemn but tacking face. tering at  he lyrics of “honeysuckle Rose,” perhaps.

    In Cairo betions no one ever sa or restless. ed t bars at nig in anot. It  noon. ts brus ed ing on stayed in , crying to get up, smoot one time been a man of delicacy.

    It  midnigs t amused, except for tomed to t European. tributaries of silver tle metal droplets  t Almasy in t ial to Almasy’s stomac loosened, not c,  later during a sctisco the floor.

    It ant during suco proceed into t of tellations . tes came later, in t, in t  it may epped on. it of an oasis co the sky.

    Cold nig. s and put it into  trek out, y and plateau. After six days  Cairo or treets or t time, ed into tterns of deep er. ion ies o   and pasted in a map or neo sketcs hem.

    t usually depicted cattle, tus claimed t goddess and traits ly of pregnant women.

    ity never entered   pure zone betances and legend beture and storyteller. Sandford called it geomorpo come to, to be t selves, to be unconscious of ancestry.  from ter mileage and tion. imes a morgana, for .

    o discover   level. Ser from to .  fingers times, so it turns damp and dark. She looks up and sees his eyes are open, and smiles.

    ion, o use bot to  of tongue fluttering at tcs.

    Caravaggio calks. t iodine colour of tings discovered in U. to discover, to divine out of tent except for a moutill amazed at ty of discipline in times in t person, sometimes in till does not admit t he is Almasy.

    “alking, back third person.

    All day to untory out of ravels  catcin, breaks tip off an ampoule .  about all t arm completely. Almasy  a grey singlet, so .

    Eaco tings or to a buried plane or lingers once more  omach.

    Caravaggio picks up tus. urns a page, comes over a dune to discover t, Gebel Kissu.

    ays alongside s. Only desire makes tory errant, flickering like a compass needle. And tory. A mind travelling east and  in torm.

    On ter  open and stretc te so it, grimacing ly into ouc.

    No  to lose, ture tig.

    Sranslated  on makeup. Entering a party, climbing into a bed, sed on blood lipstick, a smear of vermilion over each eye.

    o ting and stole t. t into   of t first day o traditions us in ing and ever ernal—a colourful fluid, a song, a rock drawing.

    It e around  one small fire and burned to all t speak directly to  tand? t trol. I mig a caravan or a jeep, us and placed it beside  ember

    of t of t, doo t full of moon.

    o teau and stood there.

    No truck. No plane. No compass. Only moon and one marker from t t located tion of El taj, nort. arted y miles areet of clocks. ater in a skin bag a.

    time  noon,  and tars. t  err as mucy degrees off ed for t of stars, t, ern from a long pole and t of t above tar reader.

    A man  as a camel. t any food. o t  to El taj  abra,  of colocynto get rid of bitterness and t along es and locusts. reet of clocks and alabaster. May God make safety your companion, Madox , ed to ackno noside of t trade and poary despots she world.

    ry, o rock. o t les. ill epped o tain. Mimosa s o ting itself in hollow places.

    taj. reet of mirrors for most of  to tskirts of ttlements, Englisary jeeps surrounded ook  listening to ory of t U, just seventy miles aening in fact to nothing he said.

    “Are you telling me t believe you? No one listened to you?” “No one listened.” “ give t name.” “Yours?” “I gave t—” “ did you say?” hing.

    “ake up!  did you say?” “I said s U, norter. So guide ted  props after t I don’t t pulling spies in out of t. Everyone ed into to. S seventy miles a listen. Some stray Englisfit in El taj. I must  into one and moved by truck. I il I fell off onto treet, still in it. I harine’s name.

    Yelling to ton’s.

    “to truck again. I  anote spy. Just anoternational bastard.”  Caravaggio s to rise and ry, tritus of a  Cara-vaggio s is ter, people of alk   ever, but   get out of t, its arcecture of morpo pull ao El taj.

    to be Almasy o return to  no longer matters whe war.

    But Caravaggio leans forward.

    “I need to kno?” “I need to knoon. t is, if you murdered Clifton, and in so doing killed .”“t Geoffrey Clifton iselligence.  just an innocent Englisrange group in tian-Libyan desert. t re of ill does. till raise tion. And Intelligence kne your affair on didn’t. t ection, ing up ting for you in Cairo, but of course you turned back into t. Later, o Italy, I lost t part of your story. I didn’t kno person I expected to find  Ladislaus de Almasy. Quite ly, I’ve become more fond of you t of tangle of lig ed up Caravaggio’s c and  to tient trait. In muted lig no up, brig in te daylight.

    urned ts back, facing Almasy. ords did not emerge easily from Caravaggio. o t out sometearing s. It  s in t, ory.

    “I can talk al. t mortal yet. In spite of ly distressed   talk about it. Sant from everybody. t o communicate o ask o read to me... Do you realize neity.

    “Do you have a wife?” Almasy asked.

    Caravaggio sat in t, o erase everyt of yout did not come so easily to him any longer.

    “You must talk to me, Caravaggio. Or am I just a book? Someto be read, some creature to be tempted out of a loc full of morpation, pockets of stones.” “t deal during timized. e stole. to advise.

    e could read t more naturally telligence. e created double bluffs. ure of crooks and intellectuals. I , t’s ery, a vacuum on ts. turning your kno into German oo muc El taj in , ’s o the Germans.” Silence.

    “And you still o get back to t?” “Not till I volunteered to take Eppler across t.” “t tell you. to do o Cairo

    ..” “Operation Salaam.” “Yes.  man....  o tell me?” “I o say, roops, travelling  en Rommel’s man into Cairo ?” “ I  to say is t t just discover Eppler in Cairo. t t  let Rommel kno or our sources  till Cairo to capture Eppler.

    “e c. And because Intelligence erested. ted you as o be killed... If you don’t believe me, you left Gialo and it took you ty days. You folloe. You couldn’t get near U because of Allied troops, and you avoided Abu Ballas. times er  like him....

    “Planes supposedly ‘lost’ you, but you racked very carefully. You  the spies.

    Intelligence t you on over t t er you left Cairo in ,  you. to pick you up and kill you in t. But t you.

    t. You must  rational, or er, but t must  journey, not to Cairo.  racking me?” “No, I sao Italy and t you mig moved up t the foliage.

    “I suppose it doesn’t matter,” Almasy murmured.

    “Do you  morpting to place. I e man. It is difficult to realize I elligence. telligence who knew you personally.” “Bagnold probably.” “Yes.” “Very English Englishman.” “Yes.” Caravaggio paused.

    “I o talk to you about one last t o Katon?   before to make you all come to the Gilf Kebir again?

    After Madox left for England.”  I o make one more journey to to pack up t of t U. Our life t not  a year. A self sometic ed be, into seeming innocence of relationsher very much.

    During to go overland to truck. Clifton  of triangle t had grown up among us.

    , I eau. Clifton .

    to land, slipping from t tips its  ligops, it drifts to eartood c and I  of my tent al and ter t silence.

    teau. I arpaulin. Clifton dropped altitude and roared over me, so lo to t and circled, and sigself and came straigoy yards a suddenly tilted and crasarted running to.

    I t o be alone. But o pull , srying to move t of raig o be a mark on  o cus. I pulled  of ton  and carried o to tings itude °o’ on tude °!’. I buried Geoffrey Clifton t night.

    as I a curse upon t raped by  sand? t  it s of Libya. Remove politics, and it is t p  ongue turn a corner. Remember Dido in ts of Libya? A man ser in a dry place....

    I do not believe I entered a cursed land, or t I uation t  to me. Finding tings in tions. Kat. too my knees,  my ribe he sapper.

    Everytaken away from me.

    I stayed  ing for  to bend, for ill mouto speak.

    e me? s everything in me.

    Kat— op defending yourself. Nothing changes you.

    . I could not move out of target of t gaze. I  image sect her, who will never deceive her.

    ties associated ell o jackals—Anubis, Duamutef, ep. tures erlife—as my early g accompanied you, t. All ties in London and Oxford. atc across from you as you did sc Geoffrey Clifton at ts re like some c I am coo, t an age  aside your sp used muc Oxford as an escort. s until I see . t   picking tly beautiful for university life.

    t you find only Geoffrey Clifton. It range old coot I’m e delig your adventure.

    But t of t or Almasy, stood in tctempts at entic small talk, a problem as you bot  even  t  botes.

    At t leave, but you are unable to find one s up. t. te sation of your toes. ting it, as you leave, not even looking at my face.

    I believe t t of our spirit t is orian, a bit of a pedant,  as Clifton mige of  all parts of t be ready for toms must jump in one direction for desire to occur.

    I  for years and I o believe in suc is a place of pockets. trompe ’oeil of time and er. t looks back and one t regards taking. In  o you, and ime is fully discovered it o have been already known.

    me, tired of everyterrible o receive all tecting somet on my  my tongue against t blue eye, a taste of salt. Pollen. I carried t taste to ongue against te across ed time I let teet, tongue o pull it for  too late. I leaned forongue carried to ongue. e touchis way once.

    Notook a breat for tongue tc.

    terrible snarl, violent and intimate, came out of ricity. Sion against ted ure ered  leapt and fell against me. to be less and less lig.

    I knoaug told about a beautiful temptress c to present to you.   animal o o ry—ed it and turned it into a place of war?

    It is important to die in  s of t. So Madox o a c, a place   its ted w .

    urned  pigment. ones and ligo make ernal. t sacred colour. Only ted, no signature of lake, no dark cluster of mountain as tibesti, no lime-green fan he edge of Africa.

    And all tribes, tone of t and saal box or bone can become loved and turn eternal in a prayer. Sucry sers no of. e die containing a ricribes, tastes rees, fears ure, not just to label ourselves on a map like tories, communal books. e are not oaste or experience. All I desired o walk upon suc had no maps.

    I carried Katon into t, he palace of winds.

    Almasy’s face fell to t, staring at nothing—Caravag-gio’s knees perhaps.

    “Do you  some morp you something.”

 X August

    CARAVAGGIO CAME DON tairs to tcable, some turnips ill muddy. t came from a fire ly started. So  eps into t tenseness, so  in ures. Only  remained. Oto o ures.

    turn, realize he room.

    “ t s for too long.

    “alked .” “Is  you t   so. Kip and I are bot people are eccentrics, ric myself. ting someterrace, doesn’t  me out tood up from  te, wiping e forearm.

    “For your birto tell you a small story,” he said.

    S him.

    “Not about Patrick, okay?” “A little about Patrick, mostly about you.” “I still can’t listen to tories, David.” “Fat .” “talk to me   about  iculous. ting in reet at midnigrick  moved like a god in runk filled out and this greyness in him, he was a friendlier human.

    tonig looking foro it. One meal in tables and presented t briefly boiled into a soup. It o be anot meal, not o tairs. ,  into .

    “I can get you off t of tco terrace, one balustrade, .

    It looked to Caravaggio like a string of small electric candles found in dusty c too far in removing th her hands over her face.

    t of  er. ennis s on tone.

    “I kept finding dead she sapper said.

    till didn’t understand. Caravaggio bent over tter of lig  forty.

    “Forty-five,” Kip said, “tury. e ts noo see  , no.

    Caravaggio ed by tartling presence of ttles of red able.  drink any of it. All t iquette book in t and tatoes. o Kip’s and came o table.

    te and drank, ted t on tongues. turning silly in toasts to t forager”—and to tient. toasted eacer. to talk about  alening, sometimes standing up and able, pacing and pacing  all ted to force to, but to range rules about tions iced t. th pink paraffin.

    “e must keep t till midnigalked t th Japan is over, everyone will finally go home,” Kip said.

    “And alk, mostly to Kip.

    tiously approacable and laid its ories about toronto as if it  droy, iced up ts in tened to concerts. But ed in o ure, tories t involved some moment of ed Kip to knoted to Kip as if tials, less and needed no discussion.

    Sies in a book so on t o boil an egg, or t o slip garlic into a lamb. t to be questioned.

    And noold tory of old tempted a version of it. “No, you o sing it out,” said o sing it standing up!” Sood up, pulled ennis so table. ts flickering, almost dying, on table beside .

    “t learn to sing it, Kip. to darkness beyond t, beyond t from tient’s room and into t of ts.

    Kip en during strange moments, sucu soccer matc in t fe, never liked to listen to it. In  ened  tered by t t sixteen but ecentative circle of lig as if it  ever again bring all toget ered by to t of y-first birty-fiftietury. Singing in tired traveller, alone against everytestament. tainty to t all tains of po . Caravaggio realized s of the sapper.

    In tent ts of no talk and nigalk. t  imacy of s on bloion. ifully releases t into taly.

    In tent Kip nestles against o c omac .

    Sent’s darkness, to be y of feat .  quite quick as t  is random around  colour.

    But at nigorpor. S see  seeing  a key to him.

    Every as srange pato be a  is  for ure and o get free.” During ts, travel ry of five rivers. tlej, Jo t gurder  in , desecrated in  and built again immediately. In  gold and marble ook you before morning you  of all t over ter. t lifts to reveal temple in ligs—Ramananda, Nanak and Kabir. Singing is at tre of emple gardens—pomegranates, oranges. temple is a o all. It is t crossed t, to till eleven at night.

    t random, a quotation selected, and for t lifts off to reveal temple, t h unbroken reading.

    Kip ree s priest of temple, is buried. A tree of superstitions, four y years old. “My moto tie a string onto a brancree for a son, and o be blessed rees and magic er all over t. . A fat.

    “I  someone like a fat ssider and so can scroyed by unfairness and t. If shis war.

    In spite of terrible unfairness.  dismantling a bomb t mig any moment, could come  rials around ion and lig se, and at Amritsar’s temple all faite togeto place money or a floo t spread upon t permanent singing.

    S. ure. o enter any of een gates of cer, but s if urn to face e a space around rate. t. Sik at tecical closeness... ?” “Affinity.” “Yes, affinity,  among t of music al set o  a speed t allowed o replace loss.

    t  in  rigepping out eacc sco time. After a fees o torn cypresses, oo.

    Kip rees over  of rangest profession ury ed, a sapper, a military engineer ed and disarmed mines. Eacent, batepped as surroundings, not even entering ty, o to understand. Sy yards from th.

    It   t t and  trict talent. In Siena t mural sy. A feside ty ist’s paint  even ty of art to provide an orcraveller leaving tle. t  during tep from ted scene to. So profugus—fate’s fugitive. S ting o trees.

    to Naples at tober , selecting t from t aly, Kip among ty men o trapped city.

    talian campaign  brilliant and terrible retreats in ory. taken a montook a year. trucks as turbances t signalled land mines or glass mines or sains, partisan bands of Garibaldi communist groups, ed hem.

    taly and in Nort be imagined. At tion,  mines  truer tisruhem elsewhere.

    Mines  of everyty-centimetre galvanized pipes  along military pat in e, metal scraps and nails. Soute into four-gallon petrol cans t could troy armoured cars.

    It  in ties. Bomb disposal units, barely trained, eentober , tled , high-explosive bombs.

    Italy mar-isric, tivated mec from t units rained in. As sappers entered cities trung from trees or ten retaliated by killing ten Italians for every German killed. Some of to be blown up in midair.

    ted Naples on October i,

    During an Allied raid tember, izens side ty. treat bombed trance to tizens to stay underground. A typ. In ttled ser.

    ty sappers o a city of booby traps. tion bombs sealed into tly suspicious of any object placed casually in a room. trusted everytable unless it er tting a pen on a table ion it hicker end facing four o’clock.

    Naples continued as a  for ter tizens in t and typo ty als was one of gs.

    Four days later tral post office bley-t collection of mediaeval records in Europe y archives.

    On tietober, tricity o be restored, a German turned old auties t tion of ty t o t electrical system.

    urned on, ty ed more times, in differing stages of tact and violence—at ties ill uncertain about ime an entire area of ty ed. C dead, t, t out of t of tals, mental patients, priests and monks and nuns out of the abbeys.

    By dusk on tober , , only twelve sappers remained behind.

    tricity o be turned on at t day. None of ty city before, and to be trangest and most disturbing heir lives.

    During torms roll over tuscany. Ligoal or spire t rises up out of turns to to be the mediaeval experience.

    o like sucemporal s. Sance, pausing in o look back too see urn to tinues  curls sloo t and to t. ts on ts, ting tilt, entering t.

    For t ten minutes ake , a clicking on t for now  refresorm.

    If ts to tinues  t.

    In ent  over disappears into tains. A sudden sunligning tent  seems to er t, a flasained po do al set,   turban, dries her around his head.

    torm rolls out of Piedmont to to t. Ligeeples of tableaux reenact tations of teries of toerra-cotta figures carved in ting biblical scenes. t pulled back, t cableau raising toed clouds.

    ted  srees in corms, tning patically minimal compared  s te movement, momentarily lit up, flung ironically against this war.

    to ty. All t to sealed tunnels, descended into se migral generators. to drive a ty is to be turned on.

    A city of ts of to tor, one at till diving—ties most certain destruction y. It is unnerving mostly because of t come from apartment reets. ime comes, o one of ts of Pompeii and  dog frozen in we ash.

    t sapper ligrapped to  arm is turned on as  on trada Carbonara. ed from t searctle to do. Eac it is to be used only for an emergency discovery. It is terrible silence in ty courtyards and tains t makes  tired.

    At one p.m. races oning filled tableau. An angel and a  in a peing, but to be no more revelation.

    ers t corner of terracotta figures painted te s a bedroom self under t oucbone. eps foro teen feet in . Still, for Kip, t is an ined room, and ures t represent some fable about mankind and heaven.

    cs to lie on it, ating only because of ticed ty ligtaco its back beneate of   sleep easily in tage slippers, a set designer’s subtlety, peeking out from under t is about one-forty.

    tens tco a pilloone. Most of  on a mat on trutten accustomed to t. A pallet and an air pillo, ro-po ttress, and lay tive and ail  to sleep on t.

    retc beside too, ices, are larger t of Amazonians slip into tentative rig turn on ty’s electricity, and if o explode  on a final searce and time cartridges. alls  al figures.  of tion.

    erpreting a neoug notice before. te flo oo is a  of ts o tiredness.

    o be sleeping, t e. turban ec of t the neck of Mary.

    At  to be no time ed t comfortable of positions to forget time. So   our surroundings. tableau no t of ts a debate over e. terra-cotta arm a stay of execution, a promise of some great future for t at t of decision, agreement.

    Under t ttaco its back are t bulbs, t in spite of t tricity suddenly ligs  tard fields sed in te afternoon.

    ure, s Kip’s body follo of s it. turned into a stone of silence in t. S August day—s on table in front of hunder.

    Sure not of pain but of o ig s voice among to ays like t and ts up and moves in a diagonal to, enters it, and closes thunder and she sees her arms darken.

    Kip emerges from tent o t eel ball in an arcade game, tairs teps at a time, ronomed, t of s against tical sections of stairs. S along tinues to sit at table in tc of s frozen and sorm light.

    ers tands at t of tient lies. hello, sapper.

    tock is against , its sling braced against riangled arm.

    side?

    Kip looks condemned, separate from turns and fires into tain, and ter explodes dust onto ts back so ts at to sries to control t.

    Put dohe gun, Kip.

    tops er dust in them.

    I sat at t of tened to you, Uncle. t mont, t older people taug knoering it, but in any case passing it beyond me to another.

    I greraditions from my country, but later, more often, from your country. Your fragile  oms and manners and books and prefects and reason someed t of tood for precise beed a teacup ied t in a tie I .

    as it just s gave you suc, as my brotories and printing presses?

    You and ted us. ited t. o ten to w you people have done.

    oal set is at .  and puts tient,  t the door.

    One bomb. ther. hiroshima. Nagasaki.

    oo float intentionally into t. If reets of Asia full of fire. It rolls across cities like a burst map, t  meets tremor of estern wisdom.

    cient, earpening. t moves doo tops breat exact rigo the Enfield rifle. No waver.

    t him.

    Sapper.

    Caravaggio enters tt of to  from t of t, -angle position of to s.

    Kip, talk to me.

    No lig could fall bethe new revealed enemy.

    My brotold me. Never turn your back on Europe. tract makers. trust Europeans,  ting ao happen?

    is it? Jesus, tell us!I’ll leave you to s move again, Caravaggio. All tion from kings and queens and presidents... sucract order. Smell it. Listen to tion in it. In my country, her.

    You don’t know whis man is.

    t un t up tohe man’s eyes.

    Do it, Almasy says.

    tient meet in the world.

    o the sapper.

    Do it, ly.

    Kip ejects tridge and catc as it begins to fall. o ts venom collected. he periphery.

    tugs t of   to the floor.

    Do it, Kip. I don’t  to hear any more.

    o darkness, ahe room.

    t t of rils, fast and on.

    an Englishman.

    American, Frenc care. art bombing truman of t from the English.

    No. Not ake. Of all people he is probably on your side.

    doesn’t matter, hana says.

    Caravaggio sits doting in tal set, till speaking in its underer voice.  bear to turn and look at to. te nation.

    t of t to tinel. In ture, if and  dies, Caravaggio and t t t meant. the Bible.

    t ts, ive for all terrible event emerging out of tion.

    Still nig cries, ted turn. trees rise over ent, still on t. ares into tent. o rivers into reservoirs to avoid flame or  t ever ter to. t bomb carried over t, tohe green archipelago. And released.

    eaten food or drunk er, is unable to s failed ripped tent of all military objects, all bomb disposal equipment, stripped all insignia off urban and combed  and tied it up into a topknot and lay back, sa on tent slo blue of ligo e noises of the air.

    o Asia. eps ao seems, of a city, so vast it lets tness tion around t t  of metal and explosion or if boiling air scoured itself to anyt eat tone bencerrace.  feel e of e everytent, before t evaporated,  out tograp it.  know w he is doing here.

    ands norees in t , untur-banned, a.  line,of  on terrace stone or in ts sleeplessness, standing on t valley of Europe.

    In tanding beside tent. During tc among trees. Eacen alone t niging not and turns and comes toeps onto terrace and disappears.

    In t toarpaulin s and cogs.

    o tting t the wheel.

    Kip.

    hrough her.

    Kip, it’s me.  did ?

    one in front of her.

    So o  , .

    A beating .

    illness doesn’t alter so her knees.

    t can tear itself to opping a few inches from a rain puddle.

    A boy and a girl.

    orcycle from under tarpaulin, Caravaggio leaned for,

    bear t torbike to life and sat on it w ood nearby.

    Singouc t to life.

    o te, Caravaggio ing for  even lift it formally toorbike ubble against  time.  drao to learn o miss you,” Caravaggio said. to the house.

    to life around riump and fine gravel fell arees. t ttle grid at tes, and t of t acked onto treacherous angle.

    o a position of ,  parallel  toucrol tank, al in t resistance.  soutely. to Montevarcoo climb toona.

    ravelling against tion of te no longer tense ary. ook only roads le toance. atic on triump burned under s tear along try roads. tle, all  be slooo and fro like a drunkard, and stage.”  Sol  its smell was released w.

    tootootcebook, including a draing on terrace and urbans, a bottle of starcs leatraps, to be .

    In ts s to do  oucal spile sapping maple sugar out of a tree in ry.

    From ent srait t must ograph in her palm. A Sikh and his family.

    An older broture. Kip beside  years old. “ t  accompanied by a musician.

    S tograprees,  it into the house.

    Eaco a stop, spat into t off . o to tic, t of troops  thern borders.

    o Cortona, tcriumpeps to tatue ed to get closer to t elescope and  too stiff to climb up truction pipes. o enter timacy of a eps, and ted dotered vineyards and  on to Arezzo.

    At Sansepolcro ook a o tains, into t, so o sloo minimal speed. trabaria.  locked t of eness, t a bed beed Urbino ies and towns similar.

    o. Into Gabicce Mare, er, near ue aken. t  day.

    Dear Clara—Dear Maman, Maman is a Frencing cuddles, a personal  can be even sed in public.

    Someting and as eternal as a barge. t, I knoill a canoe. Can ser a creek in seconds. Still independent. Still private. Not a barge responsible for all around you. t letter in years, Clara, and I am not used to ty of t t fealk  used to talking in any  t now.

    t? For a second I forget. But I knoer  ionalize tionalize anything.

    Patrick died in a dove-cot in France. In France in teenteenturies t t his.

    tal line one-t ledge—to stop rats running up t. A sacred place. Like a cing place. Patrick died in a comforting place.

    At five a.m. riumpo life, and t. ill in darkness, still unable to distinguisa beyond to t  route.  came o double ill ahead of him.

    Around ternoon ona,  began to rain and opped to put on a rubber cape. ness. Noer flung onto s from t  think of her.

    , pulled to concentrate. If to be  be aly hrough.

    . It sits on trol tank facing  over ryside t receding palace of strangers on talian . “And my  depart out of t of t of tient sang Isaiao  afternoon o see e  till t into ted room. “Bey captivity, and ly turn and toss to a large country.” o tion ended. Isaiaever o o too.

    t mont of air in front of  t sea in iff, cold, so t from timately, te spray of it as ar, a ation  d t, and t t of deserts from U to hiroshima.

    of to to River. And  arm up o skid.   prepared for to to t underneat along ter dore of tcal around his arms and face.

    in fle, to tled out parallel to ter, self a of t of air.

    torbike and tilled in midair, ted doo ter, tal body bet, jarring a , disappearing, too entering toss to a large country.”  rick end up in a dove-cot, Clara?   tons of   of  of . t I kissed and you kissed. And  and complicated innocence.  unverbal of men, and I am alo like a verbal man around us. e are tionalists, ten lost, uncertain, unspoken.

    and t least been ill t about burning. s?

    it stages of blood and life in ter ed darkness. And  lover or kin.

    I am sick of Europe, Clara.   to come o your small cabin and pink rock in Georgian Bay. I ake a bus up to Parry Sound. And from t to for you, to see tte of you in a canoe coming to rescue me from tered, betraying you. ? ermined?  fooled like us? You t demon for pleasure  bean, t leaf.

    of ter, and he river.

    Caravaggio rand bridge o t villa. tig t of tatue of Demetrius and to tops of trees along o ty arms of the olive.

    eps onto it,  gripping t statue? old ient atues of Demetrius hless.

    Ster and stands up, moves across to close t t moment lig lies like a deep scar alongside tands to ts t.

    Every time tning, rain freezes in t nigo the sky, looks for Caravaggio.

    begins to fall all over o er weighes.

    Ss  of to her hair.

    ts in darkness. In tient’s bedroom t candle burns, still alive in t.

    of sleep, .

    For  sound, and even ligell ts no candle flame to accompany him while he sleeps.

    Around t, a figure at t of  ted onto it per quite discernible in t. ters someted to say, but t bro be so lucky, o speak to the young sapper again.

    ays a, to see if to t brings painless-ness, ill t dies out and ts into o turns around t on  trees.

    o see t slooucurns to . Nothe room.

    Noone of ory skipping over ter, bouncing up so s touche surface again and sinks.

    in e a letter or go one day doo telep, fill out a form and try to contact ry. It is tc grass t triggers o t ient nortor, y. At six p.m. e lab coat. Underneatrousers and a s-sleeved s. s of various kinds—stones, inkpots, a toy truck o keep it from being bloo o t of treet.  ts him.

    ops at a small neigeps into tured.

    And somet tone out of ter and allo to move back ooaly. It ed today. Or tone staireps. eps before he remembered.

    to rigger of memory poned o tal and ran into seven ant patients and administration. Or it migs in the garden.

    And cry. And ions to people around o ce fridge door beram cars. ted gift  only  discern t; all ness is er and to her eyes.

    So o be a certain kind of person. ill likes t about her.

    ness, t t s in t look or t beauty, but t it  it  a present stage of er. It seems every montion are a continuation of tters se to ting no reply, until sopped sending turnedaway by er, he supposed.

    Noo talk urn to t stage t intimate at in tent or in tient’s room, botained turbulent river of space betime,  as fascinated at , o boots are by talian door, tied togethe bed.

    During tcer struggling lery, trying to  table all of toms and s. And auged by o see  in t surprises antly, going beyond even reats dogs on treets, imitating troll, t t t guess ty of expressions at a dog’s disposal.

    And  is not  even ty-four,  found ed. Sness aking risks, and t only sic in t sill remembers t loud to  know well enougo ers o  of my life.

    And so urns and in a regret souc cly passes it into ter, a  tacles.

 Acknowledgements

    ers —exist, and  is important to stress t tory is a fiction and t traits of ters ional, as are some of ts and journeys.

    I o ty, London, for alloo read arcerial and to glean from ten beautifully recorded by ters. I ed a passage from icle “to Darfur” (), describing sandstorms, and I o evoke t of the

    I o acknoion drawn from Dr.

    Ricorical Problems of t” () and R. A. Bagnold’s revie.

    Many books ant to me in my researcley ing truction of bombs and in describing tiss at tart of orld ar II. I ed directly from alicized lines in tu” section) and ual tec ley records. Information found in tient’s notebook on ture of certain son’s es appearing in quotation marks. tion from tory in us’s ories is from translation by G. C. Mc-Cauley (Macmillan). Otations from us use translation (University of Calics on page  is by Cop; talics on page  are from Joon s Paradise Lost; to acknoant books ones of Florence; Leonard Mosley’s t and taly -? and Canada’s Nursing Sisters; ts-Broial India; and tary: tiger Strikes and tiger Kills, publisorate of Public Relations, New Delhi, India, and A Roll of honor.

    to tment at Glendon College, York University, tion, and tropolitan toronto Reference Library.

    I o t me read ters ten from Egypt during ter Margaret at t tional Library of Canada, Ottawa; Anna Jardine; Rodney Dennys; Linda Spalding; Ellen Levine. And Lally Marwah, Douglas LePan, David Young and Donya Peroff.

    Finally a special to Ellen Seligman, Liz Calder and Sonny Mehta.