sandstorm or for nightfall or shade or a drink of water or five times a day for God, but for goodness.
She had learned posture at the age of four and then how to keep her weight low and her head high, how to put grace in every gesture of her hands, every turn of her head. She had learned the dances of the Berbers and their nomadic relations, the Tuareg, of the Bedouins, of the Indians and Egyptians. There were dances for women and dances for men, dances for weddings, pregnancy and birth, sickness and death.
His dark head was bowed, and she recalled the advice of the Chinese, their remedy for lovesickness. For Omar, she must go home and dance the guedra, not the trance dance but the love dance. And then make love with him.
She did not thank Ben Hall. She said, “You should go.”
Slowly, he rose.
“I’m sorry this happened,” she said.
He nodded, lips tight. Briefly, he spoke in Arabic. He called her sister. He told her he loved her.
He told her goodbye as the Arabs do.
Which was to wish her peace.
THE KNOCKING INTERRUPTED her drowsing. She opened her eyes to light from a day she knew, without looking at the portholes beside her, was gray.
“Dru?”
The pants she’d worn the night before were heaped against the locker. She dragged them on and let her long T-shirt do as a top. Climbed from her berth and crossed the decrepit linoleum in her bare feet. To open the cabin door further and let him in.
She squinted at the object he held up.
And swallowed. “Where did you get that?”
“The hospital. The supermarket doesn’t get their turkey basters for a few weeks.” His cheeks darkened. “I told a nurse that it’s…a home project.”
If he’d blushed like that, no wonder the nurse had parted with the Tomcat catheter.
He murmured, “So…Sabah il-kheyr.” Good morning. “Let’s make a baby.”
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