However. I really wasn't a stranger to all this.
I had known poisonous creatures all my life. Just like here, they lurked in the shadows, waiting to strike.
The shadows that hid them an the street were cut from the same blood-hungry darkness.
And just like in my city, we couldn't get home without walking through them.
14
Natani's Lesson
.
The later it became out in the desert night, the
brighter it grew because more and more stars seemed to appear. and those that had appeared were bigger and seemed closer. At one point when we reached the top of a hill, I looked up and felt as if something, some power, could lift me at any moment and send me flying into space as if I had become a rocket.
I was tired, and my throat was dry. My legs ached, especially in the calf muscles, but at that moment. I had a wonderful sense of pleasure. I was truly in Natani's shell. I felt part of all that was around me. There was still no sign of anyone. no lights in the distance, no sounds, no reason to be hopeful. but I had gone beyond panic and anger and found some other place to rest my emotions. It was truly as if I was rising above the hardship and misery.
"Why in hell are you standing there and smiling?" Teal asked as Rabin helped her up and beside me.
I turned to her.
I had become the desert tortoise and she had become the desert rat. It was truly as though Natani were standing there beside me. "I know we're in trouble, but look at how beautiful it is out here," I said.
"Oh, brother. I'll take you to Disneyland as soon as we get home," Teal said. "All expenses paid. You'll stay at the best hotel they have."
"Somehow. I don't think it will be the same thing."
"No. It won't because we'll have the biggest, softest king-size beds, a plush bathroom, and lobster and steak and biz fat rich desserts for dinner, and we'll swim in a magnificent large pool and in our skimpy bikinis drive boys mad with lust and desire."
"Is that what you like to do?" Robin asked
"So do you, so don't put on any goody-goody acts," Teal told her.
I thought they would begin another one of their chatty arguments, but instead. Robin smiled and shrugged.
"Sometimes," she admitted. "Phoebe?"
"I don't even own a bathing suit," I said, "Where would I have used it?"
"As soon as we're out of here. I'm buying you one," Teal vowed.
"And where are you getting all this money for five-star vacations and clothes and travel?" Robin asked.
"I'll blackmail my brother or something, but I'll get it."
"You know if you keep talking like that. Dr Foreman is going to think you're not cured," Robin said.
We all laughed, but then, as we continued to look out into the desert darkness where pockets of thick shadows disguised what lay ahead, our laughter wound down into smiles that faded.
"I don't think we're heading in the right direction," Robin said. "From this perspective, we should be able to see something out there, don't you think?"
"I don't know. Maybe in the morning."
"Are we going to stop and sleep now?" Teal asked. I heard the hope in her voice.
The more we walk now, the less we'll have to do in the heat," I said. "We'll stop midday tomorrow and take another long rest. Maybe we'll find some real shade."