XXIX
Totò Musumeci raised his eyes in the direction of the desert’s shining sun. He cursed at it. It burned more than sand, penetrating everywhere: underneath the clothes, in the nose, and in the throat. He continued to march regardless of the sweltering heat and the skin moist with sweat that soaked his underwear. It was Aunt Lena who suggested he cover up in layers like the Bedouins. "In the desert, it is important to retain body fluids. It is the only way to survive, especially when the possibility of keeping hydrated enough are few,” she had written in a long letter.
In over two years of going back and forth between the Marmarica and Egypt, he had suffered from dysentery as his fellow officers had, and when he needed to purge it was enough for him to stay a couple of hours in the eve
