'Puzzled'

Episode 32 - A Flight of Fancy

Episode 32 - A Flight of FancyNice – Saint-Tropez, France, 29 December

By the hotel entrance, Mohammed waits for me. Leaning against a Morgan roadster,[1] he smokes a cigarette and stares at the sea.

'I see you have a habit of changing your vehicles ever so often,' I say, coming up to him.

He smiles, puts his cigarette out and holds his hand out to me.

'Good morning.'

'The morning is indeed good. The sea looks especially beautiful today,' I reply, shaking his hand.

'Yes, it is,' he agrees, then opens the door of the roadster and motions me in.

The car smells of leather and some expensive cologne that Mohammed has sprinkled all over himself. He gets into the driver's seat and puts his sunglasses on.

'Do you collect cars?' I ask, studying the chrome custom-made dashboard of his Morgan.

'Oh, no, I drive them,' he replies.

'But, is one car not enough for you to drive?'

'You see, for us, Arabs, car driving is like horse racing. And what kind of a stable is it with just one horse?

'Yes, indeed,’ I say, nodding to my own reflection in his sunglasses.

We come to the motorway. Turning the radio on, Mohammed presses on the gas. The car gives a roar and 'gallops' forward with the double force. Out of the radio a soft French melody is flowing out. It makes me wish for the ‘charming young man’, the snapshot of whom I took during my walk on the beach, not Mohammed to be sitting next to me. I instantly picture him: his hair ruffled by the wind, his locks falling across his eyes. He shakes the locks off, flickers his blue eyes at me, and smiles. Before us, the road spreads out into the horizon, touched by the scarlet sunset. The twilight, falling softly, whispers a promise of tender moments ...

'What are you thinking about?' Mohammed breaks in with a question, 'you know, one of my Russian friends says that if a woman’s silent she has a lot to say.'

'Your friend’s quite right,’ I say with a laugh, 'but, I'm afraid, in this case, what I'm thinking about would be of very little interest to you.'

'Why?' he asks, turning to me, the chocolate glazing of his sunglasses reflecting my smile.

'I'll explain you later,' I respond.

[1] The Morgan Roadster is the latest car model produced by the Morgan Motor Company. It was introduced in 2004 replacing the Morgan Plus 8.