FIFTEEN
That day you didn’t attend your rendezvous with Salem, fearing that he would bring his friend with him again, or perhaps someone even more wretched and volatile. You weren’t in the mood to hear more criticisms. You went to sleep early, and woke up to begin your daily driving lesson having come to a decision. If your superiors brought up the rumours of what you had said to Salem and his friend, you would claim that you had been compelled to say it out of concern for the relationship between Italians and Libyans.
Despite Mario’s clowning around and his lust for affairs, which was his way of getting back at Franca, his wife, and despite his confession that he often took whores with him to a safe place in the forest during the day, and that he had no problem with you joining him so l
