FOUR
One sultry afternoon, you were waiting for Houriya to return to the car during an outing, when a policeman ordered a two-horse cart to leave the main street immediately, as horse-carts there was expressly forbidden. As it quickly turned onto the side street, the cart emitting a choking gust of dust from its open load of coal. The dust clouded the car windows and you swore at the cart driver who went obliviously on his way.
The coal dust had also infiltrated through the half-open window onto the back seat of the car. The profanities and insults you flung at the driver were fruitless, and didn’t prevent you from needing to clean and polish the car as quickly as possible before Signora Houriya could arrive with one of her friends. She had invited this friend to accompany her to an impo
