The Puppets of Washington Box-Set 1 (Books 1,2,3 & 4)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16As Friday night rolled around, Talya was ready, packed, and looking forward to their weekend on Bowen Island. Aziz had made sure the batteries of her racing wheels were fully charged and made a reservation with the taxi company to have one of their wheelchair-vans in front of the building’s door at 8:00AM the next day.

That night they went to the Boat House—their favourite restaurant—by the beach and not too far from Talya’s place.

Talya was a changed woman. Still thin and emaciated-looking, her whole demeanour, however, was one of a person who enjoyed life to the fullest. Her long, black dress draped elegantly over her legs, with its long sleeves, hid her scarred arm very nicely and enhanced the white curls surrounding her face. She had put on some make up, although her cheeks had almost returned to their rosy colour already.

Aziz sat down across from her at a table near the picture windows. He couldn’t stop staring at the woman he loved. The past seven months’ ordeal was fading from his memory very quickly. He didn’t want to think about it. Tonight they were closing the book on the Ben Slimane Affair. Or were they?

“I got a call from Fred Gibson last night,” Aziz said when their entrees were on the table.

Talya looked up from her plate, wondering if she wanted to hear this. “And what did the man have to say for himself?”

Aziz smiled. “He was very happy to hear that you’re making good progress and he’s invited us to Ottawa whenever you’re fit to travel.”

Talya dropped her fork. “What for?” she blurted, peering into Aziz’s eyes. “I have no intention whatsoever to travel anywhere near that agency. You can tell him so, next time he calls. And what did you say?”

“Nothing.” Aziz picked up a prawn from his dish and bit on it with gusto. “I mean..., I didn’t say yea or nay. I just told him that travelling was not in the cards for you yet. That’s all.”

Talya grabbed hold of the fork again and stabbed a couple of pieces of calamari on her plate in the same manner a snorkeler would stab a fish for his dinner. “Good! And it won’t be in the cards ever again. I’ll be going back to work next week and if there is any travel to be done, it’ll be to Paris...” It was Aziz’s turn to stop eating. Their eyes locked. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to get involved with the prince again, no, I’m going to get him to fly us down to Bamako to go and pay our respects to Hassan’s father. The man deserves that much from Khalid and from me. His son died because of us, and going to see him is long overdue. Besides, I want to see for myself what’s been done with the Kankoon permit and have a nice long visit with Chantal.”

Aziz didn’t know what to say. He had known Talya wouldn’t have forgotten the events of the past year and knew that she would have wanted to return to Africa someday, but he tried to put that thought out of his mind. He couldn’t accept seeing her leaving for a continent that was at the origin of all that happened to her. The only solace he took in the whole idea was that Talya proposed to visit Chantal Gauthier. He had never met the woman, but from what Talya explained after her return, she had always steered her in the right direction and hadn’t taken no for an answer when it came to protecting Talya from making unwise decisions.

The troubled lines of his face finally receding into a happier expression, Aziz nodded. “But let’s get to Bowen Island first, shall we?”

Not really knowing what came over her, Talya giggled and began tittering uncontrollably. The contagious laughter soon took hold of Aziz and he started chuckling. The two of them had tacitly decided to leave the past behind, for a while anyway.