Читать книгу Rayan - Son of the Desert - Indira Jackson - Страница 23

Whenever Rayan had some free time, he loved watching the soldiers on their exercises, especially the combat and weapon training.

He watched attentively in order to memorize as much as possible. Secretly, when he was unobserved, he mirrored what he had seen. As he had been trained by his father and the other warriors since he was very little, in all kinds of fighting techniques and weaponry, it was easy for him to learn the major part of the exercises just from watching. Then later he repeated them until the movements grew natural to him.

When it came to the weapons themselves, he had to manage with substitutes like sticks or stones. It was forbidden for native people to touch the weapons or to officially participate in the education.

From time to time the soldiers would make sarcastic comments, saying "look there is our little spy again, most likely he works for the sheikhs“ and "are you paying enough attention to see how it works?“ – "would you like to participate?“. There was one of them that even said to his comrades: "just wait a couple of weeks, then HE will show you how to do it right.“ And all of them were laughing loudly because they thought that was the most funny remark of them all.

In reality Rayan had quickly found out that the majority of the men did the training out of boredom or just because they had to. There was rarely any good fighters amongst them.

Most of them he would have overcome in spite of his young age or maybe just because of it, as in comparison to them he was burning with eagerness.

It was a completely different story with the training of the Special Forces though. They were deadly serious. They did not allow spectators and he had to be careful not to get caught.

Special Forces like that were the result of the First Gulf War between Iran and Iraq. They were put in place after some rioting in several remote areas, so they were able to have specifically trained troops in place right where needed in case of emergency.

One day when Rayan was getting away from one of the lieutenants he met Clara.

He had already seen her from a distance, especially on Sundays when she was on her way to the base’s church.

She was a tall, gawky girl, much too tall for her own liking. With 1,85 m she towered over all the other young women and, more awkward still, over most of the boys as well.

Additionally to being so tall she was thin. She was wearing her shining brown-reddish hair at shoulder length that she mostly braided backwards with a silver clip, which intensified her austere impression.

Rayan knew that she was the daughter of the base’s general and because he did not find her very attractive, he preferred to stay away from her.

However, that changed entirely that day: he had just slipped into the next building, a storage room, to escape from the angry lieutenant at his heels, when all of a sudden she was standing right in front of him. It was as if she had appeared out of thin air.

"You are Yasin“, she stated matter-of-factly and looked him over with her mocking pale blue eyes.

"Yes“, he replied and wanted to turn around to get away. "I am Clara and I have watched you.“ "So what?“, he asked grumpily. He did not like the fact that of all people the daughter of the general showed an interest in him.

He was used to girls watching him and if he liked them as well, he was never reluctant to a flirt. However, from this young lady he wanted to abscond as fast as possible.

In that moment she said: "You study the soldiers on their training and like that you learn. I watched you repeating the exercises. Which by the way are very impressive …“

Rayan was alarmed. He felt caught. This could cause him a lot of trouble. And trouble as well as attention were the last two things that he needed. "Don’t worry, I am not going to squeal on you. I am not allowed to participate in anything around here either. It’s a man’s world! Pah! I am 17 years old and waste away my life on this base, which is in the middle of nowhere… Listen! I want to propose a deal to you: you teach me some of your tricks and I help you to improve your English.“

At first he hesitated but Clara made it clear to him - not really in a charming way - that he had no choice.

And just like that a deep friendship grew out of a little blackmail.

It was strange for Rayan to have a female friend. Most likely because of his young age, all he had been interested in so far was sex when it came to relationships with women.

From childhood onwards, the girls from his tribe grew up separately. They did not participate in the boys’ exercises and their education was also separate. Did they even have classes? If he was honest, he had never cared about it.

Furthermore he had left Zarifa at the age of 13 and therefore had not really had the chance to become interested in the girls from his tribe or their habits.

Clara was so different. Most of all she was emancipated.

God forbid that he should say she was not able to do an exercise because she was a woman. If he did she would get very angry, which he realised made her look really pretty.

However, above all he liked that Clara Tanner was highly intelligent. Through the position of her father she had access to a lot of papers and books, which he devoured with her.

He sponged up all knowledge he could get and along with it his English grew better every day. Quickly he made hardly any mistakes when speaking; it was only with writing that he had a lot of trouble. After having only learned English orally from his grandmother, writing confused him.

In exchange he taught Clara some phrases in German, which he also had learned from his Granny. After a moment to adapt he could speak German fluently, almost without any accent.

"You definitely have a gift for languages“, Clara kept repeating, "you have to exploit that.“

From time to time he had to go for several days into the desert for a guided trip but most of the time he just made short explorations in the closer surroundings. He never heard again anything from the old guide, his predecessor; it was most likely he had not survived his illness. Rayan was well aware of the peril of contaminated water: he never took a chance with an unknown source and would always do careful checks in advance.

In respect of that, he had to thank his education and the teachers in Zarifa, who had provided him with useful skills up to now.

"The lieutenant was at our place for dinner yesterday. He was talking about you“, Clara told him one day in September. "He said it was you who saved the whole troop. My father was very interested. So you are famous now.“ While she said it, she was grinning as she knew that this was exactly what he specifically did NOT want. Yasin never talked about his past, and about his family she knew almost nothing. While they discussed other topics, sometimes for hours, when it came to this one he blocked her out and became silent.

"How do you do it?“ – "How do I do what?“ – "That you know precisely when the weather is going to change … I have been here long enough to know that the big sand storms usually arise suddenly without any warning.“ It was the day before that Rayan had indeed made the troop turn around, because he knew a storm was coming. Some of the soldiers thought that he was crazy, because there was no sign at all to be seen in the sky, but the lieutenant, a blond, chubby Texan, trusted in his abilities and followed his advice. What else was a desert guide good for? They had just reached the city with their vehicles when the storm broke out.

Rayan stared at the ground embarrassed. "I cannot really explain it, you have to believe me. I just know it. It is as if the desert is talking to me …“ He looked up with the expectation that Clara would laugh at him, but instead she just eyed him in her usual calm manner and full of interest said: "Tell me more about it.“

"Well“, he stammered. "I was born within the desert, in the middle of a sandstorm. My parents were travelling when the storm unexpectedly and quickly started. They took shelter between some huge rocks. It was in this “break” that I came into the world three weeks early”, he smiled awkwardly. He did not like to talk about his past but then again he knew that all his secrets were well kept by Clara.

He thought that this was a strange topic for him to discuss, as the previous day had been his 17th birthday. He had never told Clara the date so she was not aware of it.

"I would very much like to introduce you to my father“, she said out of the blue. Rayan thought he must have misheard: "What?! Are you crazy?!“

"Listen. I just want to finally let them know who I am spending most of my free time with. They are starting to think I am doing something forbidden“, she grinned mockingly. "Just imagine if my father catches us red-handed ...“

"How do you mean? We have never …“, Rayan started to protest. Clara kept on grinning and added: "but we could have. At least my father could come to that conclusion, if he sees us hanging around together so secretively all the time.“

"NO! And that is the end of this discussion!“, Rayan put his foot down firmly.

But some weeks later, of course, she succeeded in persuading him.